An Otter Planet Partners with Oceana and Receives Patent for Innovative Gameplay!
“An Otter Planet“ (AOP) is a boundary-pushing, environmentally themed, strategy-based video game scheduled for commercial release in 2025. The goal of AOP is to harness the extraordinary cultural influence and reach of gaming to ignite awareness of the global water crisis and climate change; to open dialogue between and among millions of players and scientists; and to directly connect them with activists and organizations at the leading edge of water revitalization, conservation, and stewardship. We are thrilled to announce that Habithèque now holds a patent for the system and methods for An Otter Planet’s innovative game play.
Working toward realizing AOP’s goal of directly supporting innovative, smart, and sustainable initiatives to protect and revitalize water in our world, we have also aligned with Oceana as our conservation partner. With offices in North America, Central America, South America, Europe and Asia, Oceana is the world’s largest international advocacy organization focused solely on ocean conservation. AOP’s alliance with Oceana is grounded in the collective mission to fuel meaningful action to address the pressing global challenges around water. Oceana has a base of over 8.8 million supporters worldwide, and AOP will have access to these supporters.
Our industry partners have validated AOP’s huge potential to tap into the massive, ever-growing international game market, now valued at more than $300 billion. Education-focused distribution partners such as BrainPOP are also excited to be a part of our AOP endeavor, which imaginatively combines serious fun with serious impact. Post commercial launch, a free-to-play off-shoot of AOP will launch on BrainPOP’s GameUP—a cross-curricular educational games portal serving students and teachers, grades K-12, from across 8,000 U.S. school districts.
An Otter Planet has also captured the imagination and endorsement of key industry players like Unity, the world’s leading game engine company. Unity prominently featured the game on their June 8, 2022, blog (https://bit.ly/3mTjtmQ) about inspiring creators who are accelerating positive environmental and climate impact.
Stay tuned for more as Habithèque brings An Otter Planet to life!
POOL WINS PRESTIGIOUS AWARD OF EXCELLENCE FROM AASLH!
In May 2023, the American Association for State and Local History (AASLH) announced that the Fairmount Water Works Interpretive Center was selected as a 2023 Award of Excellence winner by the Leadership in History awards committee for POOL: A Social History of Segregation.
The AASLH Leadership in History Awards is the nation’s most prestigious competition for recognition of achievement in state and local history. Habithèque is thrilled that POOL continues to receive accolades for its affective, artistic approach to the exploration of social inequities.
POOL Honored With More Awards!
POOL received the inaugural Making an Impact Award from the Mid-Atlantic Association of Museums in Washington, DC, yesterday at the annual MAAM conference! We are so proud that two inspiring female leaders in the field of aquatics, Dr. Angela Beale-Tawfeeq, Director of Research and Education, and Dr. Miriam Lynch, Executive Director of Diversity in Aquatics, attended the ceremony to accept the award on behalf of POOL and the stories and voices it represents.
The POOL team also received an honorable mention in the Social Justice category in Fast Company’s 2022 Innovation by Design Awards.
We are incredibly grateful for the way POOL has been honored during its initial six-month run.
POOL Receives Two Honors for Excellence!
Habithèque’s newest exhibition, POOL: A Social History of Segregation, is the recipient of two prestigious honors for excellence.
The first is a Mid-Atlantic Emmy Awards nomination in the category of Diversity/Equity/Inclusion for Long Form Programming Content for a scholarly documentary produced and directed by Monica Rogozinski of WHYY-TV on the POOL exhibition for its “Movers & Makers” series.
The second award will be presented to the Fairmount Water Works Interpretive Center by the Pennsylvania Environmental Council (PEC), recognizing POOL with its “Special Places” award, an honor bestowed upon a space that demonstrates innovative planning and design practices, environmental leadership, and community impact. The awards dinner will be held on November 17th in Philadelphia.
Philadelphia DA Larry Krasner and Activist Kirsten Britt Speak Out for Pool Access at POOL Exhibition
Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner discussed the importance of public pools to stem youth violence at a press conference held at the POOL exhibition on Monday, July 11th, calling for extended hours of operation at Philly’s current swimming facilities to help prevent violence in the city. “I don’t know if there’s any better way to put it than saving lives as opposed to taking lives,” Krasner said. “I’d like to go down that path instead of seeing kids on either end of a gun.”
Activist Kirsten Britt also spoke stating, “I deserve to swim, people like me deserve to swim, and unfortunately in our city, we’re struggling with closing pools at a time when we need it the most.” Britt is the founder of Inspire Me 2 Change and the I Deserve to Swim group working to reopen public pools that have been closed in predominantly Black neighborhoods.
Unity Technologies Features An Otter Planet & Habithèque as impact creators for World Oceans Day 2022!
Unity, the world’s leading cross-platform game engine, has chosen to feature An Otter Planet as part of their World Oceans Day blog featuring inspiring creators! Read Unity’s post here: https://bit.ly/3mTjtmQ
An appreciation of the world’s oceans starts with education. An Otter Planet, the exciting new video game by Habithèque that is currently in development, is being designed to teach players about water, and help them understand its importance to all life on Earth.
As well as educating and raising awareness through a fun, interactive game, An Otter Planet will also raise money for charities to support water-related protection and revitalization efforts through in-game purchases and charitable donations.
Learn more about the world of An Otter Planet here
POOL EXPANDS WITH SPLASH/CONCESSIONS LIVE MUSIC & FOOD EVENTS IN JULY 2022
SPLASH/CONCESSIONS is a series of musical performances held in the lanes of the former Kelly Pool and outside the Fairmount Water Works (weather permitting). Fairmount Water Works and Habithèque have partnered with artist Homer Jackson and chef and social justice activist Valerie Erwin to realize the original vision to have live performances activate the heart of the POOL: A Social History of Segregation exhibition.
These events are designed to expand the experience of POOL: A Social History of Segregation, prolong the discussion, and re-ignite interest in this extraordinary exhibition. In between thirty-minute musical sets, our Concession Stand will be open, with food prepared by young local entrepreneurs of color.
EVENTS:
Water Speaks: July 16th & 30th, 3-5pm – Keisha Hutchins Hirlinger & Doug Hirlinger Group
Trouble The Water: August 13th & 27th, 3-5pm – Philadelphia Jazz Tap Ensemble
The Price Of A Rainbow: September 10th & 24th, 3-5pm – Marcell Bellinger & Paul Giess Brass Quartet
VICTORIA PRIZZIA HONORED BY DIVERSITY IN AQUATICS FOR WORK CREATING POOL: A SOCIAL HISTORY OF SEGREGATION
Habithèque founder Victoria Prizzia was honored for her work creating POOL: A Social History of Segregation with the peer-nominated Lee Pitts Award for Leadership and Organizational Excellence at the Diversity In Aquatics (DIA) annual conference in February 2022. DIA is a national organization dedicated to increasing water safety and aquatic activities in historically underrepresented and vulnerable communities.
According to DIA’s Director of Education and Research, Angela Beale-Tawfeeq, PhD., who nominated Victoria for this recognition, “As evident in the historical breadth and creativity of the POOL exhibition, Victoria’s work and collaborative partnerships with multiple organizations was cultivated with the utmost of respect and humility. She honors those who came before, while opening conversations to a broader public. Her work is very much in alignment with Diversity In Aquatics’ 2022 convention theme of ‘Co-Creating Equitable Aquatic Spaces: From Talk to Action’, and our mission to provide educational programming and awareness, and to equip vulnerable populations with the skills needed to be safe and the opportunity to participate in aquatic physical activities and environments.”
To learn more visit: www.poolphl.com
River Alive! Wins Prestigious AAM Award
In May 2020, the American Alliance of Museums honored River Alive! and the Independence Seaport Museum with its award for Special Achievement in Interactivity as part of its 32nd Annual Excellence in Exhibition Awards. The exhibition helped to increase visitor-ship to the Independence Seaport Museum by 30% since opening in November 2018. This exhibition merges 21st century communication technologies, water conservation and protection concepts, and scientific methods with the richness of interdisciplinary learning, where history, art and scientific discovery intersect.
Habithèque is thrilled to have its work making environmental issues accessible—developed in collaboration with Bluecadet, Hands On! Studio and Handymakes Studio—be honored by this esteemed group, which represents more than 4,000 museum partners.
Learn more about River Alive! here.
THE HABITHÈQUE BLUE AND GREEN FUND IS OFFICIALLY A 501(C)(3)
We are thrilled to announce that the Habithèque Blue and Green Fund has been granted 501(c)(3) status!
The Fund was formed to promote and further societal awareness of emerging technologies and techniques for water conservation, ecosystem restoration and renewable energy while also providing a vision for scaling these advancements for global impact.
The Fund will accomplish these goals through partnerships with designers, artists, scientists and others in the development of education-focused storytelling assets and experiences. These assets and experiences will be brought to the public in the form of digital media components and applications, museum exhibitions, public art installations, events and other public engagement interventions at the intersection of nature, art, science, innovation, and play.
The overarching purpose of the Fund is to make the public aware that what we do on the land impacts the quality of our waterways and that we can learn from nature to help protect and revitalize our most essential resource— water. Our work aims to provide bridges between the built and natural worlds to help people learn and make informed decisions as citizens of a dynamic planet.
For its present and planned activities, the Fund anticipates that those activities will primarily be project-based multi-disciplinary collaborations. Protecting our rivers and streams is vital to a healthy and sustainable future for all living things. We are all deeply connected to the water that surrounds us. Everything we do, from planting trees to cleaning our homes affects our fresh water system. The health of our rivers impacts the places where we live and work.
Water is inextricably, if not always visibly, connected to the environmental and economic health of any region. Although we know that protecting our rivers, streams and oceans is essential for clean water and our health and well-being, we often lack the understanding of the larger ecosystem that water is a part of, and the ways in which each of us can play an integral role in creating and sustaining healthy ecosystems.
We see an exceptional place and time to develop technology platforms that will ignite the minds and curiosities of young people to become more aware of, and connected to, the extraordinary states of water— up in the clouds, within their own body, throughout the universe, in their backyard, under their city and around the globe.
The Board
Victoria Prizzia – President and Member, Board of Directors
Nella Bloom, Managing Member of Bloom & Bloom, LLC, a law firm in Philadelphia – Member, Board of Directors, Chief Operating Officer
Greg Belew, Principal-in-Charge at Hands On! Studio – Member, Board of Directors, Chief Financial Officer
Please email us at victoria@habitheque.com or visit https://habithequeblueandgreenfund.com for more.
Habithèque teams up with the Dream Philly Festival to celebrate kids' dreams!
Habithèque is honored to support the 2019 Dream Philly Festival, presented by Dreamline, a global movement to move students around the world in the direction of their dreams together. Habithèque is creating the “Dream Spiral,” a PVC structure designed to immerse visitors in Dreamline flags—the poetic and artistic expressions of hopes and dreams created by Dreamline participants.
This FREE all-ages event is complete with live entertainment, inspiring speakers, student-created works of art from across the city and around the world, workshops, networking opportunities, local vendors, food trucks and MORE!
Sunday, May 12: Cherry Street Pier
WINDOWS ON THE WATERSHED HONORED WITH THREE PINNACLE AWARDS
The 2018 Philadelphia Flower Show, themed “Wonders of Water”, has been awarded 17 Pinnacle Awards by the International Festivals and Events Association (IFEA).
This total included three Pinnacle Awards for Habithèque’s 3,250 square foot living installation “Windows on the Watershed” (Gold Medal for Best Single New Sponsorship Opportunity), the Water Summit organized by Habithèque (Silver Medal for Best Educational Program), and our partnership with the William Penn Foundation (Gold Medal for Best Sponsor Partner) to produce these explorations of the importance of water and water systems to us all. Habithèque was delighted to be involved in such a unique project, which was experienced by more than 162,000 people during the Flower Show’s 10-day exhibition.
Learn more about Windows on the Watershed here
Photo: Stacy Levy
Habithèque's Mussel Hatchery receives award and helps Partnership for the Delaware Estuary secure $7.9 million
The Freshwater Mussel Hatchery Project has received the Water Resources Association of the Delaware River Basin’s 2018 Achievement Award. This award is presented to a WRA/DRB member or member organization whose services have advanced the cause of sound water resources management. The award was presented at the 36th Annual Recognition Dinner on Wednesday, April 18, 2018, at The Down Town Club in Philadelphia.
The Mussel Hatchery and Living Laboratory, funded by the PEW Center for Arts and Heritage and conceived and created by Habithèque, catapulted the Fairmount Water Works (FWW) to the center of watershed education in the region, solidifying its leadership role in communicating innovative water stories to the public at large.
The Mussel Hatchery is a dynamic storytelling platform where real science feeds the points of engagement of an exhibition that discusses contemporary issues. Through this living laboratory, the FWW was able to expand its audience base, make deep and ongoing collaborative relationships with practicing artists and scientists, while vividly demonstrating how powerful and accessible storytelling can impact public policy and create social change.
Our exhibition assets directly helped the project’s scientific partners secure $7.9 million for a commercial hatchery, which is likely to serve as a scalable model, nationally and globally, for nature-based solutions to the health of freshwater systems.
Learn more at: www.mightymussel.com