The Hoosier Slide: Promoting Engagement with Environment

With unsustainable production models and a plethora of other damaging activities, humans’ strain on the environment has made it impossible to assume that the planet’s ecosystem will sustain future generations (WWF, 2018); our response to this crisis will impact current and future generations and all other species on Earth (Global Stewards, 2022; United Nations Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, 2022). To make a difference, education about the problem needs to be furthered. I worked with the PNW Westville Warriors and the Michigan City Lubeznik Center for the Arts (a community center dedicated to offering programming that balances joy with critical thinking, with the aim of cultivating a lifelong love of art) to learn how to spark environmental awareness through community programming. Together, we brought Indiana artist Corey Hagelberg’s “Hoosier Slide” to PNW’s Westville campus. We wanted to identify a piece that connected to Indiana’s environmental history (the Hoosier Slide tells the story of Indiana’s tallest sand dune, a dune demolished over a period of 30 years for glassmakers and a power plant before the Indiana Dunes were protected by Congress. The mining of this dune has had lasting effects on surrounding wildlife and the environment) Through reflection and mentorship, we learned how to put together educational public presentations with the art and artist at the center. This work has sparked greater awareness of environmental needs in the community, community connections among students, artists, PNW, and the Center for the Arts, and new interest in engagement.