ICE and the Office of Sustainability are pleased to announce the recipients of two Sustainability + Arts Grants in conjunction with the 2014-2015 UGA Campus Sustainability Grants program. The selected projects address priorities outlined in UGA’s 2020 Strategic Plan to actively conserve resources, educate the campus community, influence positive action for people and the environment, and provide useful research data to inform future campus sustainability efforts. The projects were chosen based on merit, positive impact, implementation feasibility, interdisciplinary and creative potential, and available funding.
The Office of Sustainability coordinates, communicates, and advances sustainability initiatives at UGA in the areas of teaching, research, service and outreach, student engagement, and campus operations. For more information visit:
http://sustainability.uga.edu
Air Purifying Plants Proliferation Project (A4P)
The Air Purifying Plants Proliferation Project, or A4P, was born out of a collaborative academic endeavor between graduate students and faculty in the painting and printmaking departments at the Lamar Dodd School of Art. This project attempts to embrace the ever-evolving nature and culture of the arts environment and the rapid advancement of green practices in the contemporary art studio. By employing innovative and sustainable approaches, this project can position the Lamar Dodd School of Art as a leader in the quest to marry a serious Studio Art culture with healthy and ecologically responsible practices.
This project seeks to continue the vision of A4P and engage in a cross-disciplinary effort, which aims to link environmental activism within the School of Art with the College of Environment + Design, Department of Horticulture, as well as the School of Engineering. The direct result of this second phase of the A4P concept is a two-fold effort: 1) to design, build and implement an air purifying plant repository art installation in the Lamar Dodd School of Art. 2) Transforming current studios in the printmaking and paint areas into official low-toxic work environments for our undergraduates, graduate students and faculty.
Principal Student Investigator: Ryan McCullough, MFA Printmaking and Books Arts, 2016
Material Re-Use: Thinking Inside the Box
“Material Re-use: Thinking inside the Box” focuses on waste reduction through the organization and reuse of materials by and for the students and faculty of The Lamar Dodd School of Art (LDSOA), including but not limited to: wood, metals, plastics, and canvas material. The project proposes the use of a 20’ x 8’ x 8.5’ industrial shipping container (the box) as a storage facility to house materials that may be accessible for re-use by current and future art students and faculty. This re-use hub will allow these valuable resources to be organized and protected from the elements. It will also provide a more convenient and easily accessible location for drop-off and pick-up of materials. Accessibility and awareness are the key strategies for making the ‘box’ an effective tool in reducing waste and further incorporating sustainable practices into the LDSOA operations and curriculum. The grant will fund the purchase of the freight container, the initial installation and retrofitting of the ‘box’, and operational controls of the ‘box’. The operations of the ‘box’ feed into studying long-term metrics of waste diversion and future research opportunities for sustainability and art.
Principle Student Investigator: Mason Towe, AB Economics, 2016