CTL Utilizes Art to Combat Pollution

On April 22, 2021 (Earth Day), The City of Camden, Cooper’s Ferry Partnership, and the Rutgers-Camden Center for the Arts unveiled A New View – Camden, an innovative, six-month-long exhibition featuring six, one-of-a-kind and family-friendly public art projects. This project was conducted largely in part to bring awareness to illegal local dumping sites. Several large structures were erected at these sites as ways to not just identify the dumping location but also as a resource for educating residents on the environmental challenges of living in a city and effective disposal methods. 

Officially,  “A New View” project concluded on October 31, 2021. In spite of this, 3 of the 6  large structures still remain, greatly enhancing the decor of the city and confidence of the local residents. A fierce and stealthy black panther sculpture known as ‘The Invincible Cat’ by DKLA Designs at Farnham Park now calls Farnam Park home. Farnam Park is also called “Camden High Park” as it is situated across from the historic Camden High School whose mascot is none other than -a black panther. ‘The Phoenix Festival’ located on 1401 Federal Street (Federal Street Bridge), are two dazzling 22 feet tall phoenix sculptures made out of bamboo and decorated with colorful recycled objects. A New View emphasized community connection and engagement partnering with Dudley School to invite all 500 students to paint and decorate the flags that fly high above the Phoenix Festival. The connection doesn’t stop there, transcribed onto the benches are a collection of short stories and poems written by Kipp Norcross High School students and the Mighty Writers of Camden. The last of the three sites remaining is the 15 foot tall robot named Mechan 11 located at the State Street bridge. This kind of robot was designed by a Camden high school student, the ‘rust’ covered robot has the title of ‘The Collector’ and is a reminder to residents to recycle and reduce habits that contribute to pollution. 

Locals are anticipating the return of the New View project, with the hopes that it will re-launch in the spring of 2022. Its anti-pollution campaign engages residents through programs like writing workshops, information sessions and of course the return of other previously held structures like the  ‘BioInformatic Digester’ which highlight the importance of the ecosystem by utilizing meal worms as a means of disposing waste and transforming in into usable compost. Other residents hope for newer creations to help create and to learn from. The hope is that continued projects like these will combat the $4 million a year the city spends on cleaning up after illegal dumpers by reclaiming these sites and turning them into places of gathering and learning. 

To get more involved or find more information about these sites visit Anewviewcamden.com for relevant information regarding these illegal dumping sites, ways community members can volunteer as well as an interactactive overheard map that lists the location of the remaining structures as well as information on past and upcoming projects.