The Conservation Through Art (CTA) initiative promotes awareness and inspires protection of our public places through public art exhibits, art and creative writing workshops, hikes, creative projects, readings and public talks. We are grateful for funding from the Alabama State Council on the Arts.
2026 Conservation Through Art: Creativity in Nature
Our 2026 Conservation Through Art: Creativity In Nature initiative emphasizes engagement in the infinite creativity of nature through art. Evidence-based studies show that creative connection in nature supports human well-being in fundamental ways such as enhanced creative thinking, as well as mental and physical health. When we learn to attend to nature as ourselves, we come to understand that we are not separate from nature. Like nature, each of us in inherently creative, and we can lean into that as we express our unique experiences of being alive through art. Our 2026 creative collaboration partners include Jacksonville State University, Talladega College, and Athens State University. We expect to include additional partners as well.
Our 2026 Conservation Through Art: Creativity In Nature initiative emphasizes engagement in the infinite creativity of nature through art. Evidence-based studies show that creative connection in nature supports human well-being in fundamental ways such as enhanced creative thinking, as well as mental and physical health. When we learn to attend to nature as ourselves, we come to understand that we are not separate from nature. Like nature, each of us in inherently creative, and we can lean into that as we express our unique experiences of being alive through art. Our 2026 creative collaboration partners include Jacksonville State University, Talladega College, and Athens State University. We expect to include additional partners as well.
Calendar of CTA Events 2026
(This calendar is in process. Please check back)
January 28
BioArt Curiosities
Allison McElroy - Artist, Professor of Painting at JSU
Jacksonville State University
Hammond Hall Room 106
12p.m. - 2:30 p.m
This event is free. Registration is required.
Register Here
February 07
Fungi Foray
Kevin England, Science Teacher Winston County High School, Adjunct Faculty Bevill State Community College
Alicia Millican, Assistant Curator of Fungi at the University of West Alabama Herbarium
Brushy Lake, Bankhead National Forest
Register
February 28
Jacksonville State Arts Council Workshop
Jacksonville, Alabama
March 21
Forest Bathing
Janice Barrett - Wild Alabama Education & Outreach Coordinator, Forest Bathing Guide
Anne Markham Bailey - Poet & Author, ANFT Certified Forest Bathing Guide
Talladega National Forest
April 02
Plein Air Painting
Timothy Joe - Artist & NASA Engineer
Allison McElroy - Artist, Professor of Painting at JSU
April 04
Wild Flower Hike
Kevin England - Science Teacher Double Springs High School
Bankhead National Forest
April 22
Writing the Wild
Anne Markham Bailey - Poet & Author, ANFT Certified Forest Bathing Guide
Athens State University
June 17
Wild Wednesday
Janice Barrett - Wild Alabama Education & Outreach Coordinator, Forest Bathing Guide
Dugger Mountain Wilderness
June 25
Writing the Wild
Anne Markham Bailey - Poet & Author, ANFT Certified Forest Bathing Guide
Athens State University
June 26 - July 31
JSU Art Show
(This calendar is in process. Please check back)
January 28
BioArt Curiosities
Allison McElroy - Artist, Professor of Painting at JSU
Jacksonville State University
Hammond Hall Room 106
12p.m. - 2:30 p.m
This event is free. Registration is required.
Register Here
February 07
Fungi Foray
Kevin England, Science Teacher Winston County High School, Adjunct Faculty Bevill State Community College
Alicia Millican, Assistant Curator of Fungi at the University of West Alabama Herbarium
Brushy Lake, Bankhead National Forest
Register
February 28
Jacksonville State Arts Council Workshop
Jacksonville, Alabama
March 21
Forest Bathing
Janice Barrett - Wild Alabama Education & Outreach Coordinator, Forest Bathing Guide
Anne Markham Bailey - Poet & Author, ANFT Certified Forest Bathing Guide
Talladega National Forest
April 02
Plein Air Painting
Timothy Joe - Artist & NASA Engineer
Allison McElroy - Artist, Professor of Painting at JSU
April 04
Wild Flower Hike
Kevin England - Science Teacher Double Springs High School
Bankhead National Forest
April 22
Writing the Wild
Anne Markham Bailey - Poet & Author, ANFT Certified Forest Bathing Guide
Athens State University
June 17
Wild Wednesday
Janice Barrett - Wild Alabama Education & Outreach Coordinator, Forest Bathing Guide
Dugger Mountain Wilderness
June 25
Writing the Wild
Anne Markham Bailey - Poet & Author, ANFT Certified Forest Bathing Guide
Athens State University
June 26 - July 31
JSU Art Show
2025 Conservation Through Art: 50 Years of Wilderness in Alabama
The 2023-24 initiative Conservation Through Art: Saving Alabama's Hemlocks resonated across Alabama. Under the leadership of our former Executive Director Maggie Johnston, Wild Alabama applied for and received funding from the Alabama State Council on the Arts to move forward with the 2025 initiative celebrating the anniversary of the Eastern Wilderness Act in Alabama.
Conservation Through Art: 50 Years of Wilderness in Alabama highlights the three wilderness areas in Alabama through an art exhibit, art and creative writing workshops, hikes and Forest Bathing walks in the Wilderness areas, and public talks. The first 2025 exhibit and events took place in March and April in and around the stunning Dr. William R. Harvey Museum of Art at Talladega College, in the Dugger Mountain Wilderness, and Cheaha Wilderness. The CTA 2025 exhibit was at Lowe Mill Arts and Entertainment in Huntsville, Alabama.
The 2023-24 initiative Conservation Through Art: Saving Alabama's Hemlocks resonated across Alabama. Under the leadership of our former Executive Director Maggie Johnston, Wild Alabama applied for and received funding from the Alabama State Council on the Arts to move forward with the 2025 initiative celebrating the anniversary of the Eastern Wilderness Act in Alabama.
Conservation Through Art: 50 Years of Wilderness in Alabama highlights the three wilderness areas in Alabama through an art exhibit, art and creative writing workshops, hikes and Forest Bathing walks in the Wilderness areas, and public talks. The first 2025 exhibit and events took place in March and April in and around the stunning Dr. William R. Harvey Museum of Art at Talladega College, in the Dugger Mountain Wilderness, and Cheaha Wilderness. The CTA 2025 exhibit was at Lowe Mill Arts and Entertainment in Huntsville, Alabama.
Love Letters to Wilderness
An Initiative of the Conservation Through Art
We invite you to write a love letter to wilderness. Perhaps you will choose to write about your love for the Wilderness Areas in Alabama - Sipsey Wilderness, Cheaha Wilderness, or Dugger Mountain Wilderness - areas that have been federally protected from human intrusion, to remain untouched by roads or machines. Perhaps you will write about a place that opens your heart - a river, a rock, a tree - what calls your? How do you express your love and appreciation for summer storms witnessed from a rock shelter, for afternoon shadows, or the smell of deep time expressed as soil?
We hope that you will visit the CTA art show in the Second Floor Connector Gallery at Lowe Mill Arts and Entertainment in Huntsville, where you can write a love letter and pin it up with other love letters as part of the show. If that is not possible, just email your love letter to Janice Barrett, our CTA Program Director. We will add it to the Love Letters to Wilderness at Lowe Mill, and will post it on this page, along with the other letters.
An Initiative of the Conservation Through Art
We invite you to write a love letter to wilderness. Perhaps you will choose to write about your love for the Wilderness Areas in Alabama - Sipsey Wilderness, Cheaha Wilderness, or Dugger Mountain Wilderness - areas that have been federally protected from human intrusion, to remain untouched by roads or machines. Perhaps you will write about a place that opens your heart - a river, a rock, a tree - what calls your? How do you express your love and appreciation for summer storms witnessed from a rock shelter, for afternoon shadows, or the smell of deep time expressed as soil?
We hope that you will visit the CTA art show in the Second Floor Connector Gallery at Lowe Mill Arts and Entertainment in Huntsville, where you can write a love letter and pin it up with other love letters as part of the show. If that is not possible, just email your love letter to Janice Barrett, our CTA Program Director. We will add it to the Love Letters to Wilderness at Lowe Mill, and will post it on this page, along with the other letters.
CTA 2025 Participating Artists:
Gary Anderson
Tony Barber
Janice Barrett
Marianne Harvill
Barbara Howell
Timothy Joe
Maggie Johnston
Bryce Lafferty
Allison McElroy
Yuri Ozaki
Charles Seifried
Jillian Sico
Starr Weems
and
Anne Markham Bailey, Facilitator of the Writing The Wild program
Exhibit Statement
Each artist in this exhibit has a personal and profound relationship with the Wilderness areas in Alabama. Their paintings, photographs, book arts and writing are an expression of the inspiration by Alabama’s wildest places that has deeply influenced their work and their lives. The aim of this exhibit and its associated workshops, forest bathing walks, and Wilderness hikes is to bring awareness of the importance of the treasure of Wilderness for all living things, and to advance Wild Alabama’s mission to inspire people to enjoy, value, and protect the wild places of Alabama.
2025 Artists
Gary Anderson
Tony Barber
Janice Barrett
Elaine Booth
Timothy Joe
Bryce Lafferty
Allison McElroy
Yuri Ozaki
Charles Seifried
Jillian Sico
Starr Weems
Engagement
One of the fundamental goals of the Conservation Through Art initiative is public engagement to increase awareness and understanding of the value and importance of our three Wilderness Areas in Alabama - Cheaha Wilderness, Dugger Mountain Wilderness, and Sipsey Wilderness. Through learning about public Wilderness areas, people learn more about their communities and themselves.
Conservation Through Art at Talladega College
Talladega College, an HBCU, is the first private black liberal arts college in Alabama, founded in 1867. The campus is close to two of Alabama's Wilderness areas — Cheaha Wilderness and Dugger Mountain Wilderness in the Talladega National Forest. The CTA art show features the work of Alabama artists inspired by the Wilderness. The Conservation Through Art (CTA) exhibit opens to the public at the Dr. William R. Harvey Museum of Art at Talladega College on Tuesday April 01, 2025, with the Opening Events and Reception on Friday, April 04. Workshops that engage students, faculty, and alumni are planned throughout the month, both on the campus and in the Wilderness areas close by.
What is the Eastern Wilderness Act?
The Eastern Wilderness Act, passed in 1975, was a landmark law that expanded the National Wilderness Preservation System by designating wilderness areas in the eastern United States. Prior to its passage, the Wilderness Act of 1964 was interpreted to apply mainly to untouched, "pristine" landscapes, which left much of the East—where forests had been logged and regrown—excluded from protection. The Eastern Wilderness Act recognized that previously impacted lands could still regain their wilderness character over time and formally designated 16 wilderness areas in states east of the Mississippi, including parts of the Appalachian Mountains. This law set an important precedent for protecting and restoring wildlands in regions with a history of human use.
Talladega College, an HBCU, is the first private black liberal arts college in Alabama, founded in 1867. The campus is close to two of Alabama's Wilderness areas — Cheaha Wilderness and Dugger Mountain Wilderness in the Talladega National Forest. The CTA art show features the work of Alabama artists inspired by the Wilderness. The Conservation Through Art (CTA) exhibit opens to the public at the Dr. William R. Harvey Museum of Art at Talladega College on Tuesday April 01, 2025, with the Opening Events and Reception on Friday, April 04. Workshops that engage students, faculty, and alumni are planned throughout the month, both on the campus and in the Wilderness areas close by.
What is the Eastern Wilderness Act?
The Eastern Wilderness Act, passed in 1975, was a landmark law that expanded the National Wilderness Preservation System by designating wilderness areas in the eastern United States. Prior to its passage, the Wilderness Act of 1964 was interpreted to apply mainly to untouched, "pristine" landscapes, which left much of the East—where forests had been logged and regrown—excluded from protection. The Eastern Wilderness Act recognized that previously impacted lands could still regain their wilderness character over time and formally designated 16 wilderness areas in states east of the Mississippi, including parts of the Appalachian Mountains. This law set an important precedent for protecting and restoring wildlands in regions with a history of human use.
Conservation Through Art 2023-24
Saving Alabama's Hemlocks
The CTA exhibit moved to galleries across north Alabama including:
Lowe Mill Arts and Entertainment in Huntsville - Fall 2023
Walker County Arts Alliance Gallery in Jasper - Spring 2024
Gadsden Museum of Art in Gadsden - Summer 2024
Little Old Rock Building in Double Springs - Fall 2024
Saving Alabama's Hemlocks
The CTA exhibit moved to galleries across north Alabama including:
Lowe Mill Arts and Entertainment in Huntsville - Fall 2023
Walker County Arts Alliance Gallery in Jasper - Spring 2024
Gadsden Museum of Art in Gadsden - Summer 2024
Little Old Rock Building in Double Springs - Fall 2024
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