Institute for Applied Sustainability
Recology and SOU Embark on Exciting Second Year Supporting Artists in Residence, Illuminating the Power of Art as a Catalyst for Sustainability Awareness
By Kira Welch, Institute for Applied Sustainability
In January 2023, a cohort of four students participated in a unique Student Artist-in-Residency program at SOU. In 2024, the next group of five embarks on this adventure. Led by sculpture professor, Michael Parker, a cohort of student artists find materials in Recology Ashland’s Transfer Station and turn these materials into art. Artists are asked to create works that use 98% found materials from the dump and to engage with ideas like sustainability and waste reduction.
Similar residency programs for professional artists exist in cities like Seattle, Portland, and San Francisco. SOU’s project is different in that it is university-based and takes place in a semi-rural community. Students in this program have an on-site storage area for collected materials at the Valley View Transfer Station, and then manipulate/alter/combine their finds at SOU’s art studios to create artwork. Dr. Cherstin Lyon, director of SOU’s Honors College, said, “In 20+ years of teaching in higher education I have never seen such a disruptive transformative educational experience as what I am seeing right now.” The Oregon Center for the Arts and Recology were jointly presented with the Sustainability Award at the annual Ashland Chamber of Commerce Dinner in October for the first year’s effort.
To help empower our young artists and showcase the unique impact of this program, the new cohort’s efforts will be supported by the Institute for Applied Sustainability at SOU. The Institute has funded the newest team member, Chella Foster Flynn, who serves as SOU/Recology Liaison. Chella took part as an artist in the inaugural cohort last year and, in this new role, will help bring this work to our larger community partnership between the public, the OCA, IAS, Honors College, and Recology.
Program graduate and 2024 liaison, Chella Foster-Flynn.
“SOU is quickly building its reputation for experiential and community-based learning, and the Recology Artist-in-Residency program is a quintessential example. Our students do impactful, vulnerable work that’s public and invites engagement from others. That’s very different from the cloistered creativity students at some other institutions have come to expect. It means their work is alive and open to conversation with their surroundings, which is very exciting.”
-Andrew Gay, Director of the School of Arts & Communication and the Oregon Center for the Arts
2024 cohort (Cameron Daniel-Whiting, Carli Lamberto, Adam Garrett, Naia Duggan, and Mel Villarreal) at their safety briefing in December 2023.
Artworks are created to “…raise public awareness of environmental needs such as source reduction of waste, recycling and resource conservation.”
-RecologyAshland
The 2024 cohort of five student artists (Cameron Daniel-Whiting, Naia Duggan, Adam Garrett, Carli Lamberto, and Mel Villarreal) are just beginning this experience. In May and June, the artists will show their work in the Center for Visual Art galleries on campus as well as The Temporary – a new public sculpture garden on Siskiyou Blvd – and in the halls of former dormitories Suzy Two & Three, repurposed as an artist-run project space. For a sneak peak of what the artists are working on, check out the SOU Sculpture Instagram @sousculpture.
Discover how you can contribute to a more beautiful and sustainable future by supporting projects like this one. Dive into the world of sustainability at SOU’s Institute for Applied Sustainability webpage and the Sustainability Instagram @sustainability_sou and witness inspiring projects like the SOU Recology Ashland Artist-in-Residency program in action.
