Page 6 - 2022 Report to the Community

This year marked the first major Bell- produced exhibition in our new building, Seeing Birds — which brought our incredible art and science collections together.
CREATIVE BY NATURE
Seeing Birds featured the work of Bell curators, Associate Professors
Sushma Reddy and F. Keith Barker, and their students. This exhibition engaged 62,656 visitors with the Bell’s long and robust connection with wildlife art and ornithological research, highlighting the work of past Bell directors T.S. Roberts and Walter Breckenridge as well as artists including Francis Lee Jaques and John James Audubon. The show included recently donated artwork from former curator of birds Professor David Parmalee and a new commission by paleoartist Emily Willoughby.
Art provides an opportunity to connect with our natural world in ways that we never thought possible.
In July and August 2022, the Bell brought the world within arm’s reach for visitors through UK based artist Luke Jerrum’s Gaia. Suspended in Horizon Hall, Gaia capti- vated 13,077 Bell visitors, as they experienced Earth the same way astronauts do from space. This experience prompted questions about how the planet is changing from the effects of climate change and inspired imagination from some of our younger visitors, who were positive they could see penguins!