Art, Education, and Coastal Impact at Deck The Chairs
Beaches Go Green proudly served as a prominent exhibitor for five consecutive years at Deck The Chairs, the beloved annual holiday art event illuminating Jacksonville Beach, Florida, between Thanksgiving and New Year’s. Throughout our five-year run, our innovative, environmentally-focused displays consistently earned us multiple accolades from both the Deck The Chairs organization and the Cultural Center at Ponte Vedra. While our main exhibition run has concluded, our commitment to this event continues through our student clubs, which annually create and display their own unique art to inspire ongoing education and awareness.
A centerpiece of our awareness campaign was the powerful “BGG Octopus Garden,” an award-winning installation specifically designed to make consumers think twice before purchasing single-use plastic bottles. The core mission of Beaches Go Green (BGG) is to shift public consciousness regarding the waste they produce and its profound impact on the planet, with a specific focus on the catastrophic consumption of single-use plastics polluting our oceans. The Garden’s striking centerpiece was a staggering, over 100-foot-wide octopus meticulously constructed entirely from single-use plastic waste, brought to life through hundreds of volunteer hours with the support of Artistic Contractors and Republic Services.
Recognizing that education is a cornerstone of our mission, we also dedicated a significant portion of the Octopus Garden to local schools. We invited students to express their unique perspective on the plastic pollution crisis by offering them space within the exhibit to display smaller art installations. Each of these supplementary exhibits was also constructed exclusively from recycled materials, giving young minds a powerful voice and further reinforcing the critical need for sustainable consumption within the community.
