ROCKLAND – Rockland artist Kim Bernard has installed BYOB (Bring Your Own Bag), composed of 300 colorful, reusable, nylon shopping bags in the Rockland Public Library. The sculptural installation celebrates the city passing a ban on single-use plastic bags, as of Jan. 1, 2019, in an effort to reduce plastic waste.

The installation will be on view until Jan. 5, 2019 when all 300 bags will come down and be given away for free to the public.

This project was made possible with a grant from the Maine Arts Commission.

The following activities have also been designed to minimize waste:

Trash to Treasure: Making Art with Recycled Materials
October 25, 6:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.
Kim Bernard will talk about her BYOB (Bring Your Own Bag) installation, currently on view at the library, and her approach to creating sculpture that addresses sustainability, recycling and resourcefulness. Bernard will also share images of other artists projects made of trash, fine functional objects made of junk and decorative articles made of rubbish that promise to transcend their lowly dumpster qualities and inspire your own ideas.

Recycled Art Workshop for Children
November 7, 3:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Come make your own masterpiece with recycled materials. Learn how to rescue good junk from the trash and turn it into perfectly good art supplies.

Recycled Art Workshop for Adults
November 27, 6:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.
Rather than using new resources to create art, why not rescue materials headed for the landfill, unleash your creativity on them and make some art?! Sometimes we get stifled by using precious and expensive art materials. When you begin with materials that were destined for the dump anyway, you can be more experimental, playful and less inhibited. This workshop is guaranteed to be fun, wildly creative and a total surprise!

Kim Bernard shows her sculpture, installations and encaustic works nationally and has been invited to participate in many exhibits, some of which include the Portland Museum of Art, Currier Museum of Art, Fuller Craft Museum, Colby College Museum of Art, Art Complex Museum and UNH Museum of Art.

Her work has been reviewed in the Boston Globe, Art News and featured in Art New England. Bernard is the recipient of the Piscataqua Region Artist Advancement Grant, a NEFA grant, several Maine Arts Commission Grants and was an artist-in-residence in the Physics Department at Harvard University in 2015-16 and the artist-in-residence at the University of New England in 2016-17.

She received her BFA from Parsons in 1987, her MFA from Mass Art in 2010 and currently teaches at the Maine College of Art.

Bernard gives presentations, lectures and offers workshops nationally as a visiting artist.

Visit her website: www.kimbernard.com