By Jessica Schultz
Art isn’t just something you view. It impacts you, as a viewer. Creates emotions, makes you think and can create awareness. Art can also be a tool, used to help people understand situations in the world around them. The Roger Tory Peterson Institute (located at 311 Curtis Street, Jamestown NY, 14701) wants to help raise awareness about environmental issues and help envision ways to create a more sustainable future. Their new exhibit, “Art that Matters to the Planet” opens July 27th and will be on view through October 30th, 2022.
This will be an annual juried exhibition at the nexus of art and science. The inaugural exhibition seeks to discover the meaning of the phrase “Art that Matters to the Planet”. It isn’t your typical exhibition. Each selected artist was asked to make something that best describes their own artistic process and to do whatever it takes to help the audience understand how and why each artist uses their art to illuminate the beauty of the natural world, confront environmental issues of national and global concern, and to inspire viewers to preserve the earth’s biodiversity.
These artists are making the strong case that art not only matters but it is essential for creating a better world. They come from all over the world to display their work.
They are: May Babcock (Pawtucket, RI) an interdisciplinary American artist whose work is rooted in hand papermaking (turning plants/seaweed into paper); Sara Baker Michalak (Dunkirk, NY) who does fabulous mixed media artworks celebrate the natural world’s wellbeing; David Cook (Austin, TX); Margaret Craig (San Antonio, TX) artist and printmaker who invented the “Tar Gel” Pressless Etching technique; Jeanne Filler Scott (Springfield, KY); Katerie Gladdys and Doug Barrett (Gainesville, FL); Meredith Leich (Arlington, MA) a water color painter, animator and video artist; Brandi Long (Miami, FL); Michele Heather Pollock (Columbus, IN); Ivonne Portillo (Barcelona, Spain) a Columbian woman living in Barcelona who is inspired by the strength of nature and works with a variety of materials and colors; Michelle Schwengel-Regala (Mililani, HI); Anne-Katrin Spiess (New York, NY); Dana Tyrrell (Niagara Falls, NY) a writer, curator and artist who has works displayed in private and public collections throughout the United States; Amy Wendland (Durango, CO); Suze Woolf (Seattle, WA) an artist that creates watercolor landscapes, industryscapes and climate change imagery.
There will be finished works, field sketches, preparatory drawings, accompanying narratives, videos and photos. The official opening ceremony for the exhibition is on Friday, July 29th from 6-9pm. (Registration is required, you can register by visiting rtpi.org) The event is free for museum members and regular museum admission costs apply to non-members. There will be live music, light snacks, a cash bar and a panel of artists from the exhibition – Sara Baker Michalak, Margaret Craig, and Brandi Long. They are updating their website, rtpi.org with more details as they become available.
Don’t miss out on visiting this powerful exhibition. It promises not just to entertain but to teach and guide as well. Art can help make a difference. For more information, please visit rtpi