Students at ACS Athen's Elementary School have been working to create a more sustainable art class through the continued study and practice of reducing, reusing and recycling. This emphasis on creating an environmentally friendly art room often goes hand in hand with the work of many artists who create masterpieces using recycled materials, or with environmentalist concepts in mind.
This has been done by tracking how much paper and plastic waste we create during art lessons. Then, classes create a plan to reduce the waste, as well as come up with future projects that will allow us to reuse materials in new artworks. Thus far, students have made recycled paper using old, unwanted artwork and papers. We have also created a large scale mural using plastic bottle caps. This idea came about after students researched the work of artist El Anatsui who creates large scale recycled "tapestries" to represent community.
