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Integrating arts with sustainability

The Mount Alexander community is working towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions by five per cent by 2010. Council's Arts and Sustainable Development Units, in partnership with Arts Victoria, have developed 'Footprints', a project encouraging people to consider their daily actions and impact on the natural environment. Rather than using statistics and figures, 'Footprints' uses art as a communication medium.

Mount Alexander's Environment Officer, John Anthony, said five art pieces with the theme of ecological footprints will be commissioned and exhibited in a roving exhibition across the Shire from September onwards.

"An ecological footprint is a quantitative way to determine the space (in hectares) that an individual, household or business requires to sustain their normal daily activities," he said. "The calculator used by the Environment Protection Authority (EPA) shows the number of planets required to sustain the population if everyone had the same ecological footprint.

"Victoria's ecological footprint is currently the second highest in the world, requiring six hectares per household to be sustainable. This would mean we need four earth planets to sustain the population if we continue living the way we do."

Arts Officer, Tara Gilbee, said many local artists are interested in the bigger concepts at play.

"Art is increasingly being integrated into other departments," she said. "It communicates the strong understanding of a broad scope that artists have."

Artist, Julie Millowick, has created the first art work, which will go on display on National Tree Planting Day.

Her piece, 'Botanical Footprints', comprises numerous banners attached to garden stakes. Each banner consists of two images, a panorama of a plant in its environment and a photogram or cyanotype of that same plant.

Julie's work includes images of plants established in gold rush era gardens with good intentions, but which have now escaped the confines of the domestic garden and have become environmental weeds.

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