Endangered Species Coalition collaborates with Creatives of all kinds: visual artists, musicians, writers, animators and others, to produce new, innovative projects reimagining human and more-than-human relationships. We support the work of creatives by collaborating to tell stories about wildlife plants, and wild places. We ground these projects in conservation science and leverage the power of the arts to inspire action supporting biodiversity protections and species recovery. We work with diverse communities to envision and create new, positive narratives for wildlife — and for people.
Creative practices, including visual art, music, performance and other expressions shape and are shaped by culture -the arts are at the very core of what it means to be human. Recognizing artists as deeply invested practitioners shaping culture, the Endangered Species Coalition develops creative outreach projects expressing wildlife and plant conservation. ESC works with artists across media to invite participation in our efforts to support imperiled species.
Creative Engagement Projects
Current Projects
In support of Colorado wolf reintroduction, we recently released the latest installment of our Wolf Tales project: Return of the Wolf to Colorado by animators Edd Carr and Gabriel Rolim, with audio soundscape by Joel Maddox and vocals by Ayesha Ubayatilaka.
Edd Carr printed each frame as a cyanotype, anthotype/cyanotype combination, or hand-painted watercolours. These historic, non-toxic photographic techniques are complemented by the digital practices of Gabriel Rolim, who mixed and remixing manipulated footage to create a collaborative film.
Big thanks to Voyageurs Wolf Project for allowing the use of their camera trap footage of wolves and to Animated Ecologies for co-realizing this project.
Past Projects
Daughters of the Sun
Monarch butterflies are an iconic North American species; yet in the past forty years the Western population has experienced a dramatic 99% decline. In 2020, the overwintering count of monarch butterflies in California hit an all time low of just 1, 914 individual butterflies.
Responding to the critical status of monarchs, Endangered Species Coalition created Daughters of the Sun: a bilingual English-Spanish origami project, animation, and gallery exhibition in Colorado. More than 3,000 paper origami monarchs with handwritten messages folded inside were contributed by individuals. The paper monarchs communicate our shared connection with the monarch, while calling for habitat restoration and protection, pesticide use reduction, and other conservation measures.
Daughters of the Sun featured an installation of the completed origami butterflies by artist Cal Duran, and an original animation short by Samantha Inman with audio of monarch butterfly wings recorded in the field by UK sound artist Rob Mackay.
Orca Memorial
Following the tragic, globally recognized 17 day ‘Tour of Grief’ by orca mother Tahlequah (J35) following the death of her baby calf, and the subsequent death of orca Scarlet (J50), Endangered Species Coalition organized a memorial for the orca in Pioneer Square, Seattle, followed by a procession to Washington state Senators’ offices. There, the community called for removal of the Snake River dams and other measures to recover imperiled southern resident orca. The orca memorial was led by moving presentations from Pacific Northwest Tribal Members, and featured musical and visual performances.
