When we approached local art icon Peter Shire about carrying his famous Echo Park Pottery mugs in our Tools for Change exhibition, he invited us to make them ourselves!
Over 2 days we cut, rolled, shaped, glazed and fired these limited edition EXP + The Ecology Center mugs. We hope you enjoy them as much as we do!
Thanks Peter!
For more photos of the process, please visit our Flickr page.
With the wind behind our backs, we kicked off our last Basic Needs Speaker of the summer on Thursday, August 18th. We couldn’t have asked for a more charismatic and spirited speaker than Christian Beamish. Beamish is a Senior Writer at Surfer Magazine, former Associate Editor at The Surfer’s Journal, and author of an upcoming book from Patagonia,”By Sail and Oar—the Cormorant Journeys.” He brought along his boat, Cormorant, to thoroughly illustrate his experiences of both building the 18 foot sail boat and sailing it down to Baja California. With a brilliant blue backdrop, Beamish became increasingly more exuberant as he shared some of his closest calls as well as his greatest moments of joy. The simple message was this, whatever you do, weather it’s building a boat and taking an epic adventure or simply talking a late-night walk, be prepared to completely immerse yourself. It is only when we are fully connected to our surroundings that we can understand our impact and effect positive change.
Next Thursday, August 18th, is our final Basic Needs Speaker of the Summer and we are so excited to welcome Christian Beamish to The Ecology Center.
Christian Beamish, Senior Writer at Surfer Magazine, former Associate Editor at The Surfer’s Journal, and author of an upcoming book from Patagonia,”By Sail and Oar—the Cormorant Journeys”, on his adventures in his self-built, 18-foot, Shetland Isle beach boat, looks for connections to his essential humanity in “full wilderness immersion surf travel.” With an M.A. from SFSU in Creative Writing, Beamish has practiced his craft for the past decade in numerous print publications internationally.
Join us as we discuss how the choices we make to satisfy our basic needs impact the health of our community and our environment.
Registration for this unique event is $10 for members/$25 for non-members, includes conversation, wine, beer and light fare. Guests can purchase tickets online or by calling 949.443.4223.
Known for its innovative approach to environmental education, The Ecology Center in San Juan Capistrano collaborated with the design firm Zago to create the Splash! How Good Water Works water conservation exhibit located at the Center through August 2011. The Splash! exhibit has now received a Gold Award in the category of Environments for the 2011 International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA) from the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA), showing how good design can do more than look good; it can drive positive changes in the world.
The Splash! exhibit originated when Evan Marks, the director of The Ecology Center, saw a provocative exhibit on climate change at the United Nations that ZAGO had created in New York. The exhibit featured bean bags representing the greenhouse gas emissions of different countries, challenging visitors to get involved in solutions for climate change.
The Zago climate change exhibit at the UN represented for Marks the power of good design to drive positive social change. “It was amazing,” said Marks. After talking, Marks and the Zago team developed a plan to work together informing people about solutions for another important problem. “A year and a half later, we said we should do something on water.”
To make the water exhibit a reality they teamed up with surf brand Hurley and their recently launched H20 initiative as the beginning of a partnership to inspire water literacy and access.
Throughout 2009 Zago and The Ecology Center collaborated closely on the development of the Splash! exhibit, finding captivating ways to show visitors the large impact of everyday choices on water conservation. There were many challenges along the way, with different priorities challenging all involved at the center and their community, but in the end the resulting exhibit encourages visitors to rethink how they live.
Open on weekends for visits, the Splash! exhibit features a self guided walk through the solutions we can use to slash our water use. As you walk through the exhibit you find that the typical Southern Californian uses 1800 gallons of water a day, often in surprising ways. Electronics that we buy require enormous quantities of water to produce, and eating less meat can save 2000 gallons of water a week as well as saving money and boosting our health.
“We rarely have the opportunity to work on projects that have both a local focus and a global reach,” said Manuel Toscano, principal at Zago. “With the exhibition “Splash! how good water works” under the creative and content partnership we forged with Evan Marks and his organization The Ecology Center, we successfully created an exhibition that covers the challenges and opportunities associated with water quality and conservation in the Orange County, while still putting these challenges in a global context. We are very proud and exited to have been recognized by the IDSA with a gold award for one of our favorite and most enjoyable projects of 2010.”
The unique design of the Splash exhibit that earned it the Gold IDEA award helps its message to connect with people. Although water is a pressing challenge around the globe, the exhibit and everything else at The Ecology Center are optimistic. Rather than lecturing, the exhibit draws us in, welcoming us as guests into the 1878 farmhouse that has become a center of 21st century environmental solutions.
The IDEA award ceremony for the Splash! exhibit will take place at the 2011 IDSA International Conference September 14 to 17 in New Orleans.
About The Ecology Center
The Ecology Center is an exciting new educational center, whose purpose is to engage the entirefamily in fun, hands-on activities that teach practical, environmental solutions at the household and community level. The Ecology Center is located at 32701 Alipaz St. in San Juan Capistrano, Calif. For more information, please visit www.theecologycenter.org or (949) 443-4223.
About Zago
Zago is founded on the belief that simplicity and honesty are the essential ingredients for sustainable and meaningful branding. Zago’s work takes different forms in many different mediums, serving non-profit, a&d, cultural, and corporate clients worldwide. We collaborate closely with our clients to produce dynamic and thoughtful results across media and industry boundaries. The agency has studios in New York City and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Visit the website at http://www.zagollc.com/ for more about Zago.
About Hurley
Founded in 1999, Hurley is an authentic “Microphone for Youth” brand rooted in surf, skate, art, music and beach cultures. Driven by creativity and freedom of expression, Hurley develops world- class products for guys, girls and kids, including sportswear, footwear, eyewear, accessories, loungewear, swimwear and wetsuits. A wholly owned, independently run subsidiary of Nike,
Inc., Hurley’s corporate headquarters are located in Costa Mesa, CA, with international offices in Tokyo, Sydney, Barcelona and Bali. See www.hurley.com for more.
Summer is officially here and our Basic Needs Speaker Series is off to a great start. This month were were extremely happy to welcome Nike’s Mark Smith, Global Creative Director for the Nike Jordan Brand, to help us start the Series off. As June flies by, we are getting excited for July’s Basic Needs Speaker, Tyler Valiquette.
Having lived, worked, and traveled extensively in Latin America in his mid-twenties, Tyler returned to the US determined to devote the rest of his career to tackling the problems of human inequality and environmental degradation that had played such a major role in his travels. In 2007 he joined Engineers Without Borders and became very active in the San Francisco Professionals Chapter, particularly the Appropriate Technology Design Team, where he has led the development of a small wind turbine for rural Guatemala. Inspired by the role that technology can play in addressing social injustice and the ongoing global environmental crisis, he was one of the founders of Catapult Design. Tyler has worked both as an industrial mechanical engineer for Chevron and as a project manager for a premier commercial construction company in San Francisco. He prospers most in collaborative, team-oriented environments and thrives on creative problem solving. He has his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Idaho.
The majority of our world’s population lacks access to life’s basic needs. We develop and implement human-centered products that help them thrive.
Join us, Thursday, July 21st, from 6:30-9pm for an evening conversation, wine, beer and light fare.
On Thursday evening, The Ecology Center was delighted to welcome Mark Smith, Global Creative Director for the Nike Jordan Brand to kick off the Basic Needs: Summer Speaker Series. Mark spoke to a sold-out crowd about his work, what inspires him, and Nike’s commitment to sustainable design, specifically the ecologically sound Air Jordan XX3, the first basketball shoe to embody the criteria for Nike’s Considered Design program. We learned that Nike is making a corporate-wide effort to be ecologically responsible by doing things like using less solvents and adhesives, using eco-ethical materials like recycled rubber and organic cotton, and reducing material waste and energy consumption all along the way. When asked what inspires him, Mark said simply, “Designing things that I love, things that get better with age, things that I wouldn’t want to throw away.”
Also joining us was Rose Brantley, Chair of the Fashion Design Department at Otis College of Art and Design. Rose echoed Mark’s sentiment about the relationship between design and the environment, saying that sustainability truly begins with how we design things. Thankfully, young people and fashion trends seem to be gravitating toward more sustainable practices–not just in manufacturing, but also in consumer habits. Where is fashion headed, according to Rose? “The future of fashion is going back to the way our grandmothers dressed”–clothing that is organic, high-quality and lasting, and far less energy intensive.
All in all, it was a great evening and a great conversation. Join us for the next Basic Needs Summer Speaker Series event, when we’ll hear from Tyler Valiquette, Co-Founder and COO of Catapult Design, a San Francisco-based nonprofit design firm that develops and implements products to help communities in need.
Tyler Valiquette, Co-Founder & COO, Catapult Design
Thursday, July 21, 6:30 to 9:00 PM
Beer, wine, and light fare will be served. Registration is $10 for members/$25 for non-members. Guests can purchase tickets online or by phone at 949.443.4223.
As we transition into summer and the days get longer, the gardens around The Ecology Center continue to grow at an incredible rate. Lately the sunflowers seem to have taken over every spare piece of land, which we don’t mind one bit. It is always shocking to see how many changes there are here in a matter of days (that coming from someone who is here everyday). So just in case you haven’t been down to visit us lately, here are just a few things that have taken shape in the last week or so.
The new signs are up! We recently added a ton of educational signage around the gardens…
Carmenita is growing up! About a month one of our hens gifted us with a baby chick. Due to her uncanny resemblance to one of our other hens, Carmen, we have named her Carmenita. It is truly amazing how fast baby chicks grow!
New trash cans. Yes, you read that correctly, new trash cans. What’s so exciting about our new trash cans are the new decals on them that make putting trash in the right place a no brainer.
Saturday was our monthly Backyard Skills workshop and this time we made veggie boxes. Using 120 year old salvaged cedar, participants constructed their own box from pre cut wood. There were two styles to choose from, square and rectangle, though most people opted for the square box. We even had a few kids join in the fun.
CONTAINER GARDENING 101:
Congratulations on your new planter box! We hope that you enjoy the fruits of your labor in the months to come and perhaps even build a few more at home. Even the smallest patio or porch can boast a crop of vegetables or a garden of flowers in containers. Planter boxes, wooden barrels, hanging baskets and large flowerpots are just some of the containers that can be used. The container gardener is limited only by his imagination.
Chosen Container Gardening Winners:
Cut List for Future Boxes:
Here is the cut list for the wood you will need to build a box:
1” x 4” Redwood or Cedar;
- 6 @ 23 3/4”
- 6 @ 12”
- 2 @ 20”
- 1 @ 23”
2” x 2” Redwood or Cedar:
- 4 @ 23 3/4”
- 2 @ 11 3/8”
Thursday, June 16th, marks the beginning of our 3rd annual speaker series, Basic Needs. We are extremely excited to welcome Tinker Hatfield, VP of Creative Design, Nike, Inc. to The Ecology Center. Tinker is a globally recognized designer known for some of Nike’s most popular athletic shoe designs, including sixteen editions of the iconic Air Jordan basketball shoe. Among his many accolades, Hatfield was named by Fortune magazine as one of the “100 Most Influential Designers” of the twentieth century in 1998. He has developed and leads what Nike calls the Innovation Kitchen, an inspirational space dedicated to the company’s cutting-edge design endeavors. As a 26-year veteran of Nike, Tinker will share how the changing environment has informed his own design thinking and Nike’s socially responsible innovations.
Join us for an evening conversation, wine, beer and light fare from 6:30-9:00 pm. Registration for this unique event is $10 members and $25 non-members. The entire series can be purchased (3 nights) for $25 members and $65 non-members. Tickets can be purchased online or by calling 949.443.4223.
Saturday, May 21st, was The Ecology Center’s monthly Backyard Skills workshop at the Center For Living Peace. This month students designed and assembled their own kites, then took them outside for a lesson in harnessing the power of the wind. Our friends from LoveArt& were on hand to guide participants on how to construct their kites made from Japanese paper and bamboo. Decorating the kites were aspirations for peace, reminiscent of Tibetan prayer flags.
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