An organization dedicated to making Akron look a little nicer is turning litter into art, quite literally.
Keep Akron Beautiful unveiled a sculpture Thursday in Kenmore’s Prentiss Park that’s made out of rebar and chicken wire – and trash found on the streets of Akron.
The letters spell the word “THINK.”
The installation was done in collaboration with Councilmember Tina Boyes and the community group Friends of Prentiss Park.
Keep Akron Beautiful Executive Director Jacqui Ricchiuti hopes the new work of art will inspire conversation and encourage reflection.
“Litter remains Akron's greatest community appearance challenge,” Ricchiuti said. “(The Litter Letter Project) is something we've always wanted to do to really shed light and show … that littering is a problem for everyone.”
The Litter Letter Project was conceived by Rachael Hatley for her Master of Fine Arts thesis at the Vermont College of Fine Arts. It was a response to the garbage that collected on her property along a highway in Louisiana where she lived. Keep Louisiana Beautiful awarded Hatley a grant to construct seven Litter Letter words in 2013.
The Litter Letter Project has spread across the U.S since then. The installation in Prentiss Park makes Ohio the 19th state to join the community outreach initiative.
“There was no roadmap for this,” Ricchiuti said. “Everybody did it different ways, partnered with a school or hired a welding company or whatever. We presented it as a sponsorship opportunity and three local businesses have supported three sets of letters.”
In addition to “THINK,” Keep Akron Beautiful is installing two other litter letters: “CARE” and “AKRON,” which are expected to be in place by the end of July.
“Our operations manager, Daniel Marville, and our litter coordinator, David Akers, basically took an idea that lived in my head and transformed it into something the entire community can experience,” Ricchiuti said. “On the evenings and weekends outside of their regular work … they built the letters entirely by hand.”
Ricchiuti emphasized that litter prevention is a community effort.
“KAB and the city can remove litter all day long every day of the year, like we do, but the real solution is preventing it from happening in the first place,” Ricchiuti said. “Maybe with the help of all of our residents, businesses, organizations, and friends, we can make Akron clean and beautiful.”
