Environmental Education

Beyond the Surface: Environmental Art in Action

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This post comes to you from Cultura21

A conference investigating relationships between art and the environment

May 31, 2013, 9 am – 5 pm, Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education, Philadelphia (USA)

Bringing artists & arts professionals to Philadelphia to explore ways art can create environmental awareness while restoring ecological systems. With: Lillian Ball, Sam Bower, Jenny Laden, Stacy Levy, Amy Lipton, Eve Mosher, Frances Whitehead.

“No longer content with scratching the surface of environmental problems, these artists want to move beyond the surface to engage audiences in becoming part of the solution.”

5-7 pm: Reception celebrating Rain Yard, the Schuylkill Center’s new permanent environmental artwork by Stacy Levy.

Conference Details & Online Registration: click here

Cultura21 is a transversal, translocal network, constituted of an international level grounded in several Cultura21 organizations around the world.

Cultura21′s international network, launched in April 2007, offers the online and offline platform for exchanges and mutual learning among its members.

The activities of Cultura21 at the international level are coordinated by a team representing the different Cultura21 organizations worldwide, and currently constituted of:

– Sacha Kagan (based in Lüneburg, Germany) and Rana Öztürk (based in Berlin, Germany)
– Oleg Koefoed and Kajsa Paludan (both based in Copenhagen, Denmark)
– Hans Dieleman (based in Mexico-City, Mexico)
– Francesca Cozzolino and David Knaute (both based in Paris, France)

Cultura21 is not only an informal network. Its strength and vitality relies upon the activities of several organizations around the world which are sharing the vision and mission of Cultura21

Go to Cultura21

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OPEN CALL FOR ARTISTS featuring SOLAR ART

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nightgarden_cropped

Michigan’s [USA] Great Lakes Bay Region located approximately 90 minutes north of Detroit including five main cities: Bay City, Frankenmuth, Midland, Mt. Pleasant and Saginaw will be hosting a month-long celebration of art, culture and science in October 2013 called Fall In… Art and Sol.

SOLAR ART is any work of art that incorporates solar technology to harness the power of the sun to affect its design. Solar Art combines Design + Technology + Environmental Education.

The celebration will feature the world’s first major solar art exhibition. The exhibition will be unique in combining the display of works of international and national designers, a competition open to everyone, and an educational initiative involving approximately 1,000 students from throughout the region. We are very excited to show the results of these three initiatives together during October.

You can download the Competition’s Trifold below with details on honorarium, selection criteria, exhibition details and competition dates.

Please contact us if you have any further questions. We take this opportunity to encourage you and your friends to participate.

PLEASE, SHARE THIS OPEN CALL ANNOUNCEMENT!!!

LINKS:
Festival’s website: http://fallin-glbr.com/
Exhibition: http://fallin-glbr.com/solar-art/solar-artist/
Educational Initiative: http://fallin-glbr.com/solar-art/educational-workshops/
Competition: http://fallin-glbr.com/open-call-for-proposals/

Proposals for creative art+science, participatory and open environmental education in the Gulf of Finland / Baltic Sea Region

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800px-Record_sea_ice_in_Gulf_of_Finland_2003_bw_660x440PROPOSALS FOR CREATIVE ART+SCIENCE, PARTICIPATORY, AND OPEN ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION IN GULF OF FINLAND / BALTIC SEA REGION

Six proposals are introduced below for creative art+science, participatory and open approaches to environmental education and awareness in the Gulf of Finland Year 2014- / Baltic Sea region. They were first presented by Andrew Gryf Paterson at the Gulf of Finland Year Trilateral Environmental Education seminar, Tallinn, 28.2.2013, and are part of an ongoing dialogue and cooperation with Russian NGO Friends of the Baltic, based in St. Petersburg.

The aims of the proposals are to invigorate previous cultural association and environmental NGO work in the region, including recent Luonto-Liitto -led Itämeri-lahettilas toiminta (Baltic Sea Ambassadors activity); promote the role of trans-disciplinary collaborations, open solutions and systems-thinking; connect younger and experienced generations of environmentalists, combine old+new commons perspectives; and insist on ecological conservation+knowledge sustainability. It is also hoped they contribute to expanding the scope of the emergent Open Sustainabilitymovement, by integrating OpenGLAM (in Finland) and Open Education Resources initiatives.

 

  1. Create new educational materials with participants, using creative participatory methods, for example using ‘sprint’ model, i.e. doing things fast, together, during the 2-3 days camps organised by trilateral environmental NGOs.
  2. Offer creative art-science workshops in cooperation with trilateral environmental NGOs, based on shared-interests, for example ecological, river-water basin, agriculture and renewable energy issues, etc.
  3. Educational training/mentorship for Environmental NGOs in Gulf of Finland / Baltic Sea Region to learn more about Open -Data, -Education, -Sustainability, and -GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives & Museums, ie. Culture)
  4. Make accessible previously-made educational materials in digital formats, including graphics, diagrams, texts, and other data by negotiating with makers/copyright holders. This can be a selection from over a period of years, or a particular project or publication. Can be done in stages, testing & getting feedback in the process of what is useful and needed.
  5. Contribute media (photos, videos, audio interviews and commentary) to commons-oriented repositories which promote open access, sharing and download of media materials.
  6. Investigate & implement peer-to-peer ecologically sustainable ICT solutions for sharing materials.

If you are interested to contribute to the proposals, see elaboration, or add constructive comments, visit the related etherpad document.

Contact: Andrew Gryf Paterson | andrew [-at-] pixelache.ac

Note: Paterson, in addition to working for Pixelache, is also a member of Finnish Bioart Societysince 2011, and a new member of Open Knowledge Foundation Finland since 2013.

Cultura21 is a transversal, translocal network, constituted of an international level grounded in several Cultura21 organizations around the world.

Cultura21′s international network, launched in April 2007, offers the online and offline platform for exchanges and mutual learning among its members.

The activities of Cultura21 at the international level are coordinated by a team representing the different Cultura21 organizations worldwide, and currently constituted of:

– Sacha Kagan (based in Lüneburg, Germany) and Rana Öztürk (based in Berlin, Germany)
– Oleg Koefoed and Kajsa Paludan (both based in Copenhagen, Denmark)
– Hans Dieleman (based in Mexico-City, Mexico)
– Francesca Cozzolino and David Knaute (both based in Paris, France)

Cultura21 is not only an informal network. Its strength and vitality relies upon the activities of several organizations around the world which are sharing the vision and mission of Cultura21

Go to Cultura21

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Proposals for creative art+science, participatory and open environmental education

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This post comes to you from EcoArtScotland

Pixelache Helsinki, a transdisciplinary platform for experimental art, design, research and activism have just posted ideas for art+science, participatory and open environmental education development:

  1. Create new educational materials with participants, using creative participatory methods, for example using ‘sprint’ model, i.e. doing things fast, together, during the 2-3 days camps organised by trilateral environmental NGOs.
  2. Offer creative art-science workshops in cooperation with trilateral environmental NGOs, based on shared-interests, for example ecological, river-water basin, agriculture and renewable energy issues, etc.
  3. Educational training/mentorship for Environmental NGOs in Gulf of Finland / Baltic Sea Region to learn more about Open -Data, -Education, -Sustainability, and -GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives & Museums, ie. Culture)
  4. Make accessible previously-made educational materials in digital formats, including graphics, diagrams, texts, and other data by negotiating with makers/copyright holders. This can be a selection from over a period of years, or a particular project or publication. Can be done in stages, testing & getting feedback in the process of what is useful and needed.
  5. Contribute media (photos, videos, audio interviews and commentary) to commons-oriented repositories which promote open access, sharing and download of media materials.
  6. Investigate & implement peer-to-peer ecologically sustainable ICT solutions for sharing materials.

Access the full story here. 

ecoartscotland is a resource focused on art and ecology for artists, curators, critics, commissioners as well as scientists and policy makers. It includes ecoartscotland papers, a mix of discussions of works by artists and critical theoretical texts, and serves as a curatorial platform.
It has been established by Chris Fremantle, producer and research associate with On The Edge Research, Gray’s School of Art, The Robert Gordon University. Fremantle is a member of a number of international networks of artists, curators and others focused on art and ecology.
Go to EcoArtScotland

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Approaches to Arts-based Environmental Education by Jan van Boeckel

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Image from Nature Art Education site

This post comes to you from EcoArtScotland

The Shorelines Symposium which took place at Rozelle Maclaurin included presentations by two keynotes Ian McGilchrist (author of The Master and his Emissary), Chris Drury (artist) as well as a number of others.

The Symposium was organised in conjunction with Alison Bell and Cathy Treadaway‘s exhibition Shorelines currently at in the Maclaurin Galleries.  It was great that a Symposium of this quality took place in Ayr.  We need more of this quality of thinking and discussion.

Jan van Boeckel of the Nature – Art – Education research group at Aalto University, School of Art and Design, Helsinki, gave a short paper entitled Angels talking back and new organs of perception: Art making and intentionality in nature experience.  He has provided the abstract and link to the full paper.

ABSTRACT

This article is about the role of artistic process in connecting to the natural environment. In my research I have explored what participants experienced and learned when they engage in different types of arts-based environmental education (AEE) practices that I have facilitated. The premise of AEE is that efforts to learn about our (natural) environment can effectively take their starting point in an artistic activity, usually conducted in groups.

I found that, on the whole, two major orientations can be distinguished. One starts from the point of aesthetic sensibility: the tuning in with the senses, or with “a new organ of perception” (Goethe), in order to perceive “the more than human” with fresh new eyes. This tradition can be traced back to (but is by no means limited) to the Romantic Movement. Art in this context may help to amplify the receptivity of the senses and strengthen a sense of connectedness to the natural world.

The other major orientation in seeking bridges between nature and art builds on a view of artistic process as leading to unexpected outcomes and “emergent properties.” The fundamentally singular experience of making a work of art may evoke an aesthetic object that becomes a “self-sufficient, spiritually breathing subject” (Kadinsky). The art work can be spontaneously generative and multi-layered with meanings, some of which even ambiguous and paradoxical. But perhaps more importantly: it can catch the participant of an AEE activity by surprise; overwhelm him or her as “coming from behind one’s back.” The element of improvisation, of taking in the new and unanticipated and accommodating for it, is the core quality here.

These two orientations, when practiced as part of AEE, have implications to how we relate to nature through art. In the closing of this article I address the question whether it is possible to bridge the dualism between the two orientations.

ecoartscotland is a resource focused on art and ecology for artists, curators, critics, commissioners as well as scientists and policy makers. It includes ecoartscotland papers, a mix of discussions of works by artists and critical theoretical texts, and serves as a curatorial platform.

It has been established by Chris Fremantle, producer and research associate with On The Edge Research, Gray’s School of Art, The Robert Gordon University. Fremantle is a member of a number of international networks of artists, curators and others focused on art and ecology.
Go to EcoArtScotland

Greening Western Queens Fund | North Star Fund

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Greening Western Queens Fund

In the fall of 2009, North Star Fund launched the “Greening Western Queens Fund,” a new $7.9 million initiative to invest in energy-efficiency and environmental projects in the Western Queens community affected by a July 2006 electric power outage. This program is supported by funds from the community’s settlement with Con Edison. The Public Service Commission of the State of New York selected North Star Fund to administer the project because of our expertise in facilitating community led grantmaking processes.

According to Hugh Hogan, Executive Director of North Star Fund, “This is a story of a community that stood up to demand public accountability from a public utility that failed them. It’s provided an opportunity unique in the history of New York City to invest in an environmentally conscious and economically robust future of the affected neighborhoods. The community-driven process will serve as a model for the next generation of urban neighborhoods.”

Funded Projects

Western Queens will soon see an infusion of trees, green jobs and youth environmental programs thanks to $3.39 million in grants distributed by North Star Fund. Fifteen projects have been funded with one- to three-year grants that will result in up to 850 trees, support environmental education and recycling programs, and help fund community gardens and green jobs training programs. Click here to download a pdf of the projects.

Request For Proposals (RFP)

The Greening Western Queens Fund seeks to support projects that will result in tangible, physical and visible improvements to the Long Island City, Woodside, Sunnyside, and Astoria areas. We are not currently accepting applications for the Greening Western Queens Fund. The next RFP will be released in July 2011 and the deadline will be in September 2011.

Click here for common questions about applying for a grant from the Greening Western Queens Fund.

Advisory Board

We have developed a Greening Western Queens Fund Advisory Board of local stakeholders and environmental experts to distribute grants to local groups for tree planting, energy efficiency, job training and open space enhancement projects. The projects will incorporate conservation education and replicable models that will have a lasting impact in the neighborhood and beyond. All of the advisory board members provide unique and important expertise which will be utilized throughout the grant program. Please click here for more information about the Greening Western Queens Fund Advisory Board.

Visioning Sessions

In March 2010, North Star Fund hosted two community visioning sessions for residents of Sunnyside, Astoria, Woodside, and Long Island City. Over 120 residents, organizers, community members, and experts came together to share their vision, goals, and ideas for a greener Western Queens. Visioning Session participants actively engaged in large group and small group conversations and shared their ideas for the outcomes of the three-year grants.

The outcomes of the informative visioning sessions, as well as additional outreach and landscape research and scans of current greening programs and projects in the area were used by the Advisory Board to finalize the overall vision, grant criteria, priorities, and guidelines for the Fund.

Impacted Area

Click here for an interactive map indicating the boundaries of the prioritized areas impacted by the blackout.

via Greening Western Queens Fund | North Star Fund.

Destination Schuylkill River – DestinationSchuylkillRiver: The River is your destination for ART this Fall

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This fall along the Schuylkill River, art that celebrates the environment and our connection to the Earth, “Eco-Art”, is on the agenda. A series of three diverse locations will feature art installations by multiple local and national artists on three successive weekends:

Sep 19th – November: Ground Play: Nexus at the Schuylkill Center

Opening Reception, September 19
4pm – 6pm, Ground Play/ Family Friendly Activities
6:30pm – 8pm, Artists’ Tour and Performances

In Ground Play, Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education invites six artists from NEXUS Foundation to respond to the history and physical space of its Brolo Hill Farm. The work in Ground Play is an expression of the insightful ways these six artists use color, scale, sound, texture, humor, fear, storytelling and performance as their own artistic playground, coming up with new modes of expression and creating experiences meant to delight and provoke visitors. Featuring the work of Susan Abrams, Nick Cassway, Jebney Lewis, Michael McDermott, Leah Reynolds, Jennie Thwing.

Exhibit will be up through November. Find out more HERE.

September 25 & 26: Destination Schuylkill River curated by ecoartspace
Starting one week before the 1st Annual Manayunk Eco Arts festival, five artists from across the country will be in Manayunk installing eco-art along the canal and in other Manayunk public spaces. Come out and watch the process, see the completed pieces at the Eco Arts Festival on September 25 and 26, and then visit the installations as they slowly return to the Earth over the coming months.

Milwaukee-based artist Roy Staab will create a work suspended over the Manayunk Canal using plant materials. Toronto-based Chrysanne Stathacos will be creating a poem of flowers to float on the Manayunk Canal. Habitat for Artists’ installation will examine how our culture approaches conservation. NYC-based artist Chere Krakosky will hang a clothesline along the Canal to talk about issues of energy and domesticity. Finally RAIR (Recycled Artist-In- Residency) an exciting, new non-profit in Philadelphia will also take part. Find out more HERE.

October 1 & 2: East Falls Eco Art Project
A special feature of the 5th annual Arts by the River and Eco Fair in East Falls (October 2, 10-5 at Inn Yard Park) will be fish-themed eco art. Eleven unique pieces of fish-themed art which use repurposed or natural materials are being commissioned. Chosen works will be revealed complete or in-progress at the festival and will ultimately be installed along the East Falls Riverfront Business District. One additional piece will be created through a community-process at the festival itself; “Waffles the Catfish”, a 4’5” tall, 80 lb. sculpture will be decoupaged by festival-goers. Attendees are invited to bring something about themselves or their families on a 3×3” paper, and have their memory preserved on Waffles.

Also new this year is the East Falls Weekend Gallery, which will feature local artists’ work displayed at the Masons’ Building, 4200 Ridge Avenue. Artist reception on Friday, October 1, 7-9pm with gallery hours continuing on Saturday from 10am to 5pm.

Find out more HERE.