From Murals to Fashion Shows, Campus Chapters Use Art as a Messenger

When members of the Audubon campus chapter at San Diego City College came to Professor Lisa Chaddock in 2020 with the idea of a campus mural showcasing the existential threats facing North America’s bird species, she was all in. Chaddock, an assistant professor of geography, sits on the board of San Diego Bird Alliance, formerly San Diego Audubon. She teamed up with Art Professor Terry Hughes-Oelrich and the Audubon Mural Project to bring the mural to life in a campus parking garage, a visual representation of the peril facing 37 local bird species, along with two-thirds of bird species across North America. A second mural of local ocean birds and the endangered fish they depend on to survive soon followed. 

The students with Bird Life at San Diego City College hope to use this series of murals to spread the word about bird conservation on campus. “Art is a communicator – a gentle communicator,” said Chaddock. “[It] communicates the seriousness of the issue while being beautiful. Art is part of who we are – we’re generally a very artsy community.”

The community response was enthusiastic. Students from all three of San Diego Community College campuses came to visit the mural on opening day. The impact of the mural was so great, it inspired one of the other City College campuses, San Diego Mesa College, to become an Audubon chapter. Presently, all three San Diego campuses now have sustainability clubs on board: Bird Life at San Diego City College, TerraMesa Environmental Sustainability Club at San Diego Mesa College, and Oviparous at University of California San Diego.

On the other side of the country in Pennsylvania, the Audubon campus chapter at Allegheny University turned a call to action into a fashion statement at the Annual Campus Earth Week “Trashion Show 2024.” Contestants create costumes out of trash collected around the campus, making their community cleaner and sparking a conversation about the fashion industry’s contribution to global overconsumption and pollution.  According to a 2020 study from Princeton University, the fashion industry is responsible for 10 percent of global industrial water use, more than a third of plastic microfibers polluting our rivers, oceans and bodies, and more annual carbon emissions than maritime shipping and commercial aviation combined. 

Allegheny College Bird Club officer Liam Shields knew he wanted to participate in the Trashion show for the first time this year. “From the beginning we knew we wanted to make the outfit a bird, it just felt right in the name of our club,” he said. Club members brought in collected trash and worked in groups to create the costume. Their efforts garnered a “most creative costume” award at the final show and attracted attention not just for their creation, but for the Bird Club itself. 

On both coasts, the result was the same. “Art makes a statement” said Shields, “it’s continuing to put something out that draws attention to something we care about.” The emotional impact of art – whether the quiet, serious tug of a mural, or the humor of a student dressed as a bird made of trash – conveys the gravity of our environment’s problems and our responsibility to take action. 

Visit Audubon On Campus  for more information about the program.