Redstone Studios: Off the Map

Check it out:  Mapmaker, Mapmaker, Draw Me My Life. Shown here is one of the featured images, a map showing the French cycling routes of Charlie Owen, an intrepid athelete whose wife commissioned this work as a surprise birthday present.  I’m happy to be associated with The National Geographic, granddaddy of American global curiosity.  I’m equally happy to work again with Jenna Schnuer, a clever journalist and haiku diarist.  Jenna first wrote about Redstone Studios for Lexus Magazine in Winter 2006.

Maybe, maybe not.

On November 18^th, I participated in “Educators’ Evening,” a function at New York’s American Museum of Natural History.  Surrounded  by one of our globes,  a print of our most illustrious map (The Hudson River and its Watershed),  and some map-related educational material I’d developed, I talked to a slew of teachers  about cultural cartography and about mapmaking as a student activity. I think I have some pretty good ideas, and I was heartened by conversations with creative and dedicated teachers. I dozed through history when I was a kid:  dull textbooks, teachers blathering on.  I think I’d have come to life in the right hands and with good materials.

If you’re an educator interested in maps, chime in.  And stay tuned:  under the auspices of  The New York Map Society, I’m organizing a symposium on cartography in the classroom to be held (tentatively) at the New York Public Library on March 10^th, 2010.  What I have in mind is a forum for the free flow of ideas. I’ll keep you posted.

Meanwhile, know that the AMNH regularly holds these free events for teachers.  This one involved a reception with really great food (in case you happen to be starving young educator), a free tour of their new Silk Road exhibit, live Silk Road music, talks, and an opportunity to talk to organizations providing educational resources, including Redstone Studios.   For info, visit the museum’s website.

OK, so apparently the Yeah Yeah Yeahs weren’t actually talking about geography–MAPS is an acronym for Karen O’s former boyfriend.  But the beauty of art is that I don’t have to observe biographical context:  here in my mapmaking studio, I dedicate this fabulous song to maps themselves.

And while I’m at it, I dedicate this little blog to maps, too.