Anti-litter art installation built by Bruce Grove Primary School pupils
Beautiful Bruce Grove is part of the Bruce Grove Residents’ Network and aims to reduce littering and fly tipping in the area. Over the past several months, group members Pablo Flack, Jemima Fleming, Samuel Gerstein, Oliver Knowles and Catherine Suttle have been working on a collaborative project with Bruce Grove Primary School, funded by £3,000 of ward funding from Haringey Council. The project involves designing and producing: (1) street art with an anti-litter theme and (2) take-home packs for the school children with a similar theme, including a re-usable bag and contents designed to start conversations about the need to reduce litter and fly-tipping.
The street art, made from plastic items found on the streets of Bruce Grove, was produced in a series of art workshops during November 2018 at the school planned and facilitated by local artist Wendy Charlton, who designed the artwork. Many of the plastic items were found, cleaned and colour-sorted by the children themselves. During the workshops, which included age-appropriate information about plastic pollution, the children positioned the plastic on plywood segments which together form an eye shape. The centre of the ‘eye’ features the wording ‘Clean Street Clean Planet’ which the group hopes will convey a simple but important message.
On 12th February 2019 the art was installed on a wall in the alleyway between Napier and Sperling Roads. Installation was arranged and supported by Veolia and Haringey Council, with Veolia paying for installation.
“This spot is part of Cycle Superhighway 1 but it and other parts of Bruce Grove are frequently littered and used for fly-tipping”, said Catherine Suttle. “Our councillors, council officers, Veolia and of course Bruce Grove Primary School were extremely supportive of the project, and we are grateful to all of them. We know that art can’t solve the problem, but we hope this project will make litter bugs and fly tippers think about their actions.”
