During the Fall 2021 semester, art students across MNPS were given the unique opportunity to create upcycled works of art from nearly 50,000 pounds of old Southwest Airlines seat leather. The “Repurpose with Purpose Goes to School” initiative allowed 61 teachers to nurture the sustainable thinking of 6,535 students and teach them about environmental responsibility while encouraging open-ended creativity. With little constraints on the project, generous partner support, and loads of student innovation, many different pieces of art were created with the leather and tools donated by Southwest.
PENCIL originally connected our partners at Southwest to the arts department of MNPS before the COVID-19 Pandemic. In celebration of Southwest Airlines’ 50th anniversary, Turnip Green Creative Reuse, PENCIL, and MNPS worked together to support this project.
You can find 60 pieces of MNPS students’ leather artworks in the Southwest Terminal at BNA through May of 2022.
Check out this video from our friends at Southwest Airlines:
