Earth Celebrations & Earth School
After-School Ecological Arts Program
Cultural After-School Adventures (CASA)
Designated by Hon. Rosie Mendez, Manhattan Council District #2
Supported and administered by New York City Department of Cultural Affairs

Earth Celebrations’ Ecological Arts Workshop Series with the Earth School – PS 364 engaged students January through May 2018 to create artistic works will exploring the Earth School’s green roof urban agriculture program and its connection to their local neighborhood, including ecological sustainability and climate resiliency solutions being developed and implemented throughout the community gardens and East River waterfront on the Lower East Side. Children learned various artistic skills including paper-mache, mask-making, puppetry, paper-making, eco-printing, natural paint/dying, costume-making, painting, and sculpture. The artistic works and dance performance created through the workshops were featured as part of the Earth School’s 25 Anniversary Celebration Event and as a featured site performance in Earth Celebrations’ Ecological City: Procession for Climate Solutions on Saturday, May 12, 2018.

Earth Celebrations developed and provided new ecological arts after-school workshop series for Pre-K through Grade 5 students of The Earth School, 01M364, (PS 364M) from January 2017 – May 2018. Students were engaged at a designated room at the Earth School through 60 contact hours on 10 session dates each with two 2 1/2 hour workshops geared to specific ages groups including Pre-K, grades 1-2 and grades 3-5. Each session date engaged 2 groups of 10, with 4 additional sessions by Felicia Young.

The children were engaged through a series of workshops and ecological arts curriculum to create costumes, headdresses, painted banners and a culminating performance to celebrate their Earth School’s climate solution of a green roof located at their school. The students explored the role of their green roof within the larger context of the Lower East Side’s sustainable ecosystem of climate solutions being developed and implemented throughout the community gardens, neighborhood and East River waterfront park including; bio-swales, community solar, vertical farming, sustainable agriculture, water harvesting ponds, composting, recycling, gray-water recycling, wetlands, oyster planting and a rolling hillside seawall berm.

Felicia Young conducted 4 sessions engaging the students to learn about their neighborhood, explore the importance of their green roof and its contribution to their neighborhood’s ecosystem of climate solutions and how to integrate climate and ecological sustainability solutions into these artistic projects with a culminating public performance.

Michele Brody and Christian Tandazo Natural Dye Eco Print Earth School Workshop

The first 3 workshop dates began with Artist Michele Brody, Christian Tandazo with assistance from Green Apple Kids teachers that work with the Earth School to create costumes celebrating their green roof and learning innovative ecologically friendly techniques and organic materials including: eco-printing and natural dyeing. The children collected leaves in the fall which had been frozen in preparation for the eco-printing project and used additional flowers and vegetable materials. The process engaged them first to draw out the design pattern they wanted to layout on silk panels, and then place the leaves and flowers on the fabric, which they rolled up like sushi that the teachers could then boil in a hot pot. Additional natural dyes such as indigo were used. Both the color and forms of the plant material were then transferred dying the silk fabric panels. These eco-printed silk panels were then integrated into burlap costume robes.

Lucrecia Novoa & Christian Tandazo Green Roof Headdress Workshops & Rain Barrel Workshops

The next 3 workshops dates continued, with artist Lucrecia Novoa, Christian Tandazo assisted by 2 Green Apple Kids teachers, engaging the students to create green roof headdresses using paper-mache, tissue paper flowers, and other sculptural techniques. They explored the various plants, vegetables and herbs they grow on their green roof and science facts related to urban farming and gardening and then created their interpretations in the form of sculptural headdresses. They also painted numerous 50 foot-long banners celebrating their green roof with images of giant vegetables that then hung across the facade of the school building for the culminating performance. Along with the costumes, headdresses and banners, the students also made beautiful drawings and watercolor paintings of the climate solutions of their neighborhood which they then affixed to a water harvesting rain barrel that was a central visual in their performance, as well as a ceremonial basket draped in green ribbons with a ceremonial offering of vegetables.

Dee Dee Maucher and Marta Vi Earth School–Bio Remediation Amulet Workshops

A special Earth Week workshop led by artist Dee Dee Maucher and Marta Vi with assistance from 2 Green Apple Kids teachers engaged students in created bio-remediation amulets from a mixture of mud and micro-organisms beneficial to soil and water. The children learned about the roles of bio-remediation organic materials as nutrients for plants in the gardens and to improve water quality of the river. These sculptural amulets were offered as gifts from the Earth School to gardens throughout the neighborhood and to the river as part of the culminating performance.

The 2 following sessions students worked with Choreographer Simone Coonrod and Christian Tandazo on dance movement to develop a culminating public performance presented to coincide with the Earth School’s 25 anniversary and the Ecological City: Procession for Climate Solutions.

The culminating performance featured the students dressed in their eco-printed costumes and green roof headdresses along with spectacular 30-foot banners, rain barrel and a ceremonial basket of vegetables. They performed a Green Roof Dance and Ceremony led by choreographer, Simone Coonrod with Green Apple Kids – Earth School teachers on Saturday May 12th, as one of the featured sites stops in the day-long Ecological City: Procession for Climate Solutions and also part of the Earth School 25th Anniversary celebration. Hundreds of people including parents, students, siblings and residents were in attendance for the inspiring Green Roof Climate Solution Performance.