Artists showcase recycled materials at Eckerd College

From paintings to crocheted plastic, students, alumni and other members of the St. Petersburg community brought their passions for art and the planet together. Eckerd President Jim Annarelli, Ph.D., was celebrating his 70th birthday that day, and 35 years at Eckerd, as he explained at the start of the event.

“It’s a wonderful educational tool to help raise the consciousness of our community about the importance of the pledge to avoid single-use plastics,” he said about the art contest’s impetus.

For most of the event, students, faculty and Annarelli explored the artwork—learning about the meaning and inspiration behind each piece from the artists themselves.

Yarrow Bercovici-biotti, an Eckerd junior environmental studies student from Ashburnham, Massachusetts, had originally made reduce, reuse, reef-cycle, featuring a coral reef and parrotfish, for her Performance in the Environment class last semester. The class had been assigned to make a prop and learn about reducing waste and being environmentally aware.

Eckerd President Jim Annarelli enjoys hearing student contestants explain their artwork.

“I wanted to reuse it even further by adding it to my art piece for this contest,” she said. So she gave him “a home” with the reef made of plastic bottles, cardboard, pipe cleaners and other materials.

Yarrow is inspired by the ocean and marine life, and saw a parrotfish during Winter Term last year while scuba diving in Roatán, Honduras.

“I just thought that they’re really funny looking and colorful, so I thought it would be a great subject for something like this, especially with how much plastic is in the ocean. I think it’s important for art to be used for awareness for that,” she explained.

Rachel Smith, a senior marine science student from Waverly, New York, exhibited a piece that explored plastic in our oceans and overfishing. Overall, she said—pointing to the 45 fish and a frame of crocheted and braided plastic bags—her artwork is about overconsumption.

First-year student Megan Hitchcock explains her piece to a crowd of event attendees.

Because the chain of bags that formed the frame was so long, she had to tape it to the top of her dorm-room door so she could braid them.

“That was a really funny moment where I was like, ‘What in my life has led me to this moment of braiding plastic bags together?’” she said.

After everyone mingled, learned about the entered artwork and enjoyed the food, winners were announced. Five $100 prizes were offered for various categories, and one award was the People’s Choice, which attendees voted for by scanning a QR code and selecting their favorite piece.

This event gave many students both a way to repurpose items that would otherwise be tossed and a creative outlet to express their environmental interests.

The show, Annarelli said, “allows us to celebrate the artistic talent of members of the Eckerd community whose creativity, whose vision and imaginativeness are on display.”

In Our Hands, a sculpture by Clearwater High School student Jayden Carabello, was one of several pieces displayed from the Winter Term Art & Climate collaboration with the Gulf Scholars Program.