FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

ART PROCESSION BY STONY BROOK UNIV. STUDENTS, FACULTY, AND STAFF WEDNESDAY, OCT. 2nd, 2019 

On October 2nd, Stony Brook University students will be celebrating the 50th ANNIVERSARY of the ASHLEY SCHIFF NATURE PRESERVE by gathering together to appreciate the nature preserve on campus and to honor the memory of Prof. Ashley Schiff (1932–69), who’s sudden death on Oct. 1, 1969 inspired the campus to establish the Nature Preserve. 

This student-centered arts procession will take shape at 12:45PM at Staller Center for the Arts (in the lobby and, as more students arrive outside near the Staller steps), and we will begin the walk across campus at 1:15PM. Regarding the expected route, we anticipate walking (and, in some cases, wheeling) up the ramp between Staller and the Administration building, and proceeding down the Academic Mall to the SAC, then walking due South through the Engineering Buildings to the bike path running along Circle Drive. We expect to arrive at the Schiff Park Preserve by 1:45PM, where we will discuss the woods, the future path to gaining a more protected status, and a tree-planting ceremony will likely conclude the procession at 2:15PM. 

Undergraduate students from various academic departments have been making artworks (with many being wearable works), which have been conceptualized and designed by each student to address a specific environmental concern. Some students will be using natural materials gathered at the preserve itself. The main themes forming range between their optimism about acknowledging Nature’s vital role to human and other species and their pessimism about our collective role in polluting and endangering shared ecosystems. Many of the material to be used in the projects are recycled, found, or recovered materials. 

Once at the Schiff Park Preserve, participants may wish to identify the wide-range of native species, some of which have been largely destroyed elsewhere on Long Island, through the use of the free mobile app iNaturalist. 

SBU campus contacts for more data about the event: David Mather, Assistant Professor, Art Dept.; Nobi Nagasawa, Prof., Art Dept.; Sharon Pochron, Lecturer, SoMAS.

Eve Metzger, Undergraduate Student organizer. 

For more information on Dr. Schiff and his legacy, please visit www.ashleyschiff.org .