At the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts this past July, Penn State University (PSU) professor Denice Wardrop joined the Art of Discovery booth to showcase relationships between humans and plastics. Wardrop is a professor of ecology and geography and helped the booth with the plastics project as a follow up to an exhibit at the Palmer Museum of Art that brought in record crowds.

The exhibit, titled “Plastic Entanglements,” featured multi-media exhibits, including videos and sculptures. Because of the success of the exhibit, Wardrop wanted to bring the nature of the exhibit to a booth at the Festival to help spark conversations about mitigation strategies.

Flyer for the Booth (Source)

Wardrop’s goal was to stress that removing plastic trash, such as picking up litter and cleaning the ocean, would not be enough to prevent pollution, such as the miles-long garbage patch floating around in the Pacific. The exhibit draws attention to a mitigation approach, focusing on source-reduction strategies and persistent problems like single-use plastics and microplastics.

The exhibit sparked conversations and engaged students and the larger community through thought-provoking media. The museum’s curator, Joyce Robinson, and Wardrop hope that art-lovers from across the state would be able to relive the experience of the exhibit at the booth and spark equally engaging conversations.