A surplus FEMA trailer,
named the "Armadillo," redesigned and transformed by faculty
and students of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Visual Arts
Program, will be donated to a non-profit arts organization at a
ceremony at the Rose Kennedy Greenway in Boston June 18,
2009.
http://www.emediawire.com/releases/2009/6/prweb2496084.htm
Cambridge, Mass. (PRWEB) June
8, 2009 -- A day of activities at the Rose Kennedy Greenway in Boston
on June 18 will celebrate the donation of the MIT's "Armadillo"
trailer to Side Street Projects, a non-profit organization based in
Pasadena, California. The "Armadillo" trailer is the result
of a year-long collaborative art project, the MIT FEMA Trailer
Project, in which faculty and students from the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology Visual Arts Program transformed a surplus FEMA
trailer into a "green" mobile composting center with
vertical gardens, rainwater catchment system, permaculture library,
and indoor multipurpose space. The trailer has been dubbed the
"Armadillo" for its ribbed retractable shell.
Jae Rhim Lee is Director of
the MIT FEMA Trailer Project and a Visiting Lecturer in the MIT Visual
Arts Program. Lee describes the Armadillo as "both a practical
tool and a metaphor for how disaster can be transformed into a tool
for environmental and community change."
The Armadillo was originally one of thousands of trailers purchased by
FEMA to serve as temporary housing in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina
and Rita in 2005. They have been tied to a host of issues surrounding
indoor air quality health concerns, mental health problems in trailer
parks, lack of affordable housing, and disaster management.
MIT students studied these
issues and researched the environmental, political, and social history
of the trailers under the direction of Jae Rhim Lee, an artist,
permaculture designer and former consultant to the City of New Orleans
Mayor's Office of Recovery and Development. Students were then
challenged to apply permaculture (a whole systems sustainable design
approach) and environmental justice principles to the redesign and
transformation of a single FEMA trailer into a model of urban
sustainability and community change.
The MIT FEMA Trailer Project
team chose Side Street Projects to receive the Armadillo after a
nationwide search because of the non-profit's commitment to art
education and environmental responsibility.
The transformed Armadillo
trailer will be handed over to Side Street Projects at a ceremony on
June 18, 2009, at 5:15 PM, at the Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy in
Boston. Related events from Noon to 7PM include temporary art projects
and gardening workshops. Following the event, Side Street Projects
will take the Armadillo trailer on a National Tour that includes tour
stops at the National Mall in Washington, D.C. and the Louisiana State
Museum.
Support for this project was
provided by the MIT School of Architecture and Planning, MIT
Department of Architecture, MIT Visual Arts Program, MIT Public
Service Center and theCouncil for the Arts at MIT
For additional information on the MIT FEMA Trailer Project, contact Ed
Halligan or visit
http://visualarts.mit.edu/armadillo.
About the MIT Visual Arts
Program:
The MIT Visual Arts Program, directed by Ute Meta Bauer, is focused on
a critical approach to art in an advanced technological community, and
art that challenges traditional genres and the limits of the
gallery/museum context. The program is part of the Department of
Architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and offers
undergraduate and graduate courses.
Contact: Ed Halligan
MIT Visual Arts Program
617-253-5229