Mary Lacy with her finished container mural, "It Takes a Village" | Photo by Michael Sipe
Vermont Business Magazine The Chittenden Solid Waste District (CSWD), with a grant from Dealer.com, has launched a first-of-its-kind project fusing art and recycling. Local artists were invited to paint murals on eight of CSWD's 22-foot-long recycling containers in order to create a more beautiful, engaging recycling experience while drawing attention to the community's efforts to reduce waste. The project began in early January 2016 and is expected to be completed in mid-March.
This fusion of art and recycling creates containers that are fully functional, highly interactive, mobile works of art. Rotating between 5 of CSWD's Drop-Off Centers (Burlington, Williston, Essex, Milton, and Richmond), the containers are used to collect recyclables from the public.
Jonny Finity, one of the project organizers at CSWD, said, "This was a natural collaboration between a municipal mission and artistic vision. We are transforming CSWD's enormous recycling containers into giant, functional, mobile canvases. As traveling murals, these containers help bring attention to the often invisible process of recycling. The colorful, artistic displays will give people in the community a better appreciation for the impact and importance of reducing waste."
The containers will travel from Drop-Off Centers, where many residents and businesses bring their recycling, to CSWD's Materials Recovery Facility (MRF), where the recyclable contents are sorted, baled, and shipped out to be made into new products. In this way, the project aims to 'change the face of recycling', highlighting the impact of community recycling efforts.
The project was funded by a grant from Dealer.com, which has a strong history of investment in community initiatives, particularly involving local art. Jill Badolato, the Director of Corporate Social Responsibility at Dealer.com, said, "Dealer.com and CSWD have a shared vision when it comes to community collaboration and protecting the environment. We want to promote deeper engagement among the community to minimize impact on our environment and reduce and reuse where we can. By injecting art into the project we are creating an entirely new level of awareness and involvement."
Dealer.com is headquartered in a Gold LEED Certified building, which has the largest private installation of solar panels in Burlington. The company hosts a yearly public e-waste day (which has collected over 12 tons of e-waste), has a rooftop edible garden, requires composting and recycling of its employees, and has a partnership with CCTA providing every employee with a fully subsidized mass transit pass to help reduce its carbon footprint.
Anthill Collective with their finished container mural, "Reimagine"| Photo by Michael Sipe
To help support CSWD's mission to reuse materials whenever possible, the project organizers and artists set a goal of using at least 25 percent reclaimed resources in the creation of the murals. Much of the paint used in the project came from CSWD's Local Color recycled paint program, which collects and recycles leftover paint dropped off by residents and businesses at the CSWD Environmental Depot in South Burlington.
Tom Moreau, General Manager of CSWD, stated, "This is such a great example of local government, private industry, and artists coming together to create something really meaningful. I couldn't be happier about this."
Artist Mary Lacy, one of the organizers of the project, selected a group of street artists who have an established track record of completing murals of this scale and scope. Each artist was chosen to bring a unique style, giving the project a diverse mural collection as a whole.
"This project was a perfect opportunity to bring the local street art community together," said Lacy. "From traditional graffiti artists to fine art mural painting, from abstract to realism, from long-time Vermont natives to relative newcomers, these murals help to celebrate, and inspire further, our community's public art scene as a whole."
Jeff Hodgdon with his finished container, "Order & Chaos" | Photo by Michael Sipe
Chittenden Solid Waste District (CSWD)
The mission of CSWD is to use economically and environmentally sound methods to reduce and manage solid waste in Chittenden County. To that end, CSWD owns and operates a number of facilities around the county to manage our community's waste, including 7 Drop-Off Centers, the Environmental Depot, Green Mountain Compost, and the Materials Recovery Facility (operated by Casella). Over the last 28 years Chittenden County has become a national model for waste reduction and recycling efforts. For more information, please visit www.cswd.net.
Dealer.com
Dealer.com provides an integrated platform of Advertising, Website and Managed Services products which allow OEMs, dealer groups, retailers and agencies to leverage advanced digital technology and data to better engage and connect with their customers. The company practices a deep commitment to its culture of innovation, with a focus on health and wellness, making it one of the most desirable places to work, and a valuable partner for automotive retailers. Dealer.com is a part of Cox Automotive. For more information, please visit www.coxautoinc.com.
Artist Bios
Mary Lacy
Mary Lacy, 25, grew up in Jericho, Vermont. After living in New York City for five years, she came back to pursue a career in art in 2014. She is devoted to public art and the greater Burlington community. Her recent works include a residency at the Moran plant, American Flatbread's ruby-throated hummingbird downtown, and the Dealer.com silos.
@mary_lacy | #marylacy
Anthill Collective
Anthill Collective weighs in at a combined 1597 pounds. Their work, painted almost exclusively with aerosol, is often edgy, always vibrant and regularly raises the question, "Did you do this all with spray paint?" Their early efforts were with the team from Arts Riot, destroying apathy in the heart of the South End Arts District. Since then, the collective has worked collaboratively with Magic Hat, the Seven Days, SEABA, Big Heavy World, Long Trail Brewing, Vermont International Film Festival, and many more. The Anthill paint canvases, food trucks, demolition derby cars, walls, rain barrels, mannequins, tanks or anything else that sits still long enough.
@anthillcollective | #anthillcollective
Jeff Hodgdon
Jeff Hodgdon was born in Portland, ME, but has lived, traveled, and created art around the country. While living in Austin, TX, he helped to establish a street art group known as No Boundaries Krew, whose artwork has been featured in a number of gallery shows, as well as on public walls and hundreds of train cars around the United States. Though his study of culinary arts forced him to put aside his paint cans for a while, his move to Burlington, VT in early 2015 reignited his desire to create public art. He loves to collaborate with passionate artists while also exploring his love of food. Jeff is the chef at Revolution Kitchen.
#chefjeffbtv
Sloan Collins
Sloan Collins, 26, is originally from Sarasota, Florida. After moving to Los Angeles in 2009, he developed a passion for the stencil art form, and for the past four years has been painting commissioned murals in the LA area. Since moving to Burlington in 2015, Sloan has participated in local art events such as Art Hop and Magic Hat's Wall to Canvas. He works at Sarah Holbrook Community Center.
#sloancollins
Sarah-Lee Terrat
Sarah-Lee Terrat is a professional artist in Waterbury, Vermont. For over thirty years she has created original environmental pieces and selected art collections for corporations, community and travel organizations, healthcare facilities, restaurants, and hotels. In 2015 Sarah-Lee received an Arts in Public Buildings Grant from Vermont Arts Council for a mural project in the Vermont State Office Complex. In 2001 she was chosen to design the Vermont State Quarter, part of a series of national state coin series. She is the owner of YeloDog Design, specializing in illustration, original murals, pet toy design, environmental design, and color consultation. She also teaches visual art classes and residencies.
#sarahleeterrat
Abby Manock
Abby Manock is an artist and visual designer working across mediums in sculpture, drawing, video, interactive performative events, large scale mural painting and set design/fabrication. Both her studio practice and visual design work are rooted in a love for physical and conceptual involvement with materials and all aspects of the process of making. Her work has been exhibited in select institutions and festivals across the US and internationally. Abby received her MFA from Columbia University in 2007 where she is currently an adjunct drawing professor. Abby grew up in Burlington, Vermont and currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.
@abbyabbyabbyabbyabbyabby | #abbyabby
Max Hodgson
Max is currently living in Brooklyn pursuing a career in music and painting but travels back to his hometown of Burlington as often as he can. Through the years his art has come out in various forms. These days he's focusing on working at a larger scale. "It's been an incredibly addicting challenge to create bigger pieces, and the satisfaction of stepping back from a finished wall is fantastic" Max plans to keep adding color to Burlington for years to come.
#maxhodgson
Wylie Garcia and Clark Derbes
Wylie Sofia Garcia was born and raised in Houston, Texas and resides in Burlington, Vermont. Her work is influenced by the rich surfaces of historic textile design and responds to her established practice in installation and performance art. Garcia's ink drawings investigate sensual abstract topographies and are imbued with her signature staccato mark making.They are a continuation of the artist's preoccupation with concepts of place, time, and feminine materiality.
Garcia received her undergraduate degree from The University of Chicago and her MFA from Massachusetts College of Art and Design at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, MA. Her work has been exhibited in museums and institutions across the United States. She has been the recipient of a Sustainable Arts Foundation Fellowship, a St. Botolph Club Foundation Fellowship, and a Vermont Arts Council Creation Grant.
@wyliegarcia | #wyliesofiagarcia
Clark Derbes, multimedia artist, was born in New Orleans, LA and received his B.F.A. at Louisiana State University. He has been featured in solo exhibitions locally as well as nationally in Massachusetts, New York, Texas, Vermont, Rhode Island and Washington. He has been featured in the Boston Globe, Art New England, Country Roads, The Advocate, New Orleans Defender and Art Map Burlington. Derbes has also collaborated to develop public art in Baton Rouge, including the first mural commissioned by The Walls Project.
@clarkderbes | #clarkderbes
For more information about The Art of Recycling, visit www.cswd.net/art.
For photos of the project as it unfolds, visit www.facebook.com/artofrecyclingvt.