ARPHA Proceedings 6: 67-71, doi: 10.3897/ap.e126595
"From sea to street": initiating change for stronger connection with our ocean
expand article infoBaiba Prūse‡, Sophia Kochalski§, Marta Dieviņa|, Ignacio Gianelli, Katina Roumbedakis#, Marien Helmus‡¤, Embla Ekström«, Ludovica Montecchio», Tanja Straka˄, Svea Rogge˅, Arne Kinds, Natali Lazzari, Milena Arias Schreiber«, Sebastián Villasante
‡ Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands§ Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Kiel, Germany| The Latvian Academy of Culture, Rīga, Latvia¶ University of Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, Spain# Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas, Integrated Marine Ecology, Vigo, Spain¤ Universiteit van Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands« University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden» Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Venice, Italy˄ Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany˅ Technische Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany

Corresponding author: Baiba Prūse ( b.pruse@vu.nl )

© Baiba Prūse, Sophia Kochalski, Marta Dieviņa, Ignacio Gianelli, Katina Roumbedakis, Marien Helmus, Embla Ekström, Ludovica Montecchio, Tanja Straka, Svea Rogge, Arne Kinds, Natali Lazzari, Milena Arias Schreiber, Sebastián Villasante.
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Citation: Prūse B, Kochalski S, Dieviņa M, Gianelli I, Roumbedakis K, Helmus M, Ekström E, Montecchio L, Straka T, Rogge S, Kinds A, Lazzari N, Schreiber MA, Villasante S (2024) "From sea to street": initiating change for stronger connection with our ocean. ARPHA Proceedings 6: 67-71. https://doi.org/10.3897/ap.e126595
Open Access
Abstract
The Earth’s vital ocean is constantly changing and is at risk due to pollution, overfishing, and climate change (Pörtner et al. 2022). Research highlights the importance of personal attachment to the sea in fostering responsible stewardship (Chawla 2020; Pyle 2003). In urban areas, opportunities for human-nature interactions are limited, making mediated experiences, i.e., indirect interactions a crucial tool for fostering ocean stewardship. Murals, a form of street art, are prevalent in many cities around the world (Schacter and MacDowall 2023) and have been suggested as tools to promote community engagement and raise environmental literacy and awareness (see Mattern 1999; Sanchez et al. 2020; Schneller and Irizarry 2014). Based on the lessons learned from the project “From Sea to Street”, we hypothesise that murals evoke emotions, thoughts and memories, thereby shaping and strengthening people’s connection to the marine environment. 
Keywords
street art, murals, ocean literacy, citizen science