#ItIsNotTooLate Seagrass beds

Creator: Project #itIsNotTooLate|Art form: Visual arts|Knowledge valorisation : Co-creation, Outreach|Place: Small villages,Croatia|Location : Offline|Target group: General public|Domains: Climate Action and Environment|Duration : Installation. Regular events

Support the protection and promotion of natural resources by engaging citizens through arts

Challenge: Engage citizens in the protection of their natural environment, reconnect them to nature and increase acceptance of nature based solutions.

The community was familiarized with the natural resources through a series of public activities. In three eco-cleaning actions, volunteers, local activists, mountaineers and climbers collected 1 ton of glass waste as well as five tons of surrounding mixed waste.

Public call for artists “On accepting the undesirable” invited proposals for reuse of the collected glass waste in an artistic intervention which permanently points to the problem of environmental pollution. In 2023, the installation “See glass again” was built through a series of public workshops attended by hundreds of residents, students, cultural workers, mountaineers and regional and international activists.

The project also applied capacity-bridging, bringing together diverse forms of knowledge and skills which were exchanged in public workshops and presentations, such as knowledge on the state and role of seagrass beds in the local ecosystem and promotion of sustainable practices of reuse and recycling.
Finally, on-site participatory workshops, art performances, craft markets and concerts were organized.

Purpose of artistic intervention

The artistic intervention is a work with a diameter of nine meters. It consists of a ring-shaped drywall with an eel mosaic that would serve as a seating and conversation area. The mosaic creates a link between the marine and terrestrial ecosystems, and reminds of the local fishing heritage and strong connection with nature and its cycles.
It is the result of a 5-week residency of American environmental artist Dodd Holsapple in the village Lončari: at the end of 2022 year an international competition (call for residence) “On accepting the undesirable” was published, in which Holsapple’s work, among 46 applications from all over the world, was selected as the best.

Positive impacts

The project is a successful example of how to use art, community engagement, and research to raise awareness of environmental issues and promote sustainable practices, with a positive impact on the environment and the community. In addition to research and transfer of scientific knowledge, which played an important role, art proved its efficiency to open dialogue, inspire reflection and form connections across generational, ethnic or geographic divides.
The 3 public eco actions involved more than 500 participants in total, resulting in removal of 125m3 of waste from nature protection areas. 1.5m3 of glass waste and 15m3 of stone waste were reused in the production of the art installation “See glass again”. 12 on-site participatory workshops, art performances and concerts were also organised in a depopulated village, with positive impact on the community.

Replication

This approach could be applied to similar contexts in other community-based projects. The problem of seagrass beds in the local context of the Tree Seas area can here be seen as a case study, a shared ecological challenge which brought together a diverse group of participants and inspired collective action. Connection of ecology and art has shown a great potential in communicating the urgence and importance of climate action, while participative public actions have demonstrated how collective bottom-up actions can create immediate and concrete change for the environment and the community.
Sustainable practices applied in the project, namely reuse of glass and stone waste, and the application of local building material and methods, can also be replicated.
Finally, the visual identity of the project was designed with the idea of potential replication. The project name #ItIsNotTooLate can be transferred to any project and situation needing immediate action, where visibility in the context of digital marketing can greatly contribute to the success of the project.