FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
BRADLEY UNIVERSITY ART STUDENT AWARDED PURCHASE PRIZE,
ILLINOIS HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT FILM HIGHLIGHTED AT
PRAIRIE RIVERS NETWORK WILD & SCENIC FILM FESTIVAL
Contact: Jeff Kohmstedt, Prairie Rivers Network, jkohmstedt@prairierivers.org, 217-344-2371 ext. 207
PEORIA (October 13, 2017) – Prairie Rivers Network (PRN) will award Bradley University student Katelyn Edwards with a Purchase Prize for her photographic art in a joint Society for Photographic Education (SPE) and PRN exhibition based on water. PRN will also feature a film produced by University Laboratory High School students from Urbana titled The Pollution of Our Waterways at the Wild & Scenic Film Festival. Both events will take place on October 13 and be held at the Riverfront Museum, 222 SW Washington St, in Peoria, Illinois.
Illinois rivers and streams face many threats, and clean water is a precious resource that we must work together to protect. This art exhibition and film festival highlight the many ways people everywhere work to focus public awareness on environmental issues to make a difference in their communities.
Louisville University student Zed Saeed will be awarded Best in Show. Two other Bradley University students will also be awarded second place and honorable mention prizes for their photographic works in this juried Midwest region exhibition sponsored by PRN and the SPE. Dylan Pashke will receive second place honors and Cenica Hall the honorable mention prize.
“Art is an ideal medium to show the beauty and preciousness of water,” says Carol Hays, Executive Director at PRN. “It illustrates both how vital and threatened it is. Everyone needs safe, clean, and healthy water.”
The Wild & Scenic Film Festival will inspire audience members to protect our natural resources through environmental activism and increasing public awareness.
“Films like The Pollution of Our Waterways highlight the importance of young people taking part in shining a light on the dangers to local water sources and wildlife,” Hays says. “This festival celebrates environmental stewardship and demonstrates the importance of activism in safeguarding a community.”
This is the first year that PRN has hosted the festival. In its fifteenth year, the Wild & Scenic Film Festival was started by the South Yuba River Citizens League, a nonprofit river conservation organization located in Nevada City, California. The films illustrate not only the challenges facing our planet but the work communities do to protect the environment and the places we love.
Prairie Rivers Network is Illinois’ advocate for clean water and healthy rivers. PRN advocates for public policies and cultural values that sustain the ecological health and biological diversity of water resources and aquatic ecosystems. It is a member-supported, nonprofit organization that champions clean, healthy rivers and lakes and safe drinking water to benefit the people and wildlife of Illinois.
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