Impact | Ocean Conservation Collaborations | Bow Seat Ocean Awareness Programs

Collaborations

Bow Seat brings its philosophy and approach into the field, collaborating with schools and community organizations to emphasize creative inquiry and making in exploring our natural world, and to ensure that youth are included and engaged in important environmental campaigns and conversations.

Sea Walls: Artists for Oceans

Since 2014, PangeaSeed Foundation has worked with artists, communities, and global partners to create more than 350 murals in over 15 countries through the Sea Walls: Artists for Oceans initiative. As PangeaSeed’s Youth Engagement Partner, we have created opportunities for local youth in Napier, New Zealand, and Maui, Hawaii, to give our oceans a voice through art and activism (ARTivism).

We worked with H.P. Baldwin High School students in Maui to explore ocean conservation issues through hands-on art workshops and to create a Sea Walls mural on campus. “Dafne” is a re-imagination of a painting by teen artist Dafne Murillo, our first Ocean Awareness Contest art scholarship winner. Throughout our week, students had the opportunity to add plastic pieces to the whale based on conversations about marine debris they commonly encounter on Maui’s beaches and the plastic items they use on a daily basis.

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Sea Walls Maui

Sea Walls New Zealand

Sea Walls Boston

Presented by our Founder and President Linda Cabot in collaboration with long-time Bow Seat partner the PangeaSeed Foundation and HarborArts, Sea Walls Boston brought ARTivists from across the Boston area came together to paint large-scale murals in East Boston to give creative voice to the local coastal communities most impacted by critical environmental issues such as storm surge and flooding caused by sea level rise.

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Sea Walls Boston Coloring Companion

The Sea Walls Boston Coloring Companion is designed in collaboration with PangeaSeed Foundation, HarborArts, and Sea Walls Boston supporting ARTivists. Together, we designed this free coloring book to educate and inspire the youth of East Boston to become better stewards of our oceans and natural resources, and to build a sense of ownership and pride for the public artworks created in our neighborhood as part of the Sea Walls: Artists for Oceans Boston project.

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*Printing tips! Set your printer at home to Black & White, and select only the pages you want to color.

Healthy Whale, Healthy Ocean

Bow Seat joined forces with the New England Aquarium and Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) to present the Right Whale Festival, a celebration of efforts to help protect critically endangered North Atlantic right whales. With a focus on the efforts of local youth activists, the Festival included a range of activities to bring attention to the threats facing right whales and provided guests with inspiration and information to take action.

The Festival also celebrated the winners of the Healthy Whale, Healthy Ocean Challenge, a special program we hosted in partnership with CLF, which invited K-12 students from New England to create art that raises awareness of the iconic species and the threats facing the Gulf of Maine and the world’s oceans.

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Right Whale Festival

Youth Ocean Conservation Summit

We are an annual supporter of the Youth Ocean Conservation Summit at Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, Florida, which brings together and mobilizes youth participants of all ages interested in environmental conservation, and equips them with the skills needed to successfully take on conservation issues in their local communities.

At the Summit, we have led workshops including:

Art in Action: Using the Creative Arts as a Tool for Environmental Conservation, a panel discussion with practicing ocean artists
I Am Ocean Change: Creating a Community Mural, a hands-on and collaborative art-making session

Greenpeace USA

We partnered with Greenpeace USA for a special pop-up exhibition of youth environmental art and films aboard their ship, Arctic Sunrise, in Long Beach, California, as part of their Pacific Coast Ship Tour. “ART FOR ACTIVISM” celebrated our young artivists from around the world who are using their creative voices to speak up about plastic pollution. Guests came aboard the historic ship to meet and mingle with ocean activists, and left inspired and informed on how to get involved in local environmental actions.

Tidal Shift

We partnered with Studioful Design and Salem Sound Coastwatch for the Tidal Shift campaign, a public sculpture installation to raise awareness of plastic pollution and inform community members about Salem, Massachusetts’ new plastic bag ban. We designed the project’s informational flyers and street banners, and worked with project partners to lead several community workshops about ocean pollution. During these workshops, more than 300 plastic bag jellyfish sculptures were created. The sculptures were revealed to hundreds of visitors at the 2017 Salem Arts Festival, demonstrating the importance of using art as a means to start dialogue about important issues, and ultimately, bring about action.

Totally Thames

To raise awareness of plastic pollution in waterways and oceans around the world, we partnered with U.K.-based Whale Company to host an event as part of Totally Thames, a month-long celebration of arts, culture, and the Thames River. Supported by the Thames Estuary Partnership and the #OneLess campaign, the event included a river cleanup, Bow Seat student art exhibition, and hands-on art-making focused on river and ocean pollution.