What happens when you combine art, students dressed up in costumes, and a college campus? For students in Associate Professor Micol Hebron’s (Art) Intro to Transdisciplinary Studio class, the answer is an unforgettable lesson in performance art.
The dinosaur costume antics began as part of a Performance Art unit in Hebron’s studio art course, which challenges students to explore art through three areas: installation, performance, and video. The idea of using inflatable dinosaur costumes came from a previous student, who proposed them as a creative material for the class. The costumes quickly became an unexpected tool for artistic expression.
The class’s Performance Art unit introduces students to a variety of artistic movements and concepts, including Fluxus, Public Art, the Theater of the Absurd, and Monty Python’s famous Ministry of Silly Walks. Students also explore the use of masks, other animal costumes, and alternative identities, examining how artists use their bodies, movement, and surroundings to communicate ideas.
With no dedicated studio art room available for these projects, Hebron and her students take their creativity beyond the traditional classroom. Instead, the Chapman University campus becomes their studio, providing an open and dynamic environment for experimentation, collaboration, and artistic discovery.
The dinosaur costumes offer students an opportunity to explore movement, identity, and performance in unexpected ways. By stepping into the costumes, students can experiment with physical expression, interact with their surroundings, and challenge the conventional boundaries of art.
“The dinosaur exercises were designed to support somatic learning, play, and performativity as an art form, as well as engagement with the space of the campus in unusual and new ways,” said Hebron.
Beyond the humor and spectacle of dinosaurs roaming campus, the exercises encourage students to think critically about what constitutes art and how performance can transform everyday spaces. They also demonstrate that artistic learning doesn’t have to happen within the four walls of a classroom.
For Hebron’s students, the experience is a reminder that creativity can take many forms—and sometimes, all it takes to see the world differently is an inflatable dinosaur costume.
Pictured in header: Art students dressed up in costumes for Micol Hebron’s (Art) Intro to Transdisciplinary Studio class. Photo by Ava Brandt (’27 Creative Writing, Documentary Film, and LGBTQ studies minor).
