Daylighting Tanyard Creek and the Lilly Branch

Prizes for the Daylighting the Watershed design competition were awarded at a roundtable discussion in early November, "How Artists, Scientists and Environmental Activists Can Work Together," that encapsulates how developing interdisciplinary expertise works:

Water is integral to life, but the problems of local watersheds are often hidden beneath us, said Laurie Fowler, executive director for public service and external affairs at the Odum School of Ecology and one of Watershed UGA's project leaders.

"We've realized in the course of our Watershed UGA work the compelling role that storytelling and art play in raising awareness of water issues and motivating people to care about them," Fowler said. "That's the inspiration for our design contest."

In a technical sense, "daylighting" refers to the process of physically revealing streams that were previously covered. Watershed UGA's design competition extended the concept of daylighting to include art, signage, installations and other creative works that bring awareness to hidden streams and their complex relationships to social, historical, economic and environmental conditions.

Fifteen teams submitted designs to the competition from diverse departments across campus, including art, engineering, ecology, music composition and landscape architecture. Fifteen third-grade students from Barrow Elementary School also worked together to contribute designs for the competition's poster exhibition, currently on display at the Jackson Street Building.

Congratulations to Lamar Dodd School of Art students Zachary Harris, Brittni Viskochil and John Gnann for their work as part of the winning design teams. Tanyard Creek and the Lilly Branch are vitally important parts of campus in many ways and we hope they will continue to play a role in teaching UGA students how to work together to protect the environment.

Image: The winnign design submitted by Kiley Aguar of the College of Environment and Design and Zachary Harris of the Lamar Dodd School of Art for Daylighting the Watershed proposal in the Lilly Branch watershed for "Perspectival Narration of Ecological Entrainment.