Prodigal Planet

Jaime McKay
Contemporary Issues in Art Education
University of Florida

The Bottled Water Crisis

According to Ban the Bottle (2015), Americans used fifty billion plastic water bottles last
year and fifteen hundred plastic water bottles are consumed each second in the U.S. However,
the recycling rate for plastic is only twenty-three percent. This means thirty-eight billion water
bottles and over a million dollars of plastic are heading to the landfill every year. It takes one
thousand years to completely break down plastic bottles and if incinerated, toxic fumes are
produced (The Water Project, 2015). Plastic also leaches toxins into the water. It takes about
seventeen million barrels of oil annually to produce them, which produces two and a half million
tons of carbon dioxide. The energy alone used to create bottles could power one hundred and
ninety thousand homes a year. The bottling of water is actually wasting precious water as it takes
over three liters of water to package only one liter. Even if plastic bottles are recycled it is still a
waste of resources. Only PET bottles can be recycled and no plastic caps can be. A few cities and
municipalities are beginning to catch on around the world and some are adding taxes to plastic
water bottle purchases or even banning sales all together in places like San Francisco. As the
largest consumer of disposable plastic water bottles, only a handful of places in the U.S have
instated these laws and it seems like we are not taking action on a serious environmental issue.
Choosing an alternative to disposable plastic bottles is not only great for the environment but
also cost efficient. By purchasing one reusable bottle a person will save hundreds of dollars a
year. Corporate Accountability International (2015) emphasizes that studies have shown bottled
water is no safer than tap water and is actually less regulated. Around forty percent of bottled
water is treated from municipal water systems that are paid for by taxpayers. The bottled water
companies are selling water that we and the environment are paying for, while their revenue is
over fifteen billion dollars a year.

The negative environmental impact of plastic water bottles is only one issue in our
current environmental crisis. Environmental devastation and deterioration pervades North
America and other areas of the world. Thankfully, ecological restoration is increasingly
becoming a concern for many individuals (Blandy, Congdon, & Krug, 1998). Blandy and
Hoffman (1993) believe that our environmental crisis can be remedied through changing the way
people interact with and think about the environment. This requires developing a pro-active
attitude, changing lifestyle patterns, and challenging non-environmentally sound behaviors by
peers, family, and friends.
Activism Through Art
Hicks and King (2007) state, in a time of mounting environmental damage and
threatening future prospects, we believe the arts must help guide human beings towards a more
informed and responsible engagement with the natural world (p. 332). This can be
accomplished by reconceptualizing the way we interact, think about, and teach about the world
in art (Blandy & Hoffman, 1993). Art education can promote change by students confronting and
raising awareness of social issues and environmental concerns through the creation and
exploration of art. Branagan (2005) believes art can successfully introduce students to
environmental issues because of its ability to communicate information in powerful but simple
ways. According to Blandy and Hoffman (1993), art educators are not unfamiliar with the
relationship among art, art education, and the environment (p. 22). Nature has long been
included in art curriculums and as a theme used by artists. Contemporary artists and art educators
have taken this even further realizing the power of art to tackle environmental issues in their
communities and around the world. Campana (2011) notes, working in communities and
dedicated to social change, the role the artist/educator/activist plays are significantly different

from artists or teachers as we have experienced and sometimes assumed them to be (p. 279).
Artists and art educators are pushing beyond media exploration and self-expression to focusing
on social issues. Blandy et al. (1998) states artists are defining their role in society by
participating in the restoration of our ecosystems. They believe that ecological restoration is not
just an attitude but a way to take action and affirm a way of life within a particular place.
Ecological art becomes a catalyst for heightened awareness as well as an interdisciplinary
problem-solving model. Many works of ecological art have an explicit or implicit
environmental focus or utilize natural or recycled materials in a new and thought provoking
way (Song, 2012, p. 797). Ecological art can help students develop critical thinking, creativity,
a great consciousness about environmental and social issues, and a notion of being a citizen of
the world. A starting point for many artists and a great place for students and art teachers to
begin is identifying problems in their local community. From here they can further investigate
the issue on a broader, more global scale. Freedman (2011) reminds us that art education has the
power to engage people to participate, communicate, and engage in processes necessary in
democracy. Art educators can guide students in confronting issues and becoming activists
through the arts. This could take many forms but Freedman (2011) suggests through service
learning projects, students can take on public roles that illustrate the many benefits of art
education by, for example, organizing art experiences that help their community or protect the
environment (p. 42).
Place-based Art Education
This approach of using the arts to benefit the community and its members is what
Graham (2007) refers to as place-based education. Place-based education prepares and engages
students to promote change and become involved in regenerating natural and human

communities. An art education of place allows art educators to imagine new relationships
between community, the environment, and art. Art educators should create learning
environments that are sensitive to the environment, promote sustainability, and attend to
community as place (Blandy & Hoffman, 1993). The ultimate goal of such an art education will
be to teach students about art in a way that promotes understanding of the interdependence and
interconnectedness of all things (Blandy & Hoffman, 1993, p. 28). Ball and Lai (2006)
emphasize a place-based pedagogy teaches the local and pays attention to students interests.
Place-based pedagogy holds educational institutions and its members socially and ecologically
accountable and responsible for the places they belong. It has transformative activist purposes
focused on community involvement, service, social change, and environmental responsibility.
Artwork
Starting with the approach of place-based education, I looked at my community for
inspiration for my artwork. I asked myself what are some real issues in our community that
students could advocate for change using art? The abundance of disposable plastic water bottles
in my school led me to researching more about the effects and impact they have on our
environment. I created an artwork using almost two hundred water bottles I collected at the
school over a week. I placed collections bins around the school with a brief written statement
about the consequences and wastefulness of disposable plastic water bottles. I wanted to create
an installation using the water bottles that would raise awareness of the issue with a strong visual
statement. I arranged the bottles in the shape of the planet, focusing on North and South
America. I refilled the bottles using water from a spring and tap and dyed each one with liquid
watercolor to represent the water and the land. I placed the installation in front the school for not
only the students and faculty to see but also to involve the parents and community. The students

were interested as I arranged it and asked questions and offered a helping hand. Around the piece
I had signs with facts about the environmental factors and possible solutions like refillable
bottles. Like artwork that could be created by students in a place-based approach, it raises
questions, awareness, involves students and community, and emphasizes the need for change of
an issue in our local community. Engaging students in these types of projects would encourage
cooperation, understanding of community, the environment, and collaboration.

References
Ball, E. L., & Lai, A. (2006). Place-based pedagogy for the arts and humanities. Pedagogy:
Critical Approaches to Teaching Literature, Language, Composition, and Culture, 6(2),
261-287.
Ban the Bottle. (2015). Retrieved from http://www.banthebottle.net/
Blandy, D., Congdon, K. G., & Krug, D. H. (1998). Art, ecological restoration, and art
education. Studies in Art Education, 39(3), 230-243.
Blandy, D., & Hoffman, E. (1993). Toward an art education of place. Studies in Art Education,
35(1), 22-33.
Branagan, M. (2005). Environmental education, activism and the arts. Convergence, 38(4), 3350.
Campana, A. (2011). Agents of possibility: Examining the intersections of art, education, and
activism in communities. Studies in Art Education, 52(4), 278-291.
Corporate Accountability International. (2015). The social and environmental impacts of bottled
water. Retrieved from http://www.responsiblepurchasing.org
Freedman, K. (2011). Leadership in art education: Taking action in schools and communities.
Art Education, 64(2), 40-45.
Graham, M. A. (2007). Art, ecology and art education: Locating art education in a critical placebased pedagogy. Studies in Art Education, 48(4), 375-391.
Hicks, L. E., & King, R. H. (2007). Confronting environmental collapse: Visual culture, art
education, and environmental responsibility. Studies in Art Education, 48(4), 332-335.
Song, Y. (2012). Crossroads of public art, nature and environmental education. Environmental
Education Research, 18(6), 797-813.

The Water Project. (2015). Bottled water is wasteful. Retrieved from

http://thewaterproject.org/bottled_water_wasteful