MESSAGE was an educational and artistic project in which the community, especially youth, was activated towards environmental protection in an innovative and creative way, by collecting urban waste and transforming it into art pieces. It fostered an interventionist attitude, aroused the curiosity and interest of the entire community concerning good ecological practices and behaviors. The project strived to make people more responsible, wiser, and responsible consumers and active citizens.
MESSAGE was a project which made not only a visual impact but also spread information about environmental issues. It aimed to fight against social apathy and the lack of interest in climate change issues. Recognizing the vital role that these topics occupy in European society development and the whole world, this project made the community take responsibility by promoting a dynamic of participation in a collective movement to improve the environment and to disseminate new behaviors. It fostered an interventionist attitude, aroused the curiosity and interest of the people in good ecological practices and behavior. Creating this awareness was crucial to achieve sustainable development and decrease the negative impact of the human footprint on the environment. The project activities were contributing to the 2030 Agenda and SDGs and promoting sustainable lifestyles of citizens in general, while triggering positive changes in the community. The art installation took around a year to be completed. An active group of volunteers collected urban waste constantly. The locals were involved, being also part of the process and gaining as well environmental conscience. Other entities cooperated in the process too. After gathering waste materials, we started building the art pieces and transferring the skills to the least experienced people. During the construction, depending on the item we were using, we talked about its life cycle and its implications on the environment, human health, and economy. This way, we prepared the volunteers, who were helping in the construction of the art installations, to be ready to explain to the viewers what the objective of that specific installation and its meaning was. We transformed the streets of our city into art installations by using different kinds of urban waste. We implemented systematic activities for the community to build the capacity of using art, creative thinking, and solving environmental problems.
Please highlight how the project can be exemplary in this context
MESSAGE project while making street art installations of our city, also comprehended other environmental activities, using non-formal methods of education. Besides collecting trash, upcycling, and creating art from it, under the project during one year we were organizing seminars, movie discussions, street campaigns, eco marathons, and many other activities which had the purpose of activating citizens to be more environmentally friendly. The project activities contributed to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Its key objectives were:
- To mobilize people to work in teams, reinforcing the values of friendship, cooperation, responsibility, and mutual respect.
- To educate through non-formal methods for the conservation of the environment.
- Strengthening the skills of young people in social and civic areas.
- Enhance the acquisition of environmental knowledge, as well as the critical sense for situations of and active participation in environmental protection actions.
- To increase the knowledge level of the community in topics like global interdependencies (from environmental, cultural, economic, and political approach); SDG (Sustainable Development Goals); social and global justice; climate change; consumerism and sustainable lifestyle; sustainable development.
- To increase the level of sustainable lifestyles of citizens in general and trigger positive organizational changes.
- To build the capacity of innovative and creative thinking, using art and solving environmental problems.
Please highlight how the project can be exemplary in this context
MESSAGE project spread information not only for Madeira but to the world, due to being visually very impactful. Even now, when the project is finished, some of our art installations are still exhibited in the city, and many tourists come, take photos, and spread them around the globe. Our art installations surprised local and international visitors and made the community believe that their environmental and creative actions are visible and valuable. The whole process was planned and implemented with the sense to bring people from different backgrounds into the project, and this awoke their interest in sustainability issues. While the project had a serious topic, we managed to make people enjoy by doing, by seeing its benefits, and somehow it became missionary work, which had little actions day by day. As result, it became an example of how the community needs to work together for the same values, making a positive influence on their and other people's life. Creating art installations that were exhibited in the city, brought great satisfaction to people. Collection of the urban waste, up-cycling, and giving the used items a new life, transformed the city life's more beautiful and meaningful. The members of the community became more active and supportive citizens. With the side activities, we managed to have systematic and measurable results. The project engaged a lot of people into good ecological practices and behavior, created awareness to achieve sustainable development, and decreased the negative impact of human activity on the environment.
Please highlight how the project can be exemplary in this context
We are a non-profit association whose purpose is to organize cultural and educational activities for the benefit of the community’s development. Our objectives are to develop the social and personal competencies of children, youth, and adults through non-formal education principles. Because of the geographic location, Madeira island struggles a lot with fewer opportunities, there is a lack of participation and an indifferent attitude of people. This project made it possible to involve many people with different social and economic backgrounds. We used many kinds of non-formal methods to work with the community, which allowed us to reach many members of society. The project had a wide approach to improving the island´s reality. During the construction of these street art installations, by involving many people in different activities, we saw that the MESSAGE was an excellent opportunity to promote inclusion and active participation. Taking place in the project´s activities was free of charge. Everyone was invited to come and contribute the best way they could. In some specific activities, we also provided food and transportation so nobody stays behind for economic or geographical obstacles. It was possible to contribute to the project in different ways and in different stages wherever it is during implementation, dissemination, preparation, etc. People could contribute simply by collecting materials and bringing them to the association, by phone calls to call asking friends, family, or someone else who could collect the urban waste. This project was also international, as during the year we received international volunteers who came to help in our activities. This way we also gave space for intercultural dialogue, which is a key pillar for inclusion.
Please highlight how this approach can be exemplary
The project has contributed to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Under the project we mobilized people to work in teams, reinforcing the values of friendship, cooperation, responsibility, and mutual respect. The project´s activities were at the same time interactive and creative and connected to SDG, social and global justice, climate change, consumerism, and sustainable lifestyle. The global impact of this initiative had enabled an interventionist attitude in the youth of our locality, fostering their “Green Footprint”. Our project was a pioneer in the region, it united the art, environment, and active participation. One of the great things about this project is that it gave inspiration to other organizations to start reusing waste and to be more responsible consumers. Our project had serious topics, but its implementing conditions were created for the occupation leisure time, diverting people from less healthy ways, involving them in a creative and interactive process. Then these people spread the knowledge among their families, peers, and colleagues, that’s why many new people are coming to our organization, we are growing and making individual and collective change. The project had a great mission - to make people active and aware of the issues concerning environmental sustainability, not only on the island but in the world. By strong partnerships, the project was spreading around the world. It brought great visibility to our city and Island, made everyone surprised with its creativity and innovation. We believe it influenced positively the lives of many people on the local, national, and international levels.
Our project was based in Madeira Island – Portugal, but our works got recognition not only locally but also abroad. The international community acknowledged us as an example, and we keep being invited to be present in various seminars, webinars, or other events connected with the circular economy, green transition, and other green topics. We made videos and photos of our art installations, which were spread around the world by tourists, international volunteers, and locals attracting thousands of viewers. The global impact of this initiative had enabled an interventionist attitude in the youth of our locality, fostering their behavior. Our project surprised thousands of people and our community's behaviors and attitudes had positively changed. In this project, we managed to involve around 200 local and international volunteers directly in the creative process, many other people came to visit our association, experiment, and participate in our environmental educational activities which aimed to reinforce the message of the art installations and environment. With systematic activities: creative workshops, movie discussions, street campaigns, and eco-marathons we had reached more than 5000 people directly. We had contributed to reducing the amount of waste that is incorrectly disposed of and the project increased recycling rates.
Here are the video and photo link of the Project MESSAGE: https://bit.ly/3pGhi85 https://bit.ly/3hYLt5L, we collected 30 barrels, 200 soap bottles, 150 coffee containers, and 200 Pinwheels, the project had increased the level of knowledge from the community in topics of climate change, consumerism, and sustainable lifestyle and had given many opportunities to the people to feel their actions could influence their life, community, and the future of our planet.
Please also explain the benefits that derived from their involvement.
MESSAGE was essentially a community project. During it, we cooperated with local bars, schools, restaurants, hotels, City Hall, public and private entities and created the common sense of taking care of our island and the planet. The community was committed to the process of making individual or collective change. When we were collecting urban waste, firstly people didn’t understand what we were doing and we felt some resistance, but little by little, they started helping in collecting the trash and also with side activities, their awareness was growing and we were seeing how their attitude was changing positively. With this project, we changed communities' minds and they learned with us how to reuse materials and give a new life, now they are more aware that their action can have a direct influence on our planet and become more active citizens of civil society. People are curious to see what will be the next project and activities in which they can give their hands and support as much as they can. More people are sensitized to our cause and people involved in the process also teach others what they learned during the process and spread the knowledge among their families, peers, and colleagues. As we involved many young people, conditions were created for the occupation of youth leisure time, diverting them from less healthy ways, such as drug addiction and delinquency, which also benefits the community in the sense that diminishes the numbers of small thefts, mendicancy, etc.
The understanding and awareness level of the 2030 Agenda remains low among the population, according to the Global Survey on Sustainability and the SDGs, which makes governments accountable much more difficult. The project idea was to create something new, from the trash, which would make people think about the global problems, and also would make them reflect and act about the issue accordingly at the local level. While creating visually impactful art installations, the whole process of systematic activities strived to make people more responsible, wiser, and sustainable consumers as well as active citizens.
The project addressed environmental issues in an innovative and creative way and connected the local and international community. It involved many people, as everyone was invited to come and contribute the best way they could. In some specific events, as we already mentioned before, we provided food and transportation, so nobody stayed behind for economic or geographical obstacles.
The project aimed to fight social apathy and the lack of active participation, therefore public, governmental, and private entities were collaborating with us. As a result of this, our organization became an important voice. Our project gave inspiration to the government and other organizations to start reusing urban waste, making art installations from trash became an innovative way to connect the local and international community, raise awareness about social inclusion and help people to improve their artistic, creative skills, and to become active participants in society with a wide range of its side activities: creative workshops, movie discussions, street campaigns, eco-marathons. By carrying out this project, we believe that the community became more aware of their role as global citizens and understood the global impact of their actions. Somehow we can say that the MESSAGE was received and understood.
Reusing and upcycling garbage was not really a new idea. But the whole process and its systematic activities were innovative. Also the context, we live in, Madeira island, initiatives of this kind are exceedingly rare and uncommon. For many people, the project´s events from the beginning were something new and out of the box. It made them think about environmental problems, awaked their creativity, and changed their behaviors towards the environment at the same time. Despite the concept not being new, projects art installations were unique in the world and nowhere to be found. The constructions were made over several months, by local volunteers and sporadically international ones.
Our project was also innovative in the sense that given the scarcity of opportunities that we face for being from an ultra-peripheric region and associated with few resources. We managed to create these big artworks by engaging different people and actors from civil society. At the same time, we educated them on environmental issues, sustainable development and gave them possibilities to develop a set of skills that would increase their future opportunities. Our project involved the community, as many people contributed to the art installation's construction, others participated in the side activities and even those who did not participate directly took the part in the process as spectators.
Please provide clear documentation, communication of methodology and principles in this context.
Our project was based on the concept which can be replicated and done everywhere, according to the author’s creativity. Public institutions, schools, NGOs, and other entities of interest for the civil society, environment, and creativity, can easily start, step by step, creating projects which involve collecting garbage and transforming it into art pieces or other items, giving a new life to it, instead of throwing it away. The side activities of the project can be done everywhere with community engagement and activation. The MESSAGE street art installations were massive and unique but, perfectly transferable if there will be the will to do it.
We had a main team of people, who became specialized in doing the artistic items from the trash. It can be possible to train a special group of multipliers that can transfer their skills to other people and this way enlarge the impact of this project in other regions and countries. As we worked in partnership with many other organizations across Europe and African countries, we were receiving many volunteers from other countries who learned with us the techniques and how to create their own projects. After their returned to their home countries, they conducted local workshops for their communities to maximize their learning outcomes and transfer their knowledge to others. Their participation in the project had given us an idea of making it global, by searching for international funds that could make us go abroad and teach other people how they can use art to create environmental awareness and at the same time promote social inclusion, active participation, and green thinking. For this reason, we believe our project had already influenced the lives of many people. Our international partners are inspired to replicate it in their counties. We keep being invited abroad to make art workshops, and to share our experiences in the field of art and environment.
@Teatro Metaphora - Associação de Amigos das Artes, 2021
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