Meet Linda Zolten Wood
Linda Zolten Wood brings arts and sustainability together to create solutions to environmental issues and raise awareness to practical solutions to our changing climate, while creating beauty in our communities. Rain barrels help keep pollution out of Lake Erie and the Cuyahoga River, and give us free rain water for gardens, yard care and even car washes.
Cleveland Institute of Art graduate, LZW was inspired to make these ugly big plastic chunks more beautiful by applying her mural painting skills to improve their overall acceptance and wider use. She created The Collinwood Painted Rain Barrel Project in 2012. Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District, Neighborhood Connections, Community Partnership for Arts and Culture Grantee, Zolten Wood wanted Cleveland’s efforts of water conservation to be celebrated, as approximately 400 free barrels have been provided by Mayor Jackson for all of Cleveland neighborhoods for the last ten years, proving to be a popular program, but these barrels are eyesores. Her project will beautify them and encourage long-term usefulness for families who need gardens most.
Zolten Wood’s Upcycled Arts Workshops are influenced by travels in India, which practices a national ethic of ‘no waste’, where practically everything is repaired or reused in some way: Conservation as a daily practice and long-term culture. We benefit fro mending and recreating objects into new useful objects or artworks to beautify our spaces. Our landfills need to slow in growth, and we need to review our consumption habits. Upcycling is a useful tool for communities to tidy up and share with each other.
These project have been brought into schools, libraries, garden clubs and farmers markets for educational programs to help communities beautify their gardens and homes with painted barrels and repurposed artwork. Stormwater and Landfill reduction benefit our fresh waterways, wildlife and drinking water resources and art improves our quality of life. Her philosophy “Art For All” offers creativity to anyone who wants to try, regardless of economics or education: She has experienced the healing of the Arts in all areas of her life.
Creative Impact Fund Project: Sustainable Arts with Zolten Wood Design & Collinwood Painted Rain Barrel Project
Three projects/locations at Senior Centers and a Community Garden who are committed to improving the quality of life for their residents. The audience ranges from senior citizens attending social day classes and helping to nurture their bonds of community, to the Community Garden including families of all ages, encouraging hands on creative expression with Upcycled materials and beautifying their rain barrels so they are encouraged in more consistent use, which helps keep the Lake and River cleaner, and supplies them free water for their garden and yard use.
One Wall Mural for Rose Senior Center in East Cleveland, A series of Skylight Banners to enliven and brighten the space of an old building for a Collinwood Senior Center, and a rain barrel painting and upcycled arts series of workshops at a community garden in Old Brooklyn.
Through her collaboration in these impactful projects, Linda Zolten Wood actively contributes to the well-being and enrichment of senior centers and community gardens. Her dedication to nurturing community bonds, fostering creativity, and promoting sustainable practices demonstrates her unwavering commitment to improving the quality of life for all involved.