5 things you need to know about UAB’s monarch butterfly art exhibition now through Dec. 15
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Looking for a unique way to take a break? Head over to UAB’s Solar House and wander through the butterfly garden, then peruse monarch butterfly migration-inspired art created by local high school and college students. The exhibit is on from now through December 15. Keep reading for all the details.
The nuts + bolts of the monarch butterfly exhibition at UAB
- What: Monarch butterfly-inspired art exhibition + butterfly garden
- The artists: UAB students from the College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Art and Art History + 90 art students from three local high schools
- The presenters: UAB Solar House, in partnership with UAB Sustainability
- Where: UAB Solar House, 1637 11th Ave S, Birmingham, AL 35205
- When: By appointment only, 9AM-4PM, M-F, now-December 15
- Make your appointment online
UAB’s “I_Butterfly” exhibition is part of a nationwide, free-form bicycle festival, started by artist Cory McAbee, called I-Butterfly, designed to promote monarch butterfly habitat restoration. The festival features three self-guided bike tours that follow monarch migration paths:
- East Coast: Maine to Florida
- Mid-America: Canada to Mexico
- West Coast: Rockies to Pacific Ocean
Doug Barrett and Douglas Baulos are the two UAB professors who riffed off the festival concept and got BLOOM Studio graphic design students involved.
1. You’ll see butterflies IRL, including the majestic monarch
In a past life, I spent a good bit of time volunteering at a butterfly garden, and I have to say, a butterfly garden is of the more fascinating places you can while away some hours. It’s fun to watch them basking in the sun, or drinking nectar from fruit and flowers, and sometimes you can even watch one emerge from its chrysalis.
2. You’ll see monarch-inspired artwork from three local high schools
Aren’t these just beautiful? Artwork via students, photo via Pat Byington for Bham Now
Students from these three local high schools participated in the project to help raise awareness around the unique migratory patterns of monarch butterflies and the importance of preserving the milkweed where they lay their eggs:
- Hewitt-Trussville
- Mortimer Jordan
- Woodlawn
3. You’ll see monarch artwork from UAB’s graphic design students
Love seeing this study for the finished piece on the Monarch Butterfly Lifecycle by UAB student Jada Nguyen. Photos via Pat Byington for Bham Now
If you haven’t heard of BLOOM Studio, they are all about shining a light on ecological and social justice themes, according to Bambi Ingram, Sustainability Manager. The artwork above was produced as part of Professor Doug Barrett’s “Logo, Brand, Identity” Graphic Design class. The talented artist is Jada Nguyen.
4. Monarchs make a mighty migration every year
Every fall, these regal butterflies travel from Canada to Mexico and back the other way in the spring. One of the more fascinating things about their migration is that *no single butterfly makes the entire journey*, and yet somehow, as a species, they do this every single year.
Unfortunately, their numbers are dwindling, due to destruction of the one plant where they lay their eggs. Enter the I_Butterfly Festival as a way to get all of us to help.
5. Milkweed is as essential to monarchs as sunlight, air and water
Monarch on milkweed. Photo via Rick&Brenda Beerhorst (CC BY 2.0)
According to Joe Hunt, an AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer working with UAB Sustainability, if you want to help the monarchs, plant milkweed. Yes, it has weed in the name, but it’s as much of a weed as a rose, a peony or a maple tree. It’s actually a non-invasive native plant that is literally the only place where monarchs lay their eggs.
So if you see them in your yard, don’t pull them up. And if you’d like to plant some, visit monarchwatch.org. They’ll send you milkweed to get you started, and before you know it, you may have baby monarchs flying around your yard.
Once those babies grow, they’ll fly away and pollinate loads of wildflowers across the continent.
