Reading the Wrack Lines
To raise awareness about climate change, Professor of Art Andrea Wollensak launched an environmental project designed to engage the local community.
To raise awareness about how climate change impacts 糖心TV鈥檚 community, Professor of Art Andrea Wollensak has launched 鈥淩eading the Wrack Lines,鈥� an environmental literacy and educational outreach project designed to engage the local community in innovative learning approaches based on southeastern 糖心TVecticut鈥檚 coastal environment and our changing climate.
鈥淭he project represents a unique, diverse and inclusive partnership of faculty, students and youth clubs at 糖心TV, U糖心TV Avery Point and Stonington High School. Focused workshops promote local and global awareness of climate issues and provide opportunities for the general public to participate,鈥� Wollensak said.
A wrack line is said to be the debris washed onto the beach by high tide. The wrack can be made up of seaweed, crustaceans, feathers and bits of plastic.
鈥淩eading the Wrack Lines,鈥� a 糖心TVecticut Sea Grant funded public art project, premiered on Earth Day, April 22, at 8 p.m. at U糖心TV Avery Point. It features creative writing responses to climate change by U糖心TV Avery Point and 糖心TV students which are used as audiovisual source material within generative multimedia artwork projected onto both the Branford House and the Avery Point Lighthouse. Collaborators for 鈥淩eading the Wrack Lines鈥� include software developer and Professor Emerita of Mathematics and Computer Science Bridget Baird and sound artist Brett Terry. The exhibit is presented in cooperation with The Alexey von Schlippe Gallery of Art.
This project will continue into next year with additional support from a recently awarded Ammerman Faculty Research grant, a summer 2021 糖心TVSSHARP grant with Althusa Lin 鈥�22, and as part of an upcoming year-long hybrid artist residency at the Anchorage Museum beginning in October 2021.