The arts play a powerful role in inspiring residents to care about the environment. Through creativity and expression, art helps people build meaningful connections to the places they call home while highlighting the importance of caring for local waterways and the natural world.
For more than 25 years, PDE has integrated art into its programs to engage the public and deepen understanding of our estuary. Explore our current projects below to see how art continues to inspire stewardship in action.
Trash Into Treasure Art Contest
This annual contest, which began in 2024, features works of art from Delawareans across the state created in the spirit of litter prevention and importance of clean waterways. The pieces are shown for public display and the community selects the winner by voting online. The contest is held in conjunction with the Christina River Watershed Cleanup. Submissions are used to support multiple educational initiatives after the contest finishes.
Trash Free Waters Art Contest
The biennial Trash Free Waters Art Contest launched in 2023 as a collaboration between PDE, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Philadelphia Water Department. Together, we solicited works of art from across the Estuary related to the theme of Trash Free Waters. Voting takes place by the public at the Delaware River Festival and winning pieces from both the 2023 and 2025 art contests have been turned into advertisements in Philadelphia to promote keeping trash out of our local waterways.
Artist in Residence
The Artist in Residence project for the Greater Philadelphia Area/Delaware River Watershed was launched in 2023 by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The Delaware River Watershed was selected as one of six sites nationwide that are part of the Urban Waters Federal Partnership. The initiative focuses on critical water quality challenges in these areas, with the goal of encouraging investment and aligning arts and culture to make environmental issues more accessible and understandable, especially for communities with limited resources. Eurhi Jones, an artist based in Philadelphia, is leading this project and brings solid experience to the role, having designed and created more than 30 public murals in collaboration with organizations such as the National Geographic Society, the Philadelphia Water Department, the Philadelphia Zoo, the Please Touch Museum, and Mural Arts of Philadelphia, as well as many libraries, community gardens, and schools. Eurhi of her work: “The mission of my career in public arts is to build connections between people and the natural world to the built environment.”
