The Bronx Is Blossoming

  • Made By CUP With:
  • Students
  • Tags:
  • Environment

Students investigate green spaces in the South Bronx.

A student uses spray chalk to stencil images of nature in the neighborhood.
Students practice photography by creating a photo essay with the prompt "Nature vs. Industry".

Who has access to nature in the city? Who decides?

In the summer of 2018, public high school students from around the South Bronx collaborated with CUP, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), and Teaching Artist Hugo Rojas to investigate these questions.

Students photographed the neighborhood, created stop-motion animations, and stenciled the area with spray chalk. They conducted community surveys, interviewed key stakeholders, and used WCS’s design tool Visionmaker.nyc to create digital renderings of what nature in the Bronx could look like in the future.

The team used design and art to break down the information they gathered, and collaborated with designer Kevin Cadena to create a website to teach others what they learned.

See photos of the students in action here!

Students survey members of the South Bronx community about their relationship to nature.
Students after their interview with landscape ecologist Eric Sanderson at the Bronx Zoo.

“I like being an interviewer. I like being in a position where I can…hear from a person whom you otherwise wouldn’t…[The interviews] gave you a sense of ’You’re doing this and you have a choice in this.”

— Blake Coniglio, student

Check out the Project

The webpages from The Bronx Is Blossoming.


Students

Rayken Almonte, Ostin Bernardez, Michael Berrios, Blake Coniglio
Brianna Douglas, Nusrath Islam, Anyer Ogando, Fredelin Ortiz, Hector Peña, Luis Pinales, Tyreek Saunders

Special Thanks

Huong Dinh, Caroline Ellis, Katie Lan, Jeff Palladino, Jen Robinson, Emilio Vides-Curnen, Irina Vinnitskaya

Funding Support

This project was made possible by a grant awarded through the Mozilla Foundation’s Hive NYCInnovation Fund.