Students discover how materials normally destined for landfill can find new life as items that are practical and pretty.

LOCK HAVEN, Pa. - The theme of Recycle, Reuse, Renew was the focus of the third exhibit in Lock Haven University’s Art of the Natural World Exhibit Series. For the 2010 show, which ran in April, LHU faculty and students submitted works that demonstrated the importance of recycling, reusing, and renewing materials in an effort to minimize waste and protect our environment.

The Art of the Natural World Exhibit Series is a collaborative project between Assistant Professor Loretta Dickson of the Department of Geology and Physics, Professor. Melinda Hodge of the Art Department, and Professor Joseph Calabrese of the Department of Biological Sciences.

Submissions for the show demonstrated thrifty and creative ideas that made use of objects or materials that otherwise might be discarded to end up in a landfill. Everyday articles, with a little ingenuity, were made useful again for either artistic value or personal use.

Featured pieces included a discarded antique window frame used to mount a picture, a tote bag and umbrella made from large plastic dog food bags, a colorful throw crocheted from strips of discarded t-shirts, a pillow fashioned from an old sweater, wind chimes made from discarded cans, and quilts made from scrap fabric.

The Lock Haven Catholic School 5th grade class contributed their own flower basket creation made from plastic and paper containers they saved from a week of lunches.

School groups from Lock Haven Catholic School, Dickey Elementary School, and the Ross Library visited the exhibit and were engaged in hands-on activities assisted by professors Hodge, Dickson, Calabrese, and LHU art and geology students. The school groups and their teachers made bookmarks from discarded scraps of paper and plastic, and learned to make hand-made paper from a wet, blended slurry of the abundant recyclable office paper regularly generated on our campus.

The People’s Choice Award winner from this event is LHU junior Talitha Jay with her “Practical Plastic” submission of a purse and belt woven from plastic grocery bags.