A part of
The Blue Heart project, designed by Healing Lesvos and launched in 2018, equips students with practical entrepreneurial skills tailored to the blue economy, and inspires them to drive meaningful change through innovative, sustainable solutions to conservation challenges whilst preparing them for career opportunities.
The program unites the Petra Lyceum & Gymnasium, the New Village School in California, the University of the Aegean, Lesvos Plastic Free, divers, experts and academics, students, conservationists, and the marine industry to explore biodiversity through data collection and mapping.
Overall, the Blue Heart project addresses community and cultural needs to ensure the development of sustainable management approaches for effective marine conservation.
The Blue Heart project aims to promote:
Based on The Blue Heart Project’s success, we repeated and expanded the project to include Bringing Light to Litter, an immersive art workshop aimed at repurposing plastic waste with the intent to eliminate single-use plastic.
Lesvos, the birthplace of biological study dating back to Aristotle’s time, serves as a crossroads of rich biodiversity from the Mediterranean and Anatolian regions. However, its marine and coastal environments are under threat from plastic pollution, which endangers marine life, disrupts ecosystems, and impacts local economies.
Bringing Light to Litter is an initiative that transforms this environmental challenge into an opportunity for education and artistic expression, engaging local and international communities in reimagining waste through creativity.
Through Bringing Light to Litter, we provided an opportunity for students and teachers who expressed their desire to participate in more programmes that create beauty and inspire marine conservation.Local students from Petra village and international students from California came together in Petra’s main square where they conducted a visitor survey to gather insights from people around the world.
These insights served as an integral component of our citizen science program, which is dedicated to community engagement and education to advance the long term protection of our marine environment, our ocean, and our life!
Led by artist Lila Vail, this immersive art project and workshop series transformed discarded plastic into sculptural installations that reflect the island’s natural beauty. Through hands-on workshops, students and community members observed waste as raw material for artistic transformation, fostering awareness and encouraging action towards sustainability.
The final installation, illuminated at dusk, symbolizes a shift in perception—bringing light to both the issue of litter and creative conservation practices. Exhibited in the coastal region of Petra – where the waste was collected – the project stands as a testament to the importance of creative approaches to environmental stewardship, inspiring change one innovation at a time.
