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Art and Sustainability

I attended the Valley & Ridge Sustainability Workshop with the goal of developing a new sculpture project for my Art & Sustainability class (ARTH130). Core to student engagement with sustainability necessarily includes introducing my class to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) developed as part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development established in 2015. These goals provide a valuable roadmap for understanding the diverse contexts for sustainably and is a useful structure for linking the personal to the global – often a core concept in art.

Using the ºìÐÓÖ±²¥app Farm as a “field site” students will engage in a two-part project with the learning goals of 1) collaborative problem solving and 2) working to highlight how the site and the SDGs intersect and connect to personal experiences through various artmaking processes including sculpture or installation. Part one of the project will involve the collaborative design and construction of a temporary art studio at the farm.  This structure will serve as a hub for collecting, storing, displaying and making art. As a group undertaking, this part of the project will mirror the need for collaborative strategies as part of the global partnership required to address SDGs.  In part two of the assignment, and using the temporary farm art studio, each student will choose one of the 17 SDGs as a prompt for exploring the College Farm as a site build a creative response to both their individual SDG and the farm. In preparation for each project, students will write a brief proposals that addresses the physical/creative process of making their artwork and how they are linking their artwork to their chosen SDG, as well as to contemporary art practices. Successful completion of the project will require a public exhibition of their artworks at the end of the semester.