2010
In January 2010, Betsy Damon and the project's apprentices began collaborating with a number of local organizations on a range of projects designed to illustrate how artists and citizens from a broad spectrum of disciplines can work together and significantly restore and remediate the local ecosystem.
FOS was a key partner working with the apprentices for an Earth Day project with EcoArt Treasure Coast. On Earch Day 2010 two floating islands were installed in the saltwater lagoon at the Florida Oceanographic Institute on Hutchinson Island.
The capstone exhibition of Treasure Coast EcoArtists Jesse Etelson, Gail Kosowski, Mary Segal, Brenda Leigh and Jamie Powell provide us in this exhibition with a hopeful vision. (Dec 2010-Jan 2011)
- They help us envision creative ways to address the destruction we are wreaking through thoughtlessness. They demonstrate that innovative, scientifically designed temporary bird habitat can encourage the survival and reproduction of our resident and visiting avian populations while natural areas are restored and expanded. (Aerial Architecture, Jesse Etelson)
- Community gardens can simultaneously provide nourishment for at risk urban populations in former "food deserts," while also conserving water and reducing heat island effect. (Gail Kosowski)
- Encouraging our elected officials to join the anti-plastic pollution movement by passing legislation to ban single use plastics can begin at this very exhibition with each visitor's pledge and signature. (Mary Segal and Brenda Leigh)
- Launching floating islands that provide habitat and food for marine life above and below the water can, along with other larger scale measures, help reduce pollution in the Indian River and St Lucie estuaries, and educate citizens at the same time. (Jamie Powell)
