Some local artists spent an evening trying to use art to attract PNW students to environmentalism.

Just Transition Northwest Indiana hosted a Vision Project Art Drop-In at the Hammond campus to recruit PNW students into the local environmentalist movement.

“This event is really about being able to get out the Just Transition framework …about environmental justice to the masses, and really doing that through the avenue of art,” said Ashley Williams, the group’s executive director. “Because art is such a powerful tool, it’s a transformative tool.”

Just Transition NWI aims to bring people together to fight for legislative actions to support the environment. Two of the group’s main areas of focus are protecting the Great Lakes from pollution and reducing coal ash emissions in the Region.

The event used different forms of art to engage students. Tables were set up with stations for button-making, coloring books and helping to paint a “Just Transition” banner. Students could also use paint markers to color tote bags displaying a message to the Environmental Protection Agency asking it to “Make Power Plants Clean Up All Their Coal Ash.”

At one of the most popular tables, local artist William Estrada showed students how to screen print their own bandanas emblazoned with the words “Protect Our Lakes!”

“As an educator and artist, my interest is more in talking to people about what is their relationship with nature,” Estrada said. “What do they want for their future children? For their grandchildren?”

Malaska Hernandez, a Social Work major at PNW and intern at Just Transition, works to get young people involved in the group’s environmental causes.

“[Our goal is] working together as a community to resolve a future,” she said. “Art is a dream to make that vision happen. Everything around us came from someone’s vision.”