Portland Museum of Art announces winners in first sustainability art prize — Portland Museum of Art

The Portland Museum of Artwork on Friday declared 6 winners of the new Tidal Change Award, designed to figure out teens and young grownups exploring climate improve as a result of their artwork.

About 70 artists from all over New England submitted operates, which include sculpture, illustration, vogue design and style, metalsmithing and tunes, the museum mentioned. 4 of the six winners are from Maine. In addition to staying regarded by the museum for their work, the winners in the 19-22 age group each and every get a $5,000 cash prize, while the winners in the 14-18 age division get $2,500.

The awards ended up established as a collaboration amongst the museum and The Climate Initiative, a Kennebunkport-based mostly business targeted on educating and empowering youth as they work toward local climate change options. In describing the award on the PMA’s web page, the two organizations reported they “believe art’s means to encourage social modify can be harnessed to battle weather adjust.”

Winners in the youthful age category involved Ellie Bouman of Freeport, Benjamin Pochurek of Freeport and Hannah Slone of Kennebunkport. Bouman’s do the job, “The Colorless Sea,” is a watercolor and pencil depiction of an underwater scene without having colorful coral reefs. The only colour to be identified on the ocean ground in the work is from a e-book that has been missing at sea.

“The information of this piece is that if drastic motion is not taken promptly, most coral reefs will die off and wholesome, vibrant corals will only be uncovered in books and photographs,” Bouman wrote in the artist’s assertion. “The e-book also signifies schooling, simply because men and women are most very likely to consider motion in opposition to weather adjust if they are educated on the topic.”

Pochurek’s get the job done, “Flora Lung,” is a sculpture of a loan determine sitting down in some upcoming wasteland sporting elaborate equipment developed to enable folks endure in a earth with no trees and no fresh air. Resources contain oak, cedar, pine, metallic, washers, bolts, wire, plastic tubing, air vegetation and rocks.

“My sculpture is motivated by early diving gear, ‘Aqua Lung.’ Just as individuals developed technological innovation to survive underwater, this futurist figure has been forced to invent new know-how, Flora Lung to endure on land,” Pochurek wrote about the perform.

Slone’s perform, “A Gown Created from Waste,” is a dress manufactured from plastic transport and storage resources above one particular month at the store the place Slone worked. The skirt of the dress is manufactured of plastic held jointly with grommets and sashes. By pulling the sash, the packing elements tumble from the dress, “littering the flooring with plastic,” Slone wrote.

The winners in the more mature division were Katherine Concannon of Middlebury, Vermont, for a sculpture called  “What We Remaining Behind” Carolina Bragg of Brookline, Massachusetts, for a recorded piece of tunes termed “If Bees Are Few” and Nicky Howard Rogers of Yarmouth for a living display of ecosystems named “Microcosms.”

All of the artwork get the job done submitted for the awards can be noticed on the net at tidalshiftaward.com.