Rusty Keeler is an artist / designer with a unique sensitivity to the sights, sounds and experiences of childhood. He has a deep belief in the beauty and importance of play in the development of children and his designs reflect his sincere desire to create a more beautiful world in which to grow and explore.
Rusty
works throughout the world creating play environments for children and
lectures at colleges and conferences internationally.
Rusty worked for five years as the conceptual industrial designer for Kompan/BigToys in Olympia, Washington. At BigToys he developed a line of world-wide patented play equipment designed to stimulate social, intellectual, physical and emotional development in children.
After
spending a year in Europe designing for the Dutch playground manufacturer
Speelhout, his ideas about children's environments changed completely.
He realized that children everywhere needed a new kind of playscape and
there needed to be a new way of thinking about the design of children’s
spaces.
Upon his return in 1996 he began work developing something different.
Rusty
now lives in the countryside near Ithaca, NY with his wife, artist Annemarie
Zwack. When not designing or building playscapes he can usually be
found knee deep in the creeks and gorges around Ithaca.
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Leon Smith Leon Smith
was born and raised in the interior of Alaska. He will neither confirm,
nor deny rumors that a family of brown bears raised him until the
age of 5. He has worked as a childcare provider and preschool teacher
in several different settings, most notably the Giddens
School (formerly called Happy Medium) in Seattle WA. Through
his work with preschool aged children, he developed a passion for
creating spaces that allow child children to do what they do naturally,
which is thrive!
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Leon received a Bachelor of Arts from the Evergreen State College, focusing on Ecological Design. While in college he completed design projects including: a model ‘Green Home’ build by Habitat for Humanity and a Natural Playground for the Campus Children’s Center at Evergreen. Leon was also a campus organizer around issues of sustainability. He helped plan and produce Synergy: the annual Sustainable Living Conference as well as implementing a Clean Energy purchasing program, to reduce the campus impacts on global warming.
Leon was also coordinator of the Energy Outreach Center, a non-profit
information center for green building and renewable energy. He is a member
the board of directors of the Community
Built Association, and serves on the Ecological Planning Committee
of the Olympia Food Coop.
Since 2004,
Leon has worked with Rusty Keeler, exploring the frontier of natural play
environments around the country!