The Arlington Reservoir Art Project uses art as a means of increasing student awareness of ecosystems and watersheds. Students begin the science curriculum with a study of ecosystems at a science/environmental camp in Rhode Island. The Arlington Reservoir Art Project extends this study by exploring an ecosystem the students know well in the students’ own town, The Arlington Reservoir. The Arlington Reservoir Committee, a group of citizens working on Reservoir environmental issues, developed a “Tour of the Reservoir” to prepare students before they visited the Reservoir. Students were also prepared by Naturalist, Marjorie Rines, and Naturalist and Habitat teacher, Marcia Hegarty, to use binoculars and to do field sketches. Students then visited the Reservoir with binoculars and sketchbooks to record observations through field sketching. Arlington Reservoir Committee members and Marjorie Rines and Marcia Hegarty guided the students on the tour.

In art class following the trip, students painted birds found at the Reservoir including appropriate environmental elements such as plants, trees, and bodies of water. Students were helped with paintings by Lauren Carelli, graduate student in the Tufts Omidyar Scholars Program.  After completing the paintings, students were addressed by David Allen Sibley, author and illustrator of The Sibley Guide to Birds. He not only gave a slide presentation of his life and work, but also responded to the student paintings.

Next, students used their literal and scientific understanding of birds in environments to deepen this understanding by studying how folk artists have expressed reverence for the connectedness of the fauna and flora of the environment. Inspired by these works, students created their own less literal, more reverent paintings of birds in environments under the direction of local artist, Jennifer Flores.  Finally, students will participate in the Herring Run Festival, sponsored by Alewife/Mystic River Advocates and the Mystic River Watershed Association, to celebrate the Mystic River Watershed.