For Immediate Release
For more information, contact Dan McConnell 206-819-9211
Glass Floats will aid educational aspects of Around the Americas voyage
SEATTLE-World renowned artist Dale Chihuly has joined the Around the Americas project with colorful hand-blown glass floats that will be placed in the ocean during each of the 13 months of the upcoming voyage. At a briefing today on Ocean Watch, the 64-foot sailing vessel that leaves on the 25,000-mile voyage at the end of the month, Chihuly said that he’s always loved living on the water or by the sea and that both have continually inspired him throughout his career as an artist. He hopes the health of our oceans will be a top priority of everyone, and that this project will help underscore the necessity for all Americans to take action to make the waters around us cleaner and safer.
Each month of the voyage, a Chihuly Float will be dropped into the water as part of the educational outreach to demonstrate what the ocean’s tides and currents do to objects placed there. The “Around the Americas Floats” will be inscribed with “If found, please contact www.aroundtheamericas.org ” The “rescuers” will keep the floats and receive a personal note from Dale Chihuly for finding the object. The voyage’s website will feature a story of the recovery each time a float is found.
In addition, Chihuly is providing several Seaform sculptures that will be presented to local officials in key host cities as a thank you for participation in the project. By its completion, the voyage will have directly touched tens of thousands of people who live by the sea and millions who will have followed it on-line and in the classroom.Around the Americas is an ocean environment project organized by Pacific Science Center and Sailors for the Sea, in collaboration with the University of Washington Applied Physics Lab, the Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean, RMR Co., MIT Sea Grant, the Office of Naval Research, and NASA.
Around the Americas is made possible by generous lead grants from The Tiffany & Co. Foundation and the Rockefeller Family. Major support has been provided by the Osberg Family Trust and James Bishop.
The project is also supported by Charles Butt, Edmund B. Cabot, The Campbell Foundation, John Castle, Jim & Dee Claypool, the Ettinger Foundation and Vantage in Philanthropy. In-kind support comes from: Bainbridge Sailcloth/Port Townsend Sails; Blue Seas Electrical; Euro Marine Trading; Fisheries Supply; Freeborn Concepts LLC; Hatton Marine; Helly Hansen; Iridium/Stratos Satcom; Jeppesen Marine; Lewmar; Logan Services; Miller & Miller Marine; Northern Lights/Lugger Marine; Navionics; Northwest Rigging; O’Mega Graphics; Outdoor Research; Raymarine Instruments; Remote Satellite Systems; Samson Rope; Seaview East Boatyard; SSI; Stratos Satellite Communications; Sure Marine/Webasto; Swedish Hospital – Ballard; Vi Jean Reno; and Winslow Life Raft Company.
Check out our new website at http://www.aroundtheamericas.org
