Leave it to the good folks at the Arts and Science Center to shine a light — in a new way — on a subject that always needs to be illuminated, particularly for the young.
The center is kicking off something called the Delta Upcycle Challenge Project, and it’s aimed at students in grades three through 12. The goal is to “bring awareness to humans’ impact on the environment, tactics to minimize that impact, and share through artistic expression how communities can collaborate to create a beautiful tomorrow,” stated a press release.
That’s a shoot-for-the-moon goal, but unless youngsters are enlightened at an early age, it may be years before they come to understand the problems that have now been with us for generations.
“The goal of the Delta Upcycle Challenge is to encourage the younger generation to develop innovative solutions to reduce waste going into landfills and being littered and promote a cleaner environment through an artistic lens,” they said.
There are numerous waste streams that befoul our air, water and land. They can all be overwhelming to consider, but one that is most ruinous has to do with plastic. It’s everywhere. Visible, of course, with mega tons of it being dumped into the oceans and showing up all across the globe, but also invisible, now that scientists have discovered that microscopic pieces of plastic are in the food supply and showing up inside the body. A college chemistry teacher from decades ago said plastic just never goes away. He was ahead of his time.
And not that these art students are going to make art of every plastic water bottle, but the thing is, their appreciation of the fragile nature of the earth and the things that are destroying it won’t stop at their art projects. To even get to the art part, they are going to have to consider pollution and waste, and how it’s being handled and not being handled. Who knows, perhaps one of them will find solutions to some of these problems, such as the pluses that plastics bring to our lives and the distinct negatives inherent in their use.
We also find it useful, at a very basic level, to think of these problems by way of art. The ad campaign that included “Give a hoot, don’t pollute” can only take us so far, and soon, such mild admonishments lose their effectiveness entirely. By taking on this seemingly insurmountable problem through creative thinking puts them into perspective and in a way opens unique doors to finding solutions.