JOY ENGINE joined Historic Third Ward retailer, MOD GEN, to present a city tour of an eco-art sculpture #1500BottlesASecond. The 10-foot sculpture was created with 1,500 used plastic bottles, used soda syrup barrels and other plastic items found during a river cleanup event and is meant to represent the number of plastic bottles discarded every second in the U.S. The project challenged students and onlookers to think critically and creatively about the impact of plastics on the world, and included signs made from recycled plastic sharing statistics about water and plastic usage.
The eye-catching sculpture was designed and constructed by students from University School of Milwaukee, USM teachers Christina Dresang, Marja Kinkol, Sarah Markwald, Jessica Michels, Rebevva Steinback, and Priscilla Woods, and environmental artist Melanie Ariens. It was installed at various locations around Milwaukee including: the Milwaukee County Zoo; the Urban Ecology Center; Schlitz Audubon Center; Catalano Square in the Historic Third Ward; and the University School of Milwaukee.