Lubeznik Center for the Arts (LCA) and LaPorte County Soil and Water Conservation District have partnered with students from Michigan City High School (MCHS) to create art to be placed around storm drains in downtown Michigan City. Students worked with LCA Education Director Janet Bloch and LaPorte County Soil and Water Conservation District Education Coordinator Nicole Messacar once a week, after school as a part of an extracurricular project to kick-start Coastal Awareness Month in June. The goal of the project is to educate the public on pollutants’ effects on the Trail Creek Watershed, which feeds directly into Lake Michigan.
This project brings science and art together in ways that benefit our community. Environmental Science and Biology teacher Stephanie Dege was a great asset to the project as well, offering her classroom and her knowledge in the field to the project. Students first learned about Michigan City’s water supply and the role of storm drains in the overall water system. Then they were challenged to visually represent what they had learned and design artworks that will educate as well as beautify the storm drains. The designs will be transferred to vinyl sheets which will be applied to storm drains in the Uptown Arts District in Michigan City. The vinyl will last for three years and will not affect the water in any way.
MCHS freshman, Guendolen Mark, created an artwork to show how dumping paint and other toxins into our system harm fish as well as our drinking water. “The effort to keep Michigan City ‘green’ means keeping our environment and our economy healthy,” says Janet Bloch. In another artwork, senior Christine Brennan illustrates a frog that says “Love Our Lakes,” which is the title of an ongoing campaign by the Unity Foundation to increase understanding of and appreciation of our lakes.
The partners plan to recreate the project at Elston Middle School next year. This project would not have been possible without the support of Michigan City Mayor Ron Meer and the Tuholski & Oberlie Environment and Arts Fund for Youth. The latter fund, managed by the Unity Foundation of La Porte County, began in 2005 in memory of long time MCAS elementary teacher, Fran Oberlie.
The designs will be on display at Lubeznik Center for the Arts as a part of the Coastal Awareness First Friday @ 5 event on June 7th through June 30th. The Banana Slugs String Band, a group of musicians and educators from Santa Cruz, CA, will provide environmentally focused, family friendly, music and performance art at the event. For more information, please call Lubeznik Center for the Arts at 219-874-4900 or email artinfo@lubeznikcenter.org.