Week 7 of 10/10—Reflections on a Decade of Exhibitions and we are at the year 2016, which doesn’t seem that long ago. This week we focus on the work of Sara Angelucci, an artist from Toronto who works with photography, video, and audio. For her Halsey exhibition titled Aviary, Angelucci emphasized the relationship between the natural world and endangered species. These works of art are made by combining photographs of endangered or extinct North American birds with anonymous nineteenth century portraits—both of which similarly portray creatures who are either no long with us or are in danger of existing no more.

For this art assignment, we picked an activity that both children and adults can do that recognizes endangered species. The only supplies needed are old magazines, glue, scissors, sturdy paper, and a pencil.

Instructions:

1. Draw the outline of an animal on a sturdy piece of paper. You can either do this free hand or use a template. There are plenty available for free online, but we’ve linked a few to use here.
2. Cut or rip strips of colorful paper from the magazines.
3. Trim or rip strips to fit inside of your animal silhouette. You can play around with positioning the strips vertically, horizontally, diagonally, or any other way of your choosing.
4. Glue each piece onto the paper until the silhouette is filled.

Once complete, you can either cut the silhouette out or consider drawing a background on the paper. If doing this activity with children, consider talking to them about the endangered species. Why are these animals threatened? Where are their natural habitats? What can humans do to prevent them from becoming extinct? Ask them to identify more endangered species that they know of.

If you did this project or something similar, please share with us! Let us know by email at halsey@cofc.edu. Happy creating!

By Sarah Berry, Halsey Institute education coordinator