Multimedia turtle collage.

For the first time this summer Costa Rica’s marine conservation and research organization, PRETOMA (Programa Restauración de Tortugas Marinas) will inaugurate a new educational outreach program. The ComunicArte Project, or CAP as it is referred to, will offer free community-based, environmental art education workshops focusing on turtle conservation and other local environmental issues. The pilot program is based out of Punta Banco, located on the southern Pacific coast of Costa Rica, a region recognized as one of the most biologically intense places on Earth by National Geographic Magazine. Punta Banco is home to PRETOMA’s oldest and most successful Olive Ridley turtle nesting project. However, community outreach and education has been somewhat limited due to the lack of funding and staff. In 2008, PRETOMA’s goal is to share information about turtle conservation and sustainable living with local schools, outlying communities and visitors to the area.

CAP proposes to do this through the unique, interdisciplinary union of science and art. CAP firmly believes that art is an effective vehicle for engaging community in learning about environmental issues and cultivating a grass-roots conservation movement. From March until October, 2008, CAP will organize community art projects that include:

1) a public mural painted by the local school, designed to inform and inspire viewers about sea turtles and other wildlife endemic to the area,

2) a series of hand-painted billboards to be displayed at the roadside entrance to town depicting the life of a sea turtle and the threats it faces along its journey,

3) a photojournalism project wherein teens record interviews with local conservationists, fishermen and elders to be exhibited in CAP’s annual Art & Earth Festival.

CAP is an innovative model for community outreach and environmental conservation that can be replicated elsewhere in Costa Rica and abroad.

CAP believes strongly in the empowerment of local communities to invest in the protection of their rich ecological heritage. The program places emphasis on developing projects in collaboration with local citizens so as to ensure their success and longevity. This means that CAP artists and facilitators rely on local knowledge and expertise to inform art projects.