Chaplain-esque performer Tommy Twimble stages his plastic skit at 5 & 7 PM. Don’t miss it! See a complete schedule here, which includes a sock hop and premiere of a rap video made by 6th graders!
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Adults may know how much plastic waste makes its way downstream polluting ecosystems and the food chain, but do kids? In Portland they do. On June 11, eleven Portland area schools are exhibiting that awareness in the form of plastic quilt squares at an event, as part of the International Plastic Quilt Project, a collaborative effort presented by the non-profit organization Create Plenty. The festivities take place from 4-9 p.m. at Zoomtopia (810 SE Belmont Street) and includes art, food, community participants, parents and students who contributed to the project— of turning their trash and recycling into a show of 12” square quilt pieces made entirely of plastic.
“This project showed us how much plastic our family actually uses,” said Christy Miller-Kuziensky, a parent-volunteer at Sunstone Montessori and part of the Center for Earth Leaderships Eco-schools Network. “It serves as a great reminder to get creative with solutions, including swapping recipes for packaged items with other parents, to reduce the plastic in the landfill.” Christy’s school submitted 48 squares to the project.
Other exhibition items include “Plastic wRap” a video created by Create Plenty director Cheryl Lohrmann and sixth-graders at King Elementary School in addition to ponchos ironed out of plastic bags. Morgan Lange, a board member of Create Plenty living in Mexico brought the project to a group of women artists, who learned about the environmental impact of plastic and contributed pieces to the Quilt. These pieces will be displayed as part of a slide show, along with their extension of the Quilt project: a skillful mix of single-use plastics and acrylic paints on canvas to produce thought provoking fine art.
The full list of participating schools include:
Ainsworth Elementary
The Emerson School
Joseph Elementary
King Elementary
Markham Elementary
The Opal School (Portland Children’s Museum)
Pacific Crest Community School
Portland State University’s Art Education and Reuse Capstone Class
Southwest Charter School
Sunstone Montessori School
St. Andrew Nativity School
This is the ninth in a series of twice-yearly single-use plastic awareness events since 2007. The International Plastic Quilt Project is led by Cheryl Lohrmann and is sponsored by a small grant from the Northeast Coalition of Neighborhood. For more information, visit http://www.createplenty.org/.
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The more we teach the next generation about the perils of plastic pollution the greater chance we have of stamping it out..With that in mind weve pulled together the following list of resources for teachers in search of interesting and fun ways to run everything from school art projects to detailed science curricula about plastic..As usual we need your help to make sure this is the most helpful resource it can be. Leave a comment here or send an email to amy dot westervelt at plasticpollutioncoalition dot org and well be happy to include it..