Continue reading »]]> EcoArt South Florida promotes a type of EcoArt practice that integrates three important processes: basis in environmental science, aesthetic methodologies and community engagement; and addresses environmental issues and problems like stormwater capture and recycling and energy creation. Recently, the organization has brought examples of this practice into special community events like art festivals and Earth Day observances. During 2012 EASF so far has participated in two such events–Artigras in Jupiter, Palm Beach County, and Sustainatopia/Coral Gables Earthfest in Miami. We call this kind of presentation EcoArt Works!

At both Jupiter and Miami, EASF has provided live and pictorial demonstrations of particular kinds of EcoArt for the involvement and edification of event attendees. At the Miami event, for example, EcoArtists Jesse Etelson (Martin County, FL resident) and Lynne Hull (a pioneer in sculptural wildlife habitat creation visiting from Colorado) built a wildlife habitat sculpture with the help of visitors. And Xavier Cortada’s (Miami resident) Native Flags project provided free native canopy tree saplings and flags inscripted “I hereby reclaim this spot for Nature” first come, first served.

To help visitors understand that these interactive demonstrations are not the entirety of EcoArt Practice, EASF volunteers were available to discuss a poster showing examples of a range of other kinds of EcoArt, especially those that are integrated into the urban built environment.

Here is some background on these examples:

Lynne Hull. Raptor roost sculptural habitat. Hull works with biologists and park and public land managers to provide temporary sculptural wildlife habitat in natural areas under restoration. The sculptures deteriorate at about the rate that new growth provides new habitat. http://eco-art.org/

Brad Goldberg. Unique design solution that both lights the entry way to the Symantec headquarters building in California and becomes a landmark in an urban setting. http://www.bradjgoldberg.com/illumination/symantec-corporation/solar-panels-marble-photovoltaic-artist-light-sculpture-symantec

Spanish art collective Basurama. Swings and climbing frames made from old tires, a rope slide and graffiti art turned a mile-long stretch of elevated train overpass into a temporary urban fun park. Abandoned two decades ago when the money ran out, construction work on the electric train line re-started recently, but not before Madrid-based group Basurama joined up with local artists, architecture students and artivists (artists-cum-activists) to design a colorful amenity space in a Lima, Peru low income neighborhood. http://basurama.org/en/sidebar/about#more-891

Jackie Brookner and Angelo Ciotti. Water-cleaning "biosculpture" planted with native mosses and water cleaning plants. The sculpture is installed in a flood prevention lake in Dreher Park, West Palm Beach. Water is piped to the top of each finger and trickles down through water-cleaning plants and mosses, while nozzles at the base provide a cloud of mist that aerates lake water while providing the illusion that the sculpture is floating on a cloud. Lighted at night. The sculpture is one aspect of a total EcoArt work by the artists, "Elders' Cove" in West Palm Beach's largest green space and passive park, also home to the Palm Beach Zoo and South Florida Science Museum. The total work includes this sculpture, extensive water cleaning plantings arount the edges of the lake, and a learning garden featuring native and helpful "immigrant" plants that have played practical roles in the lives of people living in this geographic region of Florida from prehistoric to contemporary times. Restoration via EASF and collaborating groups completed 2012. http://www.jackiebrookner.net/dreher_park.htm

Artist/Designer unknown. Top of underground cistern in courtyard at Ariel Rios Building, Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC. Lighted at night. Courtyard also paved with pervious pavers and planted with plants native to the Washington, DC region. Very popular location for weddings! The cistern is one element in a comprehensive demonstration of Low Impact Development. http://www.epa.gov/oaintrnt/stormwater/ars_plan.htm

Sarah Hall. pioneer in window wall-embedded photovoltaics. Two story stained glass window wall with photovoltaic elements next to staircase of Grass Valley Elementary School, Camas, Washington. http://sarahhallstudio.com/artgeneratesamps.com/portfolio/complete.html

Unique design for electric vehicle power station. Sculptural structure supports solar panels which also provide shade for cars while charging. All the batteries and important technical equipment is underground to avoid accidental bumps and damage due to driver inattention. Currently being distributed by EV4 Oregon LLC,

Dickson Despommier. Design for farming in highrises. Sustainable urban planning will have to encourage more highrising rather than sprawling in the future. To provide local sources of food, architects and planners are coming up with aesthetically interesting approaches to vertical farming, like this design. This approach to farming technology includes hydroponics, which uses 70 percent less water than normal agriculture. It also uses aeroponics, which uses 70 percent less water than hydroponics. http://www.verticalfarm.com/

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Culture Builds Florida is a new initiative of the Florida Division of Cultura Affairs placing emphasis on the role of the arts in Florida's prosperity.

EcoArt South Florida is delighted and honored to be the first cultural organization featured on the new Florida Division of Cultural Affairs’ initiative: Culture Builds Florida blog!! Thanks so much to Jennifer Hoesing for giving us the spotlight!!

Highlighted in our interview are pioneer projects in our region by South Florida EcoArtists Michael Singer and Xavier Cortada, emerging EcoArtist Jesse Etelson (a graduate of EcoArt SoFla’s pilot EcoArt apprenticeship in Martin County (2009-2010),  as well as the first ever EcoArt project in Florida (completed 2004, restoration completed 2011), by Jackie Brookner and Angelo Ciotti,  in Dreher Park, West Palm Beach.

And, of course, we answer questions you may have!

Here is an excerpt which gives you an idea of  how the interview goes…please see the Culture Builds Florida blog for the complete interview, and forward the link to the interview to friends and colleagues. Thanks in advance!!

DCA: What does EcoArt do for South Florida?

EcoArt South Florida: EcoArt practice has many identities. All contribute to the community. Most involve the community at every level of the planning, design and creation of
EcoArt projects.

In addition to our consultations with communities we have identified as EcoArt Nodes, and continuing to develop our pilot community education and artist apprenticeship program, EcoArt South Florida is also currently working on three program aspects that we believe have great potential for inspiration, education and engagement of the public:

1. First, the integration of  Public EcoArt at the design stage of urban buildings and neighborhoods  that will be seeking LEED or other green certification. EcoArt South
Florida is working with the South Florida chapter of the US Green Building Council on this.

2. Secondly, engaging EcoArt with greening the public schoolyard. EcoArt South Florida has been reaching out to public school districts, teachers and administrators through the annual LEARN GREEN conferences; and we are in the process of working with a math and science middle school to develop what will  probably be the first comprehensive outdoor classroom in South Florida.

3. And finally, modeling a new kind of urban streetscape featuring a variety of Florida native canopy trees (instead of  the “monoculture” approach currently used) and understory vegetation that encourages the return of pollinators and birds. EcoArt South Florida is involved with a consortium of organizations developing a pilot of this kind of  streetscape. Our partners include the grass roots West Palm Beach organization Northwood GREENlife that is taking the lead, the Palm Beach chapter of the Florida Native Plant Society, 1000 Friends of Florida and the Center for Creative Education. In addition to the creation of a multiple-species Florida native urban forest pilot streetscape that can be replicated widely, the project will also incorporate arts: sculpture, ceramics, video, storytelling, performance and a community celebratory procession/parade once the planting has been completed.

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Download the PDF to see this map in full detail, on the last page of the PDF.

EcoArt South Florida has a set of bright and shiny new  scientific analysis tools to enhance our planning processes!! A Dartmouth geography class worked hard during the Spring 2011 semester to create information-jammed  Geographical Information Service (GIS) maps that will help EASF identify best locations for our new EcoArt community education and artist apprenticeship programs. EASF has the goal of establishing at least one “EcoArt Node”  in each of South Florida’s five watersheds by 2015.

See all of the GIS maps here: EcoArt Dartmouth Study PDF

This GIS analysis identified what we are calling “hot spots,”  by electronically layering 15 different maps. The analysis shows how human settlement and modification of various Florida landscape characteristics are impacting important ecological systems in the region; where the impacts are the most damaging; and where these impact locales (“hot spots”) coincide with areas where there are significant resources to address them, including scientific entities, educational institutions and arts organizations. See additional detail on EASF’s approach to establishing “EcoArt Nodes.”

EASF’s Site Selection Committee is currently working with these stunning and highly informative maps, readying their recommendations for EASF’s upcoming Annual Meeting in Miami September 30-October 1st 2011. Based on the GIS map revelations, the Site Selection Committee will recommend several sites best suited for successful implementation of the organization’s core program. The maps will also be included in the Living on the Edge exhibition that will be up at Ironside in Miami during the annual international  Miami Basel Art Fair. More information will be available on the exhibition closer to the opening in November, 2011.

Thanks to Dartmouth College geography Professor Xun Shi, his teaching assistant Kevin M. Mwenda, and students Henry A. McQueen, Emma L. Smith, Madolyn M. Mertz, Julia A. Watson, Amanda K. Wheelock, Duncan F.  Hall and Megan R. Killigrew for this valuable new tool. Professor Xun Shi and his students were recruited to assist EASF probono by Community Compact, Inc. a new service learning organization located in Palm Beach County, Florida. EASF is indebted to Mary Arpe, president of Comunity Compact, and her Dartmouth intern Alyssa Perez for recruiting Professor Shi and his students.

Continue reading »]]> Public EcoArt: Emphasizing Green Identity of Green Buildings and Infrastructure

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UPDATE!!! I serve on my city’s Sustainability Advisory Committee,. and recently (early September, 2011) I gave a talk to the Committee on how EcoArt could be integrated into the Plan’s focus areas. You can download a pdf of my presentation HERE:  EcoArt presentationtoSAC9-11-2. At the end of the presentation are the actions I asked the Sustainability Advisory Committee to take. And they DID!! Thanks, colleagues!!
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OK, here is one of my major pet peeves. Award winning platinum LEED buildings that hide the technology that won them this designation underground, behind walls, under floors, in attics and other invisible locations.

Number one AIA Green Building of 2010: Matarozzi/Pelsinger Building, San Francisco Chapter, adaptive reuse, Platinum LEED. The only way anyone would know this is a major green building would be if they found the plaque saying so.

Here in our region, EcoArt South Florida is in ongoing dialogue with the South Florida Chapter of USGBC about this lack of green identity for LEED certified buildings and neighborhoods. A major educational priority of EASF is to raise awareness of how Public EcoArt can rectify this situation. For the past two years, EASF has been assertively reaching out to educate South Florida professionals involved in creating and rehabilitating the urban landscape, including architects, planners, landscape architects engineers and public art practitioners and administrators.

Here are some of the examples of EcoArtistic features integrated into buildings or infrastructure projects, whether formally recognized as Public Art or not, that we feature when invited to present at conferences or in specific workshops. These examples demonstrate aesthetically interesting and attention grabbing opportunities for the general public to see at first glance that there is a green building or infrastructure project in their community.

And, by the way, all of these examples can help gain points under LEED and other certification programs.

Sculptural electric car charging station. While not a designated “public art” project, this imaginative structure provides an assertive presence for what will be ubiquitous on the urban landscape as electric cars become more prevalent. This structure holds pv panels that power the charger, as well as providing shade. How much more interesting and educational than plopping a squat charger on the sidewalk and calling it a day. Possible LEED-ND points here: Reduced auto use; share car; solar application; local energy production, innovative design.

Integration of pv panels and other pv technologies into building facades. Why put all your pv on the roof where people can’t see it? In these EcoArtistic examples, pv is used as exterior wall cladding, and window screening which allows daylight in, reduces glare, and provides some energy to the building operation. Possible LEED points: solar application; local energy production, innovative design.

Amusing, musical, assertive cisterns. Why are cisterns always hidden underground or behind a building, wall or screen? Possible LEED points: water and wastewater infrastructure, stormwater management, innovative design.

These are only a few of the kinds of artistic features that can help define an urban building or infrastructure project as green. Here is a Venn diagram that shows the key features of the new LEED for neighborhood development certification elements on one side, and traditional public art approaches on the other. At the overlap between the two circles, Public EcoArt emerges

The climate is right now to encourage greater green adaptive reuse, and new design of the urban landscape, both the built environment and infrastructure:

• Increasing State, county and municipal requirements for green public (and private) buildings, infrastructure, “green” streets, etc.
• Beyond buildings: emphasis on achieving lowered carbon footprint of urban areas by targeted times
• Increased urgency to lower “heat island” effect and walkability of urban neighborhoods

It is also a propitious time to make these green innovations very visible by integrating Public EcoArt at every stage: design through completion.

So, how can the integration of Public EcoArt into these increasingly mandated green advances be accomplished?

This list of suggested actions is aimed primarily at public art administrators and/or artists who are seeking opportunities to bring their Public EcoArt forward.

• Get appointed, or assigned as staff, to your city/county green task force in order to assure inclusion of Public EcoArt in city greening recommendations to elected officials; including in new “green ordinances”
• Assertively propose that Comprehensive Plans include Public EcoArt requirements for public buildings, parks, natural areas, transportation, etc.
• Convince your local officials to encourage integrated Public EcoArt to satisfy Public Art Ordinance requirements, esp. on planned “green” buildings and infrastructure
• Create and maintain annually, an updated list of Public EcoArt practitioners to recommend to developers and relevant government agencies
• Develop partnerships with organizations seeking to “grow” local Public EcoArt practitioners through education and apprenticeships
• Keep colleagues and yourself up to date on Public EcoArt developments in your region/state/county/municipality

Now, to what can happen if these suggestions are followed:

To my knowledge, there are only two cities in the US that currently include a mention of EcoArt in city ordinances: Boynton Beach and Jupiter, both located in Palm Beach County. Florida. This is not an accident. In both cases, EcoArt South Florida played an important role.

In the case of the town of Jupiter, a local planning official met EASF’s President at a green technologies conference, and, because her town was involved at that moment in revising some ordinances, was inspired to include mention of EcoArt in chapter 27 of the town of Jupiter’s municipal ordinance 39-10 which mentions EcoArt at Section 27-1831 (See: http://www.jupiter.fl.us/Planning/upload/Ord-39-10.pdf).

In the case of Boynton Beach, the public art administrator lobbied vigorously to be sure she was assigned as staff to the city’s Green Alliance, a community outreach effort that brought together key city officials and community experts on green technology to craft recommendations for the city’s elected commissioners as part of the city’s efforts to create a Climate Action Plan. The public art administrator also arranged for EASF’s president to be part of the 6 month Green Alliance effort, assigning her to the Land Use Committee. As a direct result, the city’s new green ordinance contains mention of EcoArt in 4 places. See them at FL here.

pg 21 of the Word Doc (print pg 17) Jurisdictional Electives

pg 29 (print pg 25) Ch 4 – Site & Land Use, 407.6

pg 48-49 (print pg 52-53) - Public Eco Art

Resources

NEW Municipal Ordinances that include EcoArt

• Boynton Beach, Florida has passed a Green Building Ordinance in which EcoArt is referenced in three places:

Definitions – pg 21 of the Word Doc (print pg 17) Jurisdictional Electives

pg 29 (print pg 25) Ch 4 – Site & Land Use, 407.6

Public Eco Art – pg 48-49 (print pg 52-53)

Press release announcing Boynton Beach, FL Green Ordinance

New Green Ordinance for Boynton Beach, FL

• Jupiter, Florida’s Amendment of chapter 27 of municipal ordinance 39-10 mentions EcoArt at Section 27-1831. See here

Other excellent sites:

Center for Neighborhood Technology

Valuing Green Infrastructure:

Chrysalis Arts Sustainability Toolkit for Public Art

PASA (Public Art Sustainability Assessment) Guidelines

Reality of implementing green buildings in your city.

Webinar presented Feb 23, 2011 by Kobet Cheatham Group and BasicGov. A discussion of the imminent demise of point based green building standards like LEED at the state, county and municipal levels and what is replacing them.

See the slide show here:

Hear the audio slide show here:

GREEN Museum’s excellent toolbox series.

Some were done in the mid to late ’90s but are still more than relevant

Toolbox of Working Methods (Alan Comp, 1996)

Greenmuseum’s Toolbox for Educators

Toolbox for Communities

Toolbox for Park and Resource Managers