Pollinator Planting

with native plants at Emil G. Hirsch Metropolitan High School

Attracts birds and bees

Boosts soil health

Champions biodiversity

Decreases water usage

With artist Nance Klehm, students are researching and remediating the ground beneath their feet to build a healthy native garden. Observing life, this work blends art with hard science and personal experience. 

Klehm shares biological concepts to focus on the life within soil, environmental toxins, and the process and goals of phytoremediation as part of a 2023 STARTS program – the Short-term Teaching Artist Residency Program supported by the Illinois Arts Council Agency. Digging up and analyzing soil on the Hirsch school grounds enlivens these abstract concepts. Students have collected plant samples to establish a baseline of soil composition around the area, utilizing lab equipment and microscopes to observe the bacteria, fungi, and minerals that are found in the school soil. 

Together, students and Klehm select indigenous species based on their analysis of the soil, and are planting this native garden to remediate the school soil. This is a pilot project which is a step-by-step mitigation process to remove toxins and regenerate the soil in empty/vacant lots, to transform urban spaces in a cost-effective, environmentally friendly way. Watch it and us grow!

This program is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency through an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.