Ellis Students Create Installation for Heinz History Center

Ellis Upper School students constructed the first-ever student designed installation at the Senator John Heinz History Center as part of Green City Remix, a project of Green Building Alliance (GBA). Green City Remix is a unique partnership with the Senator John Heinz History Center that brought together seven high schools from the Pittsburgh area to examine environmental history and activism this past spring. Ellis students partnered with Quaker Valley High School and were tasked with designing an exhibit that portrayed Pittsburgh’s environmental Smoke Control campaign in the 1940s and 1950s, but reinvented and remixed with a 21st century spin.
The project began in January as students met with leaders from GBA to learn about the Smoke Control campaign and the change that it affected. During the initial research phase, students visited the Heinz History Center archives to delve deeper into the history of air pollution and compare the Smoke Control Campaign to modern-day grassroots movements.
 
Led by Upper School History Teacher Rick Malmstrom, Class of 2018 students Emma Bisello, Lila Balistrieri-Sippel, Noa Reiter, Hannah Wheeler, Yael Perlman, Ashley Priore, Pei Pei Barth-Wu, and Mhairi Webster used their newfound knowledge to brainstorm ideas and visualize a potential exhibit that would tell the story of the Smoke Control campaign. During the planning phase, students collaborated with leaders from the the Heinz History Center and GBA, visited the Mattress Factory, and met with local activists and installation artist Danny Bracken to fully understand museum and project expectations before construction.
 
After weeks of planning and creating, students unveiled and presented their Green City Remix exhibit at the Heinz History Center on May 22, 2017. The Ellis and Quaker Valley installation features news clippings and photos from the pollution-ridden Pittsburgh era exposed against photos of the more environmentally-friendly Pittsburgh following the Smoke Control campaign campaign. Black and white pollution balls hang from the top of the installation to represent air pollution and to show people that even though you may not always see pollution in the physical sense, it is there. The Green City Remix installation will be on display at the Heinz History Senator through August 2017.
 
Through the Green City Remix project, students put their hands-on making, critical thinking, collaboration, and creative skills to the test. This active learning experience not only strengthened classroom history lessons, but bolstered student’s knowledge of regional history, current air quality concerns, and social change strategies. By understanding the critical components of change in their own backyard, Ellis girls visualized, strategized, and created original work for the museum that will be seen by thousands of visitors this summer.
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