Overview:

Heather Leier, assistant professor in the Department of Art, has always had an interest in sustainability. During Fall 2018, Leier assigned her ART 233 course a project titled “Material/Site”. During this project, students foraged natural materials from the environment and used them to create sculptures, which were later exhibited at the Office of Sustainability during UCalgary’s Sustainability Week. One year later, Leier drew inspiration from sustainability once again and channeled it into a new medium: printmaking. After connecting with UCalgary’s Sustainability Resource Centre, Leier delivered a Campus as a Learning Lab project fusing her passion for art and sustainability together in ART 271 – Introduction to Printmaking.

Outcomes:

• Students created prints of real-life objects that reflected aspects of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. They took photos of objects, transferred them onto linoleum blocks, carved the images, and printed relief prints from the blocks
• Student projects were showcased at the 2019 SDG Summit on October 5^th, 2019 and at UCalgary’s Progress report on October 22^nd, 2019

Next Steps:

• Finding new connections between the Department of Art and sustainability on campus
• Encouraging students to see and think about how art can contribute to the world and social change