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BIG: Making Mega-Art with Cedar Falls Ninth Graders

For many students who attended Peet Junior High in Cedar Falls, Bill Close was one of those teachers who was larger than life, just like the art he worked on with his students.

For nearly a quarter century, he designed mega sculptures that he enlisted his art students to help build as a part of his art class.

"The ladies in the cafeteria asked us to make some posters for National School Lunch Week. When I proposed the colored posters for school lunch week, their eyes kind of rolled,” he says about his students at the time.

So Close had the idea to make the world’s largest school lunch instead of the posters.

“They immediately bought into that idea,” Close laughs, “Then for the rest of the year, I felt like I had them eating out of the palm of my hand.”

During this hour of Talk of Iowa, host Charity Nebbe talks with Close about making mega sculptures with junior high students and about his new book “BIG.” 

Lindsey Moon is IPR's Senior Digital Producer
Charity Nebbe is the host of IPR's Talk of Iowa