Park City Library celebrates Earth Month with a recycled art contest. Submissions will be displayed through April 30, and the deadline is April 22. The rules include no sharp edges, no loose material and at least 75% of the work needs to be made of recycled materials or trash. Credit: Photo courte sy of Park City Library The Park City Library wants to see your trash. It also wants to see some upcycled plastic, metal and other items in a craftily created work for its Earth Month Recycled Art Contest, said Adult Services Librarian Rylee Broach. “We are accepting entries accepted through April 22, and we hope to have them displayed for about a week,” she said. “Myself and some other members of the community will judge the art and choose winners.” Prizes include items from fulFilled Lifestyle Co., a store that focuses on sustainability, a build-your-own greenhouse, a build-your-own birdhouse and other smaller sustainability items. The rules are simple, Broach said. “All artwork must be made from a minimum of 75% recyclable or non-recyclable — trash — materials,” she said. “The size limit is 2 inches by 2 inches by 2 inches. All work must be secured, so there are no loose pieces and materials, and they can’t have any sharp edges.” While most of the work will be sculpture, participants have the freedom to do whatever they want, including creating a drawing out of recycled paper by using a burnt piece of wood as a drawing instrument, Broach said. The Park City Library’s Earth Month celebration draws attention to sustainability, which is spotlighted at the library’s Sustainability Resource Center. Credit: Photo courtesy of Park City Library “I know we have tons of artists and creatives in Park City, so I’m excited to see what they come up with,” she said. Artists can drop off their works at the library during business hours, Broach said. “You’ll fill out an entry form with your contact information and the title of your artwork so we can display your name and the name of the artwork along with the piece,” she said. “We’ll contact you to see if you want to collect your art at the end of the month or if you’d like us to keep it, and we’ll contact you if you’re a winner.” The art will display in the library’s self-directed area under the stairs by its Sustainability Resource Center. “The center is open year round, and not just open for Earth Month,” Broach said. “We have different resources for our community that will implement more sustainable practices. We have waste-audit kits, energy detective kits to find out where in your house you can save energy, solar powered items and gardening supplies and trash grabbers. These are all items you can check out.” Speaking of check out, the Sustainability Resource Center also has books about sustainability and different green topics, Broach said. “It also has a seed library, where you can take hope packets of seeds to take home to plant, and we have a herb tower,” she said. “You can take some herbs home, and we used it to feed our guinea pigs.” One of the main draws of the Sustainability Resource Center is an EcoBike, Broach said. “It’s a stationary bike that generates electricity when you ride it,” she said. “We would love for anyone to come see what the center has for themselves.”  Earth Month and Broach’s mother inspired the Recycled Art Contest. “Throughout my whole life, my mom has been involved in sustainability,” Broach said. “It was always at the forefront of her life, which, in turn, was at the forefront of my life.” When Broach lived in Montana, her mother would participate in recycled-art events. “She would collect trash and recycled items and hold art-making workshops at Earth Day events, and she would go into schools and do them with Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts,” she said. “It was a way for people to start thinking about how much trash, specifically plastic, we waste on a daily basis. And it was about how we could reuse those items or become more conscious about what we’re throwing away every day.” Books, seeds and other resources are available to check out or take home from the Park City Library’s Sustainability Resource Center. Credit: Photo courtesy of the Park City Library While living in California, Broach’s mother would find trash in the ocean, in the racklines and on the beaches. “She used to do river restoration projects and find a lot of trash entangled in with wildlife,” Broach said. “So she got interested in researching plastics and found how detrimental they are to our environment and ourselves.” At the time, which was about the early 2000s, Broach said there weren’t a lot of recycling programs in the schools and other places. “So my mom wanted to showcase through upcycled trash art how much of a throw-away society we are and how we can become more conscious about it,” she said. “Now I get the chance to bring that to our Park City Community and thought it would be cool to do that for Earth Month.”  For information about the Park City Library’s Earth Month Recycled Art Contest, visit tinyurl.com/yjam2m4w. For information about the Park City Library’s Sustainability Resource Center, visit tinyurl.com/ym3m393z. The post Park City Library celebrates Earth Month by showing off trash appeared first on Park Record. ...read more read less