Development Intern: Savannah Lust

07.22.16

 

Savannah Lust is a recent graduate of Purchase College, SUNY, where she double majored in Philosophy and Art History. She sees Freshkills Park as an exciting place to begin questioning our complex relationship to the environment, a question she’s interested in approaching through art and design.

What is your name and title?

My name is Savannah Lust and I’m the Development Intern at Freshkills Park.

What are you working on?

At the moment, I’m helping to organize a grant database that will keep track of both active applications and potential opportunities for the Freshkills Park Alliance. I am also drafting and revising grant proposals for the arts and environmental education program.

What drew you to Freshkills Park?

I first became interested in Freshkills Park by way of Mierle Laderman Ukeles and her Percent for Art project LANDING. To be erected at the future South Park at Freshkills Park, LANDING comprises of two earthworks and a cantilevered structure. I was interested in how LANDING will offer an active collaboration between the landscape of Freshkills Park and the public, and further, a new awareness of one’s movement through a landscape. After learning of LANDING, I became more and more interested in the site itself. Freshkills Park offers us a really fascinating, startling, and beautiful space for the exploration art and ecology. At Freshkills Park, we find ourselves in an engineered landscape, a place that prompts us the see anew our relationship to the natural and built environment.

What’s one way to send less waste to landfills?

Something that I’ve been trying to be more conscious of in my daily life is food waste. The NRDC cites that 40% of food in America goes uneaten. I guiltily leave vegetables to spoil in the fridge and resort to throwing away forgotten leftovers routinely. We can try to buy only what we know we will use, repurpose leftovers the next day, cook only the amount of food we can eat, and buy imperfect vegetables and fruits. Being more aware of what and how we eat can help ease our impact on the earth.

Favorite color?

I like lavender and shades of green and navy.

Tags: art, design, development, Freshkills Park Faces, internship