View Lake Hiawatha garbage during art exhibit at The Sandbox

by Tesha M. Christensen

 As a child, Sean Connaughty watched the destruction of habitat in his hometown of Eden Prairie, and he felt helpless to stop it.

“This sense of loss has informed my work as an artist throughout my career,” remarked Connaughty, who resides in the Standish-Ericcson neighborhood and teaches art at the University of Minnesota.

Today, he’s working to improve the water quality of not only his neighborhood lake, Lake Hiawatha, but also the entire system further downstream.

Connaughty knows that change will only occur if he can inspire others to join the cause.

As part of his campaign to clean Lake Hiawatha, he is working with colleagues Annette Walby, Craig Johnson and others to create an art exhibition in the neighborhood.

The exhibition will be an archaeological survey of Lake Hiawatha.

Connaughty has worked with archaeologist Carol Nordstrom to sort and quantify six of the 62 bags of trash that he has collected since May.

“This is yielding fascinating results and will hopefully educate viewers about the problem and mobilize the community to advocate for changes in Hiawatha’s storm sewer infrastructure,” said Connaughty.

“The exhibition exposes the astonishing range of discarded materials that make their way to the lake.”

A reception for “Lake Hiawatha” (anthropocenic midden survey) will be held on Sept. 11 from 5-9 p.m. at the Sandbox Theatre (3109 E 42nd St.).

“I love this lake and the incredible variety of wildlife that live there and use the lake as a migratory stop,” explained Connaughty. “Continually increasing amounts of trash and pollution threaten this habitat, and its resident wildlife.”

When Longfellow resident Annette Walby learned about what Connaughty was doing, she wanted to help.

“This is a problem that affects the health of our community, as well as the wildlife that uses the lake as habitat,” said Walby, who is an artist and landscape architect. “The watershed area that includes Lake Hiawatha is vitally important to water quality in the city of Minneapolis including what, in the big picture, is downstream: the Mississippi River and beyond.

“Our communities need to know how our actions determine not just our communities’ health but, the health of our neighbors.”

For fellow collaborator Craig Johnson a sign of a community’s health is tied to the health of their environment.

“You can’t separate the two if you tried,” said Johnson, a sustainability designer with Agency F Design. “In a larger sense, what we do in Minnesota—at least at this latitude—affects communities down stream all the way to New Orleans. Lake Hiawatha empties into Minnehaha Creek and eventually into the Mississippi.”

As a whitewater kayaker, Johnson has become sick from contamination in Minnesota rivers.

“I know that the quality of our water affects us in many ways,” said Johnson.

Picking up trash and then seeing it come back over and over again is frustrating, Johnson confided. But it has spurred him into helping with this effort to rid Lake Hiawatha of the garbage, most of it coming in through the city’s stormwater culvert on the north side.

“Minnesota has a great gift of abundant lakes and streams; we shouldn’t squander this, we should all be working harder to protect it,” said Johnson.

“Our water is part of our identity as Minnesotans.”

He is hopeful that those who view the art exhibit will be inspired to make changes.

“We hope to move this from a problem toward a lasting solution that will be embraced by the community,” stated Johnson.

This story appeared in the September 2015 Messenger.