Hello all,
My name is Kylie and I work with the City of Mount Gambier, South Australia. Just a little bit of background information, the Blue Lake in Mount Gambier (turns brilliant blue between November and March) is the town's water supply. The lake which is a volcanic crater formed about 5000 yrs ago provides a window into the regions unconfined aquifer. The lake is replenished by local rainfall and stormwater (via underground aquifers) from the catchment zone which includes the entire City of Mount Gambier (pop 23,000). The issue I would like some help with is: here at Council we find ourselves in a very exciting and unique time. We are currently redesigning the entire city centre. At present our resident architect has a basic concept of four nodes along the main street each with different themes that are tied together with one common thread (the space is about 10m *5m). In terms of the common thread linking all four nodes we are wanting to embrace what we have here in Mount Gambier, which is lots or rain and as a consequence lots of stormwater (or eventual drinking water). In doing this I wanted to both incorporate water sensitive urban design and modern art to get across the message about sustainable water use and reuse drawing on the fact that we are indeed unique in drinking our stormwater. I know this is a little vague but we have a unique opportunity to use public art or modelling to get across very important messages to both locals and tourists (the blue lake is one of SA main tourist attractions) so if anyone has used street art and interpretative signage to put out an environmental message I would love to hear about them.
Thanks in advance for your time
Kylie
Kylie CLIMIE
BAppSci (Hons)
Blue Lake Water Care Officer
City of Mount Gambier
10 Watson Terrace
Mount Gambier SA 5290
P: 08 8721 2520
F: 08 8724 9791
Street Art Supporting Sustainable Water Use
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Hi Kylie,
I spoke to an artist who does this type of work at the International Association of Public Participation (IAP2) conference in Sydney last year (March?). He had a display there with his work. You could try tracking him down through the IAP2 web site www.iap2.org.au. Good luck with your project.
regards
Gabrielle Kay
Kylie
In 2003 I worked at the Rainforest Information Centre in Cotacachi in Ecuador. The population in the region is semi-literate. To encourage awareness of environmental issues in the region (which is one of the world hot spots of biodiversity) the centre developed a project which included wall murals depicting matters of concern. The project used key stakeholders in the production of the murals including schools, women's groups, volunteer staff at the centre, the People's Assembly etc. While your issues are obviously different in a modern Australian city a street mural project might provide great opportunities for a community development initiative which engages your community about the your water issues. A competition might get interest. Community groups could be encouraged to submit designs of murals and then take part in the painting of them. This also might be a great way to engage marginalized groups - especially young men as it could also have the spin off legal graffiti art. I have photos of some of the murals in Cotacachi, I could scan and send them to you if this would help.
Kind regards
Peta Wellstead
Freelance Information Services
PO Box 368 GUILDFORD WESTERN AUSTRALIA 6935
Ph +61 8 9379 8562
Fax +61 8 6278 2704
[email protected]
Kylie,
I went to an undergraduate school in Pennsylvania here in the U.S. called Allegheny College, where they were and still are working on community projects where they want to educate the town about stormwater and the fact that a stream runs underneath many of the downtown buildings and roads. They are exposing the stream in places where that is possible and greening the banks a little, painting blue lines on the road where the stream runs underneath it, and turning an old alleyway where the stream runs underneath into a pedestrian corridor with some art from the community and college students which will feature fish, water, etc, to get people's attention and help them understand what is under their feet. Also, they paint the Do Not Dump signs next to some of the stormwater drains, with the help of elementary school children who work with a watershed protection group in the area. Lastly, they have taken old road signs and recycled them into environmental art. They weld, cut, and bend the signs into beautiful 3-D flowers that are taller than you or I, and they then made a 2-D landscape of important historical buildings in the town, of the stream, farm scenes, etc that stretches for hundreds of feet along a fence that borders the Department of Transportation Lot that is at the gateway of the town. Just some interesting enviro-art ideas. If you have further questions let me know and I can give you contacts for people at the school who are working on this.
Riley
Riley Neugebauer
Environmental Coordinator American University
4400 Massachusetts Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20016
202-885-3757
Fax: 202-885-1165
Hello Kylie,
I believe that the City Repair Project based in Portland, Oregon, USA had a project with some similar themes, but unfortunately don't have the link handy.
Good luck with your work,
Kevin Devitt
Toronto, ON Canada