A call to artists is going out for GLEAN, an art and education program that promotes new ways of thinking about conserving resources, art and the environment. The deadline for applications is Thursday, Jan. 31, 2013.
Five artists from the Portland metropolitan area will be selected by a jury to each receive a $2,000 stipend and scavenging privileges to discarded materials dropped off at Metro Central Transfer Station in Northwest Portland. A public showing and sale of the artwork is scheduled for August 2013 at a local art gallery.
For a place that markets itself on its environmental ethos and sustainable living practices, the area’s best kept eco secret may be that residents and businesses here still send more than 2.1 million tons of garbage and recyclables to landfills every year. GLEAN was launched three years ago to highlight the issue of excessive waste generation and show people artistic ways to transform trash. The program is a collaboration of Metro, the tri-county government that guides the region’s garbage and recycling systems and works to reduce waste, Recology, an employee-owned company that manages resource recovery facilities and Metro’s Central garbage and recycling transfer station, and crackedpots, a local environmental arts nonprofit organization,