For the past few months I’ve been working with Jan Adams from the Foss Waterway Seaport here in Tacoma on setting up an art exhibit that focuses on marine plastic debris. We put together a pilot program that linked artists and engineers with classes from Sherman Elementary and produced a variety of pieces that use discarded plastic to tell the story of plastic in the marine environment and the results are outstanding. The exhibit opened at the Seaport this past weekend and will be on display through the 2015 season. Yesterday evening, the students and their families came down to the museum for a little reception and the opportunity to see their work on display.

They did a great job! Kids get it, right away. They understand the impacts that people are having on natural systems and the want to see the ocean protected from the excesses and greed that adults sometime gloss over and often don’t notice at all. The sculptures they produced work on the informational level as well as the aesthetic, each of them with a specific lesson to teach about the effects that plastic has on the ocean and the creatures that depend on it, above and below the water’s surface.

This was a great opportunity for the Ikkatsu Project to be involved in this kind of outreach and I am already looking forward to similar projects in the future. In the meantime, put a trip to the Seaport on your calendar and come see what these kids have created. It is exactly what real education is all about.