Sustainability Action Day: Toxic Tours + Urban Gardening

Feedback artists Natalie Jeremijenko, Leah Gauthier, Brooke Singer, and The Lower East Side Ecology Center presenting workshops during the day.

Natalie Jeremijenko will present noPark.

Natalie Jeremijenko will lead a surface-level noPARK action on a plot of pavement in Chelsea (within a short walk of Eyebeam, exact location TBA the day of the event).

noPARK is a public art project to create “no parking zones” of micro engineered green spaces to prevent storm water run off, use foliage to stabilize the soil, and to provide a durable low maintenance surface cover.

In order to help raise funds for the noPARK project, which the artist hopes to implement throughout the city, limited-edition potted plants will be sold as “shares” of the project (complete with certificates) at Eyebeam for $10. Shareholders will be encouraged to take their plants to the site of the April 19 noPARKfor the 3-6PM action. (A single noPARK zone is estimated to cost approximately $6000 to implement.)

For images: http://www.environmentalhealthclinic.net/projects/nopark/

Leah Gauthier will lead a Sow-In, during which participants will distribute hundreds of seed pots to community gardeners across New York City for transplant, care, harvest, and seed saving.

The Lower East Side Ecology Center will demonstrate how the public can repurpose and use waste via worm bins.

Brooke Singer with Michael Heimbinder and Emily Gallagher will conduct a virtual toxic tour followed by a hands-on workshop. The virtual tour will focus on a site in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, that is currently undergoing contamination evaluation by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and Department of Health. Together they will explore the region’s historic and present day industries, detail the contaminants of concern and discuss potential remedies. This will serve as a case in point for participants to learn more about toxic legacy and the challenges of cleanup in New York City. In the second part of the workshop, they will provide resources for participants to identify toxic exposures in their own neighborhoods. Lastly, the group will brainstorm effective organizing strategies and ways to develop a network of activist peers .

Brooke Singer is a 2007 Artist Fellowship recipient of the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA). This presentation is co-sponsored by Artists & Audiences Exchange, a NYFA public program.

 

Projects: noPARK
People: Natalie Jeremijenko
, Michael Heimbinder, Lower East Side Ecology Center, Leah Gauthier, Emily Gallagher, Brooke Singer
Research: Sustainability, Urban Research
Tags: feedback