Bow Seat’s First Art Show
May 11, 2015Featuring the winners of the 2014 Ocean Awareness Student Contest, the Winners’ Art Exhibit at the Seacoast Science Center combines art, science, and advocacy to inspire visitors to #SaveOurSeas.
Rye, NH – On April 25, 2015, the Winners’ Art Exhibit opened at the Seacoast Science Center in Rye, NH featuring the work of 20 teen artists from the US, Peru, and Hungary. The exhibit will be open through June 17th and is free with admission to the Seacoast Science Center. The artists are the winners of the 2014 Bow Seat Ocean Awareness Student Contest which is an art, science, and advocacy contest hosted each year by Bow Seat Ocean Awareness Programs. The 2014 Contest was the first in a three-year focus on plastic pollution, using the arts to raise public awareness on the environmental impacts of plastic pollution and marine debris. The artists collectively won over $9,500 in prizes and scholarships as well as opportunities to launch their professional career through art print sales and exhibits – ones just like this exhibit.
Inside the exhibit hallway
The opening event, in conjunction with the Marine Mammal Rescue Run 5K and Kid’s Fun Run, drew over 400 runners and visiting families to the Center and Odiorne State Park. As runners caught their breath and ate oranges and bagels with their families, they strolled through the sun-lit hallway covered with huge framed prints of the winning art. After the awards, families joined Blue Ocean Society on a beach cleanup where they picked up litter found in the rocks and tide pools in the cove near the center, the vast majority of which was plastic.
Setting up for Race Day in Odiorne State Park!
Check out how beautiful it was!
Bow Seat Founder at Director Linda ready to get runners and kids excited about harnessing their creativity to give the oceans a voice!
Program Manager Ellen running the last few steps of the 5k, holding a flip flop, zip tie, and piece of a plastic bag found along the race course AND wearing our new t-shirts featuring the 1st Place artwork “Plastic Whale.”
Some of the folks (minus about 50 others who didn’t get photographed) who joined Blue Ocean Society and cleaned up the cove where the Seacoast Science Center sits. They picked up about 800 pounds of trash.
Visitors inside the exhibit hallway.
While the event itself was a huge success, the messages of the exhibit will last throughout the spring while it remains installed. “The exhibit sparks conversation about the way ‘throwaway culture’ connects the temporary and the timeless,” says Linda Cabot, founder and director of Bow Seat and the Ocean Awareness Student Contest. “Most single-use plastics are made to be used once – for just a few seconds, minutes, hours – but are designed to be so durable that they stay intact in the environment for up to 1000 years.” The art in the exhibit illustrates what happens within that time – from marine mammals eating or becoming tangled in plastic waste, to beach litter, to toxic chemicals carried by the waste.
The Bow Seat Ocean Awareness Student Contest is now in its 4th year, and it hopes to inspire the next generation of ocean caretakers and encourage STEAM education (STEM + Art) which emphasizes the interdisciplinary approach to learning in which many students flourish. The 2015 Contest is accepting submissions from middle and high school students around the world until June 15th. In addition to the Art category, the contest accepts Poetry, Prose (fiction and nonfiction), and Short Films. Visit www.bowseat.org to learn more and submit, and you could see your student, your child, or your own work hanging in an exhibit like this.