Story by Leslie Joy Ickowitz
A long time ago in a galaxy not far away…
The Dunedin Fine Art Center hired Boba Fett — actually Todd Still — for the role of Youth Education Director. It’s been 25 years so far and The Force is strong in this one.
He’s had a lot of people say Wow, I wish I had your job. You have the greatest job—you get to play with the kids.
“And usually when people tell me they wish they had my job that usually lets me know that they don’t know what I do,” Todd says with a chuckle at the end.
“Certainly, I incorporate being able to interact and play with the kids. I bring my interests to my work. My hobbies. I come up with themes that I think will interest the kids and are also interesting to me. The flip side is my official job is as an administrator.”
At first, he was doing gallery lighting and cutting exhibit signage. “Everyone had a very large part of the grand process,” he says. “Then I was teaching and doing summer camps and it’s really varied what I do here, which is good because growing up, I did lots of things.”
Hiring teachers, coming up with programming and curriculum, designing brochures are all part of his repertoire which includes some phenomenal high notes…
Todd Still is the guy who dreamed up Wheels on Wheels—a school bus outfitted with pottery wheels that travels to schools throughout Pinellas County. Via the mobile pottery experience, children have opportunities to fashion a clay bowl aboard the bus with Todd, plus a monster and a pinch pot.
“I think there’s not a shortage of ideas and a lot of times the ideas are better than the reality,” Todd points out. “That was a fun idea but financially I never thought it would come to life for the shear cost of it. And when it’s all finished you have kids in a confined space with clay and water.” Side-eye. Slow blink. Uh-oh.
Funding came from the Pougialis/Anastasakis Trust and Wheels on Wheels was set in motion. “For anything that is educational, if there’s a chance to expose kids to something, it’s a pretty magical thing,” Todd imparts. “One girl said, ‘this is better than Disney’.”
Kind of like a superhero, Todd runs the Youth Education Department, personally building out the themes for the David L. Mason Children’s Art Museum and the Hands-on Activity Area year after year, leaping tall buildings in a single bound. That sort of thing.
Need a space shuttle? An International Space Station? A knight in shining armor wearing a Santa hat and a name badge? A Stormtrooper wielding a giant crayon, perhaps?
Todd’s your man.
“As much as I’ve been framed as a tech person, I’m not,” he admits. “I have to figure out how things work and I have to make whatever I’m doing child bullet proof. Like the lasers.”
Lasers? Yes, laser crayons—a Todd Still invention.
“It was cool,” he says. “I got UV lasers and mounted them inside giant plastic crayons with UV sensitive pigment for multi-colors I mixed. When the child activated a foot pedal, they could draw on the UV material with the laser.”
He figured out how to do that and habitually fabricates almost everything himself, with help from his late father-in-law.
“When I started here in ‘97 we had panels fabricated and tables donated and computer stations built, and they were all done so well that what I basically do is move things around, repaint and reposition so that it feels new and different.”
“My father-in-law, Andy, used to help me with physical cutting, drilling, building things,” Todd says, referencing the curved play station in the activity area. “It was originally a space shuttle, then an Aboriginal hut, then a Yellow Submarine, then it turned into a monster mouth and then a café.
Oh, is that all? He makes it seem so easy.
“The kids like it, the parents like it, it’s artsy and saves lots of money,” Todd says. “I can’t sit back and say it’s gonna work out. I have to do the behind-the-scenes actions to make sure things work. Even the digital stuff.”
The Children’s Museum theme changes annually. Choosing the theme goes hand in hand with what’s happening curatorially in the other DFAC galleries over the course of the year. Translating themes from pre-school to elementary school can be a challenge.
“The activity area we try to keep bright and fun and artsy. I’m already thinking about what we’re doing next fall.”
“A lot of other jobs I had you always had a sense of completion or closure.” Todd highlights teaching semester to semester and working with the airlines, marshalling aircraft out with a salute. “Here’s a little different because you’re working in the moment but you’re also working on plans that span two to three years because of grants. When you finish something, you’re onto the next thing. Something is always changing, which keeps it fresh.”
Sir Toddly, as he’s affectionately known by peers, was a part of adding and developing the Mini-Masters program for preschoolers and it was his idea to paint the walls yellow in the Kokolakis Family Gallery where a rotating exhibit of Pinellas County student artwork is showcased throughout the year.
The coolest place in town over the summer has got to be DFAC Summer Camp.
“Nancy McIntyre started the first camp in 1986,” Todd says. “It was called ‘Sizzling Summer’ and we still have it because it’s a solid base. I was fortunate that when I started here, I had a solid base to build on. Then we added Mini-Masters and added a music theater component.”
On what must have been another excruciatingly boring day at the office, Todd created the Art Squad for 11 through 14-year-olds and Mural Camps (for eight through 10 and 11 through 14- year-olds).
Mural camp affords the opportunity for children to collaborate with each other on theme and mural design. “Theater is also collaborative,” Todd explains. “They will team up and do stop motion.”
“Interacting with things in a new environment opens other doors for exploration. What makes this fun, is we have facts, science, literature and math but they are connected in a free-er way to explore.”
One of the interesting things Todd has witnessed about how children express themselves:
“There’s a giant nail table in the activity area and I put the magnet tiles on top of the nail table so you can build on top of it but the kids realized that because the nails are metal you can build underneath it and I didn’t even think about that so what they come up with is pretty cool.”
“Most of the things we have out there in the kids’ area have that room for flexibility, and of course exploration. If you have any kind of building materials that can be stacked, they want to see how high it will go.”
On school tours, kids tend to go straight for the things they don’t have or experience at home. “They’ll gravitate towards the iPads or the clay or the theater area. It’s a free safe space for them to act and come up with their own ideas.”
“I tell my students you should pay attention because you don’t know what you’re going to need. He points to typing as an example. I roll my eyes and tell him my own story about typing class and we both agree we couldn’t live without the skill we didn’t want any part of in the first place.”
Cue the Imperial March…
“Star Wars came out when I was in third grade,” Todd says. “I was born when they were walking on the moon. My first memory was watching the orbiting of the moon. The whole space thing was a big deal.”
Boba Fett is his favorite character and he did fashion a Mandalorian costume. He came up with his own color scheme with burgundy. “it’s very tactical,” Todd says. Some of the Boba Fett colors aren’t badass enough for his taste.
Considering him a Star Wars expert, I asked Todd to explain to me why I find General Grievous so likeable. “He’s a Baddy. It’s his combination of robotic but it’s got this organic touch to it. He’s something new and something different. The whole skeletal look.”
Speaking of which, presenting Todd’s Grievous bust.
“I enhanced the shadows on it. I enhanced the cracks on it and added eyes to it, and I just brought it to life, I guess.”
He’s currently working on a “Stormtrooper Samurai thing”.
“It’s almost done. I started it three years ago but I haven’t worked on it in a year.”
Why does he do it?
“Feeding the inner child,” he says. “I collect armor. Anything I get, I have to be able to wear or use. I wear them in class and at summer camp and I’ve worn it to the schools to talk about art and armor, form and function.”
He built a Rocketeer for a Trashy Treasures event once. NBD.
Yesterday, I watched Todd sketch a Hulkbuster armored fellow like he has numbers of times in classes he teaches to 11 through 14-year-olds like Goth class, Sci-Fi class and Zombie vs. Alien class. If you’re getting the idea that this guy lives in fantasy land, you might be right. But he is fully present in envisioning and realizing themes year after year to the delight of many.
While this year, the Children’s Museum is decked out in Artsy Architecture, next year’s theme is going to be toys and Todd has fashioned his version of a Lite-Brite to play a starring role.
Todd believes, “Good instructors help students move forward on a path.” This community—any community—would be fortunate to have Todd Still. What he appreciates most about DFAC is, “they value what I do and then they let me do what I do.”
“Growing the programs is satisfying. I want to do the best I can and learn what I can and expand and add and continue to grow.”