Ephemeral Arts Festival creation, 2019 (Photo by Martin Benzinger '19)
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The Ephemeral Arts Festival allows students and faculty to make and appreciate art made entirely from nature, from arrangements created with the fallen red and orange leaves of fall to moss-covered sticks transformed into sculpture. Each creation is preserved with a photograph.
The annual ephemeral arts exhibit showcasing the work through photographs opens on Oct. 17 at Crickets coffee shop, 53 Main St., Geneseo, from 7 to 9 p.m. It's free and open to the public.
The festival and exhibit is part of Campus Sustainability Month at Geneseo, which includes discussions, activities and events that spark discussion and promote personal involvement. Campus Sustainability Month is an international celebration of sustainability in higher education, organized by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE).
Many activities are organized by students, and focus on environmental, economic and social sustainability, and include zero waste cooking classes in residence halls, film screenings, a residence hall composting competition and a poetry reading.
On Oct. 9, Sherri A. Mason, professor of chemistry at Penn State Behrend, presented a lecture, "The Perils of Plastics." Mason researches plastic microbead and microfiber pollution in the Great Lakes, demonstrating how microplastics contaminate the human food chain, including bottled water, sea salt and beer. She also led a plastics walk, in which participants picked up discarded plastics and learned about how on-campus actions affect the environment. Winona LaDuke, co-founder of Honor the Earth and an economist and activist for environmental justice, delivered the President's Annual Sustainability Lecture on Oct. 2.
Find out more about Campus Sustainability Month activities and view the calendar of events.