#artasaction

Positivity, optimism and action can bring us together to help put a stop to unnecessary gun violence. March for our lives. On the road to a more peaceful world.

It’s time to put an end to gun violence. If you stand with the students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and the 30,000 people killed by guns every year, we’re asking you to turn out for the March For Our Lives.

Find a march in your community

Sign the petition to end gun violence

In an effort to draw attention to an environmentally harmful farm practice, artists recently built three straw sculptures in a Chongming County field in Shanghai, China. 

Hang tight, surfer friends. The future of your ocean adventures is at stake. 

The photo series, “Hazmat Surfing,” by Dyrland Productions draws attention to what the future of surfing could like if we continue to pollute oceans recklessly. 

Washington-based Michael Dyrland created the series in reaction to polluted Southern Californian waters he encountered during a 2015 visit. Rather than ride the waves, Dyrland was confined beachside after a rain storm filled the ocean before him with billions of tons of urban toxic runoff.   

As most California beach-goers know, it’s best to stay out of the water for 72 hours post-heavy rains because storm drains from city streets carry untreated debris, chemicals, animal feces, and general city crud straight to the sea. People exposed to these contaminated waters can develop sicknesses from flu-like fevers and aches, to ear, eye, nasal, and skin infections. Some surfers with prolonged exposure to tainted waters have even contracted staph infections, respiratory illnesses, MRSA, and Hepatitis C.

Unfortunately, untreated urban runoff is only one source of ocean pollution, and humans aren’t the only ones at risk. Sea life is threatened by everything from millions of tons of plastic to deadly underwater noise pollution to acidification from our warming climate. We can’t always see how we’re contaminating their marine habitats, but we can help protect the place animals call home and that we sometimes call one tubular ride. 

 Help NRDC be an ocean defender.  

It’s a known fact we all live with - as a teaching artist, you’re always a house guest, working in someone else’s kitchen.  But, there are cases when you have the chance to teach in your own CLASSROOM ART STUDIO.  Marc Boone, after 10+ years as a teaching artist, is now ensconced in his PS 51 Art Studio.  Thank you Princpal Hong!  This is going to be a banner year of art-making and creating for the young artists at PS 51.  Below see the way the class starts...