Sometimes you have to see it to believe it--that's how landscape artists Debra A. Ensteness and Sheila Hawthorne hope to convey their message at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. The duo's piece Take Back the Tap: Protect Our Environment is one of 10 installations in the Waterosity: Go Green with a Splash exhibit that opens on June 6.
The jumbo water bottle is filled with thousands of discarded water bottles to tell the story of their adverse impact on our environment. The installation is big enough to walk through, so maybe the next time visitors reach for a bottle of H2O, they'll remember this larger than life image of discarded bottles.
And while here in NYC our alternative to buying bottled water is to fill up our SIGG at a Tap It location, the Arboretum lined up an alternative, too. As Tap It reported earlier this month, the Arboretum banned bottled water. But visitors can take a free compostable cup or they can buy a budget-priced reusable plastic bottle at the gift shop and fill up with filtered at several spots. You wouldn't want to get thirsty in the middle of a water exhibit, would you?
With free tap water in hand, the other 9 installations are worth checking out, too. You can learn how watersheds work, understand how storm water runoff impacts native flora and see how much freshwater is used around the world. Plus, a permanent display, Harvest Your Rain, looks at ways to reuse rainwater including a green roof, rain barrels and rain gardens. Maybe it's time to plan a trip to the Midwest.
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