A collaboration between Brown Library and the Department of Environmental Sciences, the exhibit is an outgrowth of a recent movement to link Art, the Humanities and place-based science in an effort to increase public awareness of the natural world, the environmental issues that impact our surroundings, and the complex interactions between human societies and the ecosystems in which we live. The exhibit is an offshoot of recent Art and Ecology classes at the Anheuser-Busch Coastal Research Center (ABCRC) on Virginia's Eastern Shore. These classes bring Virginia public school teachers to the ABCRC to paint and draw local wildlife. Artwork from the classes is then used to produce traveling exhibits, which also incorporate comments from participants, photos of class activities, a summary of the local history, and a description of the major environmental factors shaping the landscape.
