05/26/18

Frogs Are Green at Jersey City City Council

On Monday, May 21, 2018, Susan Newman addressed the Jersey City City Council about Frogs Are Green’s mission and the children’s artwork up in the Caucus room. A curated selection of the 2017 winners in our Annual kids’ art contest.

Below is a transcript and the video of that event.

“Good afternoon Council President Lavarro and Jersey City City Council members. I am deeply honored to be here today to talk for a few minutes about Frogs Are Green.

We are on an awareness mission to educate the public about the threats to frogs and amphibians. Frogs are threatened by habitat loss, climate change, pollution, and disease. Because they breathe and drink through their skin, they are extremely sensitive to an unhealthy environment. Chemicals, pesticides, ozone, and UV are dangerous, even deadly, to them.

According to the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) Red List of Threatened Species, a third of the world’s amphibian species are threatened with extinction.

This spring marks our tenth year and our voice grows stronger each day. Through blogging, interviews, social media and a variety of annual events we have reached millions of people.

Every fall, Frogs Are Green holds a kids’ art contest for ages 3-17 and a photo contest, open to all ages. Hundreds of entries come in from over 30 countries and as close as Hoboken and Jersey City and this number increases every year. I’m proud to say that this is a yearly project in the JC public school system and the students have entered for the last 4 years.

Children are naturally curious about nature and can express themselves through art in a way they cannot always express verbally. To inspire them we change the theme each year. This past year we received close to a 1000 artworks and the selection on the walls in this caucus room were curated from the winners in 2017. The theme was Amphibians & Reptiles. The contests will open again in September and we will have a new theme and a new selection of judges. I’m very excited about this fall as we will partnering with another organization to raise funds to save the frogs and the rainforest. We do not charge any fees to enter.

In addition to our annual contests and spring exhibitions, we design and publish books for adults and children to learn from and enjoy. These are a few of the books we’ve published and we have more in development.

Our New Jersey nonprofit organization is called FROGS ARE GREEN because we believe that healthy frogs mean a healthy planet. By saving the frogs, we will also save our planet—and ourselves.”

Susan Newman, Founder and President
Frogs Are Green Inc.

04/8/18

Amphibians and Reptiles Art Exhibit at Jersey City City Hall

Frogs Are Green is proud to showcase artwork by children around the world in collaboration with The City of Jersey City and the JC Office of Cultural Affairs for the 4th consecutive year! Just in time for Earth Day on April 22.

The curated exhibition from the annual kids art contest is up in the City Hall caucus room, so it will be visible in the City Council videos for the month of April. The best days to see the artworks are Mondays and Fridays. Just call or stop by the City Council’s office on the 2nd floor of City Hall.

Below is a list of the young artists in the exhibit.

Antariksha Sethiya, 14 yrs old, India
Claire Lee, 10 yrs old, California, USA
Elcin Sefer, 13 yrs old, Turkey
Eylem Konuklar, 10 yrs old, Turkey
Fatemeh Tabrizi, 16 yrs old, Iran
Gegea Bianca, 15 yrs old, Romania
Giwoo Kim, 14 yrs old, California, USA
Ipek Liva Gurses, 5 yrs old, Turkey
John Rama, 17 yrs old, Jersey City, New Jersey, USA
K.C.J. Perera, 12 yrs old, Sri Lanka
Luniva Joshi, 12 yrs old, Jersey City, New Jersey, USA
Lynn Sun, 9 yrs old, USA
Margaret Kelly, 7 yrs old, Hoboken, New Jersey, USA
Mina Buyukgonenc, 9 yrs old, Turkey
Minh Khanh Truong, 6 yrs old, Vietnam
Ng Yin Hei, 7 yrs old, China
Paulus Ong, 5 yrs old, Indonesia
Rachel Paulus, 9 yrs old, Florida, USA
Richard Alicea, 17 yrs old, Jersey City, New Jersey, USA
Ritvik Patra, 9 yrs old, California, USA
Shrushti Chavan, 12 yrs old, Jersey City, New Jersey, USA
Tanvi Gadre, 13 yrs old, India
Viktoriya Kukarekina, 10 yrs old, Texas, USA
Yanbo Feng, 14 yrs old, Michigan, USA

Any questions about this show, just let us know.
info@frogsaregreen.com

 

Sponsored by:
Remco Press of New Jersey

 

 

 

 

 

Strawesome - creating glass straws to replace plastic one

12/13/15

Reptile Kingdom Resides in Painting Workshop

Dec.6, 2015
Text by LAN Lianchao
Video by LAN Lianchao & CHANG Zhuojin & SHI Xinyue & LIU Yuting

Hundreds of transparent boxes are piled up against the wall, with simulated wild environments. The residents of those cubical rooms have watched the day and night of the painting workshop, ARTTRA, for seven years.

The vivarium belongs to a painter, Herman Chan, 41, who has over 100 reptiles from about 50 species.

“Maybe you can not find a second painting workshop with so many reptiles in Hong Kong,” he says.

Chan’s pets attract people who learn painting in a way of improving their ability of observation. Reptile knowledge is a bonus for curious students.

Chan says he collects and breeds various species of reptiles on purpose. “I enjoy taking care of them technically,” he says.

The first reptile owned by Chan was a salamander when he was in the primary school. Since then he has never stopped.

Chan used to raise his reptiles at home, afraid of customers’ resistance against them. He says he hopes to stay with them more, not only the time after work.

Not until he took a chameleon to the studio did he find the charisma of his pets. Children are really into it and inspired to watch the detailed of the animal, Chan says.

Meanwhile Chan tells them chameleons change color due to the temperature, humidity or light, not the background colors thought by many people.

“The studio is a perfect combination of my hobby and job,” Chan adds. “It is an incubator for my reptiles and my painting.”

Chan Tsz Yin Andrea, 5 yrs old, Hong Kong, Arttra.

Chan Tsz Yin Andrea, 5 yrs old, Hong Kong, Arttra.

With the Frogs Are Green annual children’s art contest deadline approaching, you can see how engaged the young students are by learning about amphibians and reptiles, seeing them up close, and then expressing themselves through art. I’m thrilled that Herman’s students entered our annual contest!

This blog was originally posted on https://lanlianchao.wordpress.com Frogs Are Green has permission to repost it.