Paint It Green: Action Plan for Eco-friendly Art Supplies

By Tracy Empson and Kate Catlin

INTRODUCTION
According to the U.S. Department of Education, the arts are essential to every child's education . But can we make arts education earth friendly? Can a purple crayon really be green? The answer is Yes! In fact, there is a whole rainbow of green art supplies available to help students create artwork thats pleasing to the eye and to the environment. Though artistic endeavors can involve as many toxic chemicals as a chemistry experiment, students and teachers are often unaware of the hazards these materials pose to their own health and the health of the earth. Many art supplies used in the classroom contain persistent, bioaccumulative, toxic chemicals 2 (PBTs), or can generate or release PBTs into the environment when they are made, used, or discarded . PBTs persist in the environment and accumulate in tissue, increasing in concentration as they move 3 through the food chain, posing a risk to human health and ecosystems . Exposure to dangerous chemicals in art supplies can cause acute or chronic illness in children such as: 4 headaches, breathing problems, nausea, burns, lung and kidney damage, and even cancer . The adverse effects of childhood exposure to toxic materials are compounded by childrens smaller size, immature organ and immune systems, and higher metabolic rates. These factors lower childrens tolerance for 5 exposure to hazardous materials . Reasons to Use Green Art Supplies: Benefits for the Environment: o Using non-toxic art supplies reduces the amount of harmful chemicals and toxins that end up in the environment. o Creating artwork on recycled paper reduces the number of trees that are cut down to make virgin paper, saving forests and the creatures that call them home. o Reusing old materials saves water and energy that would have been used in the production of new materials. o Incorporating recycled materials into your art projects reduces the amount of waste that ends up in landfills. Benefits for Your School: o `Using non-toxic art supplies makes art education safer for students and teachers. o Incorporating recycled materials into your art projects reduces the amount of new materials your school needs to purchase for art education programs, saving the school money. o Reusing old materials also stimulates creativity, teaching students to look for new uses for old things. o Making your own eco-friendly art supplies can be incorporated into art or science curriculum.
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HOW TO START YOUR CAMPAIGN

Have a Clear, Written Goal Goals will provide direction and focus to your group. They will keep you and everyone you work with on track, while providing a way to measure how successful you have been. Choose one from the suggestions below, or write your own. Ban all toxic art supplies: Get the ACMI Seal of approval on all art supplies used in your school. Attain a written pledge from your Principal or the head of the art department so its institutionalized. Opt for 100% post-consumer recycled paper: Your masterpiece will look just as good on recycled paper as it would on virgin paper. So when teachers search for that perfect sketchbook, make sure its made from 100% post-consumer recycled paper. Or, if thats not your style, try paper made from hemp, a fast growing alternative to trees. Choose sustainable products made from natural or recycled ingredients: Did you know that 1 traditional crayons are made from paraffin wax, a petroleum by-product ? Though these crayons are not technically toxic, petroleum is a non-renewable resource. A more eco-friendly choice would be crayons made from soy bean oil. Soy crayons are biodegradable and are made from 2 soy beans, a sustainable and renewable resource . When you pull out that 100% post-consumer recycled sketchbook, make sure your pencil is earth friendly too. Look for pencils made from sustainably harvested wood and recycled newspapers - not dying forests. Before you buy traditional art materials, do your research and find out if theres a greener option. Incorporate recycled materials into your artwork: Why not try a trash-to-treasure art project? Instead of using new materials for your next art project, use things you might normally throw away. Dont know what to do with those old newspapers and magazines? Use them to make some beautiful paper beads. Got milk cartons? With a little creativity, you could have a birdhouse that will have the birds singing. Lose another sock in the laundry? Turn its lonely partner into friendly sock puppet. The possibilities are endless! Make your own eco-friendly art supplies: If you cant find the green art supplies youre looking for, ask teachers to help you make your own! Cant find recycled paper? Use scrap paper, newspapers, and magazines to make your own paper. Want to get your hands dirty but cant find eco-friendly finger paints? You can make your own non-toxic finger paints from cornstarch, flour, or even pudding! Brushing up on your water-color skills is easy with earth friendly homemade water colors. You can be just as creative making your art supplies as you can using them!

Key Messages You need key messages for your campaign these will clearly state the problem and a solution to everyone you talk to. Choose two to five that will be understandable to your peers and administrators. Be sure that everyone working on your campaign understands the key messages and is prepared to repeat them. Here are a few suggestions: Toxic art supplies affect the health and safety of students and teachers. These toxins end up back in our environment, which is detrimental to our community. We can easily switch to non-toxic art supplies without effecting daily routine.

Crayola. How Crayola Crayons are Made. Retrieved 11 September 2008, from http://www.crayola.com/factory/preview/factory_floor/crayon_mfg.htm. 2 All Soy Products. Soy Crayons. Retrieved 11 September 2008, from http://www.all-soy-products.com/a50-soycrayons.php.

Strategy and Action Items The strategy is how you will get from point A to point green. Without a strategy your efforts will lack significance, so planning out your campaign is important from the get go. Depending on the goal, the best route might be anything from a grassroots petition, multi-media outreach, or education. Weve provided a sample below, follow along or plan your own:

SAMPLE SHORT TERM SRATEGY

Action Issue: Goal: Overall Strategy: Total Campaign Length Greening Your Schools Art Supplies Grade Level: 7-12

Educate students on the issue of green art supplies and engage at least 75 people in a recycled art activity. Work with teachers to organize a recycled art day in which they are educated on the toxicity of art supplies and get to use their creative talents to create art out of trash. Activism Experience 4 weeks (three in planning and logistics) Level (1-3):

WEEK

FOCUS Educating Yourself Educate Your Teachers Build Leadership

Logistics, Logistics, Logistics

Material Collection!

WEEKLY ACTION ITEMS Research what types of art supplies your school uses, and whether any are green. Also, examine if there are large amounts of paper, rubber, or other materials that are simply thrown away by the art department. Reach out to the art teachers, and explain how toxic art materials affect your health. Ask if they will support a recycled art day, when students could use recycled objects that would have ended up in the trash to create works of beauty. Delegate Leadership to three students who are excited about the campaign. One will coordinate other volunteers, one will coordinate educational outreach, and one will coordinate collection of thrown away assorted objects that could be made into art. Reach out to local trash artists in the area, and ask if any will come speak to your school. Let your art teachers know you could get a guest speaker, which makes it more educational! Lock down when and where this day will be. This action item must be done first, as it will determine if students will be sculpting, painting, piling, or gluing and how much time they have to craft. Try to make the event as big as possible. If you can take over the lunchroom or courtyard, do so! Start a collection of recycled materials (milk cartons, scrap paper, coffee cans, fast food packaging, anything you can think of!) Reach out to other students and begin to

TIPS o Make sure you are delegating responsibility to build leadership for longer campaigns! o If the art teacher wont go for trashy art during the school day, solicit your principal to let students create art after school. o Keep in mind that this may take longer to plan than you think. You want to pull if off smoothly in order to gain your teachers support on later projects.

If youre hitting a wall of no from teachers and administrators, consider holding your trashy art day in a local park. Reach out to local community centers to help you run the event! Expressing the WHY behind what you are

inform them about toxic art supplies, and their environmental alternative. Ask them to ask the art teacher and principal for a BIG recycled-art event!

Logistics, Logistics, Logistics

o Poster the halls (using cardboard or recycled paper) with information about the upcoming environmental art day, and ask your art teacher to announce it over the intercom. o Make sure volunteers are ready to set up and run the event. Double check that they know what their roles are, when they need to be there, and double check that all teachers and administrators know whats going on. o Get out there in a big way! Blast some music, have volunteers direct students to the trashy-art-activity, and have colorful signs everywhere. o Break it up into multiple stations, one could be paper mache-ing recycled paper, one could make a giant peace sign out of milk cartons, and one could be using granola bar wrappers to make head bands. o Educate on the larger issue. The students are certainly there to have fun, but also to learn about sustainable art and the toxic art supplies used by the school. Have signs displayed about the larger issue, or volunteers at each station giving students the wrap. o Document how fun it was by taking hundreds of pictures of smiling students and asking them to sign a guest book (or petition) that they want to see the event EVERY year. Possible next steps: Institutionalize the event by asking your principal to declare it a yearly event (or even monthly). Work with the art teacher to use recycled paper more often when students are drawing a draft of their work, and ask her about possibilities of switching to entirely non-toxic art supplies. Build on with the following 6-8 month campaign!

o o

GAME TIME!

doing is immensely important. Teachers will take you more seriously, and students will respond more positively. Make sure your student leaders are doing their jobs and provide them support. Consider passing out flyers, spreading the word lunch table to lunch table personally, or other ways to get the word out. Getting them to the event means a chance to further educate them about the toxic art issue, building for your next big campaign. Keep the week as fun as possible. Continue to thank and support your leaders and volunteers. After its all over on Friday, take them out for coffee or pizza as a thank you, and plan to build on your success.

Build Your Movement

Beyond

Youve got momentum! Take a break, but dont wait to long to start a new project or your energized volunteers will get bored and find something else to do. High school students can be fickle, hold their attention!

SAMPLE LONG TERM SRATEGY

Action Issue: Goal: Overall Strategy: Total Campaign Length Greening Your Schools Art Supplies Grade Level: 9-12

Replace every art supply in the school with a non-toxic and environmentally friendly alternative. Raise awareness about how toxic the school art supplies are, and petition to make a difference! Activism Experience 4-6 months Level (1-3):

MONTH

FOCUS

Educate Yourself

Educate Your Teachers

Build Leadership

MONTHLY ACTION ITEMS Research what types of art supplies your school uses, and whether any are green. Check the labels. Are these art supplies ACMI certified non-toxic? If you dont know what the labels or seals on the supplies mean, check out this guide to interpreting ACMI seals. Find out how much green it will take to green your schools art program. Reach out to the art teachers, and explain how toxic art materials affect your health. Talk to your teacher about replacing traditional art supplies in your classroom with non-toxic, eco-friendly supplies. Also ask what the possibility is of getting 100% postconsumer recycled paper for your classroom art projects. Reach out to your school administrators or art teachers to find out how much money is allocated to arts education each year. Is there room in the budget for a switch to ecofriendly supplies or will additional fundraising be necessary? Delegate Leadership to three students who are excited about the campaign. One will coordinate outreach to a broad and diverse base of students, one will coordinate the film festival, and one will be in charge of working with administrators. Educate your peers on the issue by passing out flyers with health concerns and statistics. Pass them out on last day of the month. The bottom of the flyer should say something like tomorrow, wear everything green in support of green art supplies! The brighter neon the better! Write a formal, professional letter to your vice principal. Tell him or her that on the first of next month, students will be wearing green in support of green art supplies. Include a green bandana and invite him or her to wear

TIPS Make sure you are delegating responsibility to build other campaigns! Make sure your flyers clearly display facts and statistics on toxic art supplies, but make sure you have a personal appeal as well. The WHY is always more important than the WHAT. It may be ok if theyre a tad dramatic (this is art class were talking about) but dont go overboard. Your letter to the principal should not be dramatic. The letter should be short, courteous, professional, and informational. Ask your teacher to proof read if necessary.

Maintain Communicati on

Show Your Concern and Your Numbers!

Spread the Word

Maintain Communicati on

Show Your Concern and Your Numbers!

Change Strategies?

it in support. Ask if you can set up a meeting between the two of you and the art teacher to discuss the issue. Include your contact information. Make a presence on the morning of the first! You and your leaders should be so neon green people think youre light sticks. If you can, pass out green light sticks or green bandanas (donated by a local business? Bought with art club supplies?). For students or teachers who missed the message yesterday and ask about your outfit, pass out the same flyer with all the information on it. Document with pictures of good outfits. Talk it Out. During the meeting with your vice principal, explain your ideas and answer any questions they may have. Make sure that you are well prepared for the meeting with information on costs and benefits of switching to a non-toxic art program. You can also bring examples of success stories at other schools. Schedule a second meeting at the end. Make the hard ask will your school make the switch to green art supplies? If your vice principal says yes, congrats! Throw a party! If your vice principal says no continue to plan meetings and address issues. Work with your administration, not against! In the mean time - start planning your rally. Involve everyone! The more people who are invested in a green art program, the more likely it will be established and stick. Create a Green Team of all different people who want to be involved, such as other students, teachers, parents, or school board members. A good place to start might be your schools Parent-Teacher Association. Keep spreading the message! Talk it Out: Continue meeting with the Principal and addressing concerns. Plan and execute a five minute green art rally in between second and third period (ala flash mob). Before school, pass out a colorful flyer with one of your key messages. Subtly tell people that between second and third period they should run into the courtyard, grab a piece of tape from one of the volunteers, tape the flyer to a wall, and run out. The alternative to this could be having buckets of chalk laid out in the courtyard. Students will rush into the courtyard, spend five minutes drawing or writing about art toxins, and then rush out. Keep it fun and positive!

Expressing the WHY behind what you are doing is immensely important. Teachers will take you more seriously, and students will respond more positively. Make sure your student leaders are doing their jobs and provide them support.

Consider passing out flyers, spreading the word lunch table to lunch table personally, or other ways to get the word out. Getting them to the event means a chance to further educate them about the toxic art issue, building for your next big campaign. Dont offer to fundraise the first meeting. Try to make

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Make Some Money!

Build Your Movement

Beyond

Sell green wristbands or bandanas to students and have them wear them every Friday until all toxic art supplies are replaced. This will also serve as a fundraiser for your new, healthy supplies! Make the hard ask again; will your school switch to green art supplies? If your principal says yes, congrats! Throw a party! If your principal says no Offer to raise money equivalent to the discrepancy in cost. Then would he or she make the switch to green art alternatives in the school? Fundraise for your green art supplies! Check out Earth Day Networks fundraising guides, or follow the following idea. Advertise a film festival of movies (funny, dramatic, informational) made by students. Preface that its $10 to enter the competition, and $3 to get into the screening. Ask for donations during the intermission, and hold a raffle. Grow it: Turn it into dinner and a show sell a spaghetti dinner for an extra $10. Institutionalize the fundraiser by asking the DECA, marketing teacher, film analysis, or video teacher to make it part of his or her curriculum as an added project. Diversify it by making it not just film, but a green art show in general. Auction of students paintings and photography. Market by putting a notice in the PTSA newsletter about your efforts, and why you are doing it. Invite parents, teachers, your dentist Reach Out to local businesses to ask if they will match the money you make or just donate to the cause. Apply for grants! Environmental organizations will be impressed by your efforts, it will make your life much easier if you can get funding from one of them. See the Resources section below. Possible next steps: When you get a yes, write thank you letters to your administrators. Then have a (green) party for all your dedicated leaders and volunteers. Expand to other schools and paint your whole district green! Jump in with another of Earth Day Networks green your school campaigns!

your school pay for it first, fundraising can be a fun, but it can also be a hassle! Make sure no signs or chalk art are discriminatory or antiadministration.

Continue to thank and support your leaders and volunteers. After its all over on Friday, take them out for coffee or pizza as a thank you, and plan to build on your success. It will take at least a month of planning to pull off this event; you want to do it well so you get all the needed money! Competency will also impress your schools administration.

Youve got momentum! Take a break, but dont wait to long to start a new project or your energized volunteers will get bored and find something else to do. High school students can be fickle, hold their attention!

ALLIES AND RESOURCES

You cant do it alone! Below is a list of potential allies, research resources, and success stories.

Potential Allies
Your art teacher. This should be your first contact in making changes to art supplies Your Principal. All green changes should be institutionalized in case the involved art teacher moves away. This important person is someone you want to impress! Your health teacher. Who knows better about the benefits of fewer toxins than a health teacher? Get them to help you speak with the administration. Local artists who use eco-friendly materials. They may be willing to come speak to your fellow students and educate them on the issue. The PTSA. These involved and dedicated parents would be wonderful to tap into if your administration is on the fence for changing policy. Parents more than anyone are concerned about the health and safety of their students, and will probably jump to help you if you explain the issue well. The Environmental or Outdoors Club. These dedicated kids will surely jump in on any campaign to kick toxins to the curb!

Resources
The flyer mentioned in the expand your influence strategic plan is a separate sheet below. More Information o Avoiding Toxic Art Supplies: To ensure that your art supplies are safe for you and the planet, look for the Art & Creative Materials Institute (ACMI) seal of approval. An ACMI Approved Product (AP) Seal identifies art materials that are safe and that are certified to contain no materials in sufficient quantities to be toxic or injurious to humans, including 3 children, or to cause acute or chronic health problems. A guide to reading and understanding art supply labels can be found here, courtesy of the Childrens Health Environmental Coalition. Childrens Health Environmental Coalition guidelines for art and hobby supplies Database of health and safety info for artists

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Green Art Supply Stores o o o o o o Green Home Environmental Store for everything from recycled construction paper to organic play-dough. EcoArt Works for hemp paper, beeswax crayons and other natural products. Dixon Ticonderoga for soybean crayons and other non-toxic art supplies. TreeSmart, O'BON, and Smencils for graphite and colored pencils made from rolled, recycled newspapers. Stubby Pencil Studio for a variety of green art supplies. Eco Art Supplies for sustainable fine arts supplies like oil paints and modeling clay.

Art & Creative Materials Institute. Safety. Retrieved 10 September 2008, from http://www.acminet.org/Safety.htm#three

o Books: o o o o o o o o

EcoPaper for tree-free paper made from post consumer content and other materials like coffee, mangoes, and bananas.

Artist Beware, Updated and Revised by Michael McCann The Natural Paint Book by Lynn Edwards Good Earth Art: Environmental Art for Kids by MaryAnn Kohl Nature's Art Box by Laura Martin Recycled Crafts Box by Laura Martin Fun with Recycling: 50 Great Things for Kids to Make from Junk by Marion Elliot Ecoart: Earth-Friendly Art & Craft Experiences for 3 to 9 Year-Olds by Laurie Carlson Organic Crafts: 75 Earth-Friendly Art Activities by Kimberly Monaghan

o Nature Crafts by Joy Williams

U.S. Dept. of Education. The Importance of Arts Education. Retrieved 10 September 2008, from http://www.ed.gov/teachers/how/tools/initiative/updates/040826.html. 2 INFORM. Art Departments: Products Containing Persistent, Bioaccumulative, Toxic Chemicals (PBTs). Retrieved 10 September 2008, from http://www.informinc.org/fsart.pdf 3 EPA. About PBTs. Retrieved 10 September 2008, from http://www.epa.gov/pbt/pubs/aboutpbt.htm 4 Co-op America. Are Art Supplies Toxic? Retrieved 10 September 2008, from http://www.coopamerica.org/pubs/realmoney/articles/toxicart.cfm 5 California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment. (2007). Guidelines for the Safe Use of Art and Craft Supplies. Sacramento, CA: Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment. Retrieved 10 September 2008, from http://www.oehha.org/education/pdf_zip/GUIDE2007.pdf