Arlene Barnett and Shirley Pace are in the storage area of Arts Fort Worth looking through bags of empty plastic water bottles. It's a good start for an upcoming trash-to-treasure project but it is nowhere near enough.
"We have to have 20,000 water bottles for the 30-foot giant," Pace said.
The 30-foot giant is a sculpture that will be made entirely of 20,000 empty plastic water bottles with the help of New Jersey-based artist Willie Cole.
"He makes fabulous creative explosion experiences out of trash," said Barnett who along with Pace invited Cole to come to Fort Worth to share his concept of "artcycling" with students and help them transform plastic bottles into a giant work of art.
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"Artcycling is a phrase that's been coined by our artist and it is taking trash and transforming it into art," Barnett said.
Barnett and Pace co-founded the Tarrant County Education Foundation. The nonprofit promotes its scholarship mission through the arts. It collaborates with artists to execute art-oriented experiences that engage, inspire, and empower youth to reimagine their futures and get access to scholarship information.
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The women see the Giant Water Bottle Sculpture project as a path to make that connection.
Students from Fort Worth and Crowley ISDs will create a giant sculpture out of 20,000, 16.9 oz. water bottles. The STEM-focused, hands-on art and education project will raise environmental awareness, inspire innovation and creativity, and provide opportunities for students to learn about careers, college, and scholarships.
The first phase is collecting thousands of 16.9-ounce empty bottles with caps. The effort started on Sept. 1 and with a deadline of Oct. 20, the ladies could use some help.
"We'd like the community to join this project and help our kids collect these 20,000 water bottles. So, if you have water bottles or even if you want to bring us a case of water that we can take to schools they can drink the water, then we could collect the bottles. So, there's two ways that you can help," Barnett said.
A community-wide bottle drop-off event was held Saturday in Fort Worth.
The Giant Water Bottle Sculpture will make its debut in March 2024 but Barnett and Pace hope students experience a more lasting impact.
"We want to help them to understand that they have a personal responsibility in their own carbon footprint and how they can manage that. That's number one. And, two, we want to expose them to environmental careers," Barnett said.
