The Art of Survival, Survival of the Arts

Art is nature to its best advantage dressed.

by Bruce Schimmel

My first response to the hodge-podge village in the woods behind the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education in Roxborough was that aliens had landed. Crash landed.

But as Center director Dennis Burton, his wife, Mary Salvante, my spouse and I ambled toward the village, its six woodland shelters seemed very much of this earth, if not of the land itself.

Several seemed cozy enough to sleep in, offering a cuddly if curious place to camp out on a midsummer's night.

One called "Bird/Seed Shelter" looks like a trio of empty eyeballs that peer out from underground. Another, "Rainshelter," resembles a ramshackle hive for giant bees. "Woodland Canopy" looks like a tepee that's traveled through time — only to arrive upside down. And the giant, outstretched wings of "Rainsail" suggest it could be gearing up to soar back to space.

This new exhibit, "Gimme Shelter," is the brainchild of Salvante, who directs the Center's Environmental Art Program.

Bruce Schimmel GOOD TO GLOW: "Firefly," a woodland shelter from the "Gimme Shelter" exhibit, cradles campers while it lights up the night. (CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION)

Six designs were selected from a competition of some 80 proposals. Their challenge was to create woodland shelters that were both beautiful and practical. Very practical. The semi-permanent structures had to tread lightly on the land. To be sustainable in their choice of materials, construction methods and even in their eventual demolition.

All the shelters provide basic cover from the elements. But some even generate their own heat and light. Like "Bambooze!" which features a score of wine bottles, whose butts stick out of a plastered wall of compressed straw. Bathed in sunlight, the bottles cast cool greens and browns; on chilly nights, the thick wall retains heat.

In the dark — even in the rain — both "Rainsail" and "Firefly" generate their own light. "Rainsail" funnels water through tiny generators to light up strings of LEDs. At night; "Firefly" cradles the sleeping under gossamer wings that glow an iridescent green.

Such creativity in action reminds me of the classical saying that art is "nature to its best advantage dressed." This current experiment is cutting a new path to that elusive "creative economy," where artists are more in charge.

For the Schuylkill Center, using art to advance their mission of environmental education has also strengthened their bottom line.

Four years ago, as Burton advanced to director, the Center was in financial straits. At the time, there was talk of selling off part of the 360-acre sanctuary to balance its books.

But as some inconvenient truths have emerged, funders recognized the connection between the saving the environment and fostering creativity. That's there a link between arts of survival and the survival of the arts.

Meanwhile, the Center has another environmental art project, in which individual artists will create whimsical, fruitful gardens.

Visiting "Gimme Shelter" during the day is free. To camp there, there's a fee. Visit schuylkillcenter.org/gimmeshelter.

An audio slideshow of Mary Salvante's tour is available at schimmel.com and citypaper.net/canon. E-mail bruce@schimmel.com.