Now that I’ve put this off so long, I feel like I’ve built it up too much. Don’t get your hopes up – it’s not a great story.
Ok, when we were first planning the building, we knew that having such high ceilings would make it very ‘live’ in the rooms – very echo-y. The architects laid out some options for us. Some were beautiful: Wood acoustic tiles. Did you know those were even a thing? They had some gorgeous options but they would have cost many thousands of dollars a room. Or we could have gone with some ‘wood wool‘-type panels that were cheaper, but ugly. We asked if we could just hold off for a while until we could come up with a solution.
Sometime during the summer, we went to a surplus auction. UNL was trying to streamline their floor cleaning system and get all the same type of machines, so they were selling the machines and also ninety boxes of scrubbing pads (five pads to a box). I looked at them, laughed and said, “There are my acoustic panels.” Then Lloyd bid on them. Suddenly it wasn’t so funny.
However, at $2 a box ($.40 a circle), it seemed like it might be do-able. When I looked up ’round acoustic panels’ or ‘beautiful acoustic panels’, many wonderful, expensive images came up.
I thought about those dumb circles all the time.
I had hoped to have a bunch of them encased in fabric, but sometime during the summer all the spending came to a screeching halt when we ran out of money. (We’re fine now.) As it turns out, they look pretty good with no fabric, and they are so light they are each hanging on one straight pin stuck in the wall.
Anyway, they are up in the rooms, and while they are fun and attractive, they only take the edge off the echo. We are going to need some real-deal panels before too long.
That’s the next big leg – getting funding so we don’t all lose our minds teaching in our own individual gymnasiums. We’ve got a few ideas, but even when we get the other stuff on the walls, I’m keeping some circles. 🙂
Brad says
I didn’t know you had different colors. It looks good!
Deborah says
It goes along with the circles in the other art. Perfect!
Kristi says
I love the circles!!!
Ridiculous, Temporary Solution: Make everybody wears ear plugs that only muffle part of the sound. No, wait, that won’t work. The little ones will push them all the way into their ears. You better look for a better solution.
Kris says
I love how your mind works!