Art Schools Pushed to Improve Environmental Record

Art schools and university art departments are where the next generation of professional artists receives its training. A number of schools in the Northeast, however, have been taking a remedial course in the disposal of toxic art materials from the federal Environmental Protection Agency. "Schools just don't get that environmental rules apply to them," said Peggy Bagnoli, program leader for the EPA's College and University Initiative. "They think hazardous wastes are just what big factories produce."

The five year-old Initiative examined hazardous waste disposal practices campus-wide at dozens of colleges and universities in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont, but what struck government inspectors most clearly was the failure of the art departments to even know which materials they worked with were hazardous. "There is a real lack of knowledge within the art departments of what is in the materials they are using and what the risks are in handling or disposing of them," said Rich Piligian, an EPA inspector.

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