ORIGINS In 2023, Wild Alabama's Outreach and Education Coordinator Janice Barrett was moved to implement a collaborative art exhibit inspired by the eastern hemlock ecosystems where these relic trees live in their southernmost homes, in the narrow canyons of the Bankhead National Forest and Sipsey Wilderness as well as other sites in northwest Alabama. The Eastern hemlocks survived the ice age of 12,000 years ago because of the protected microclimates offered by the sandstone, surrounded by soaring tulip poplar, oaks, beech, and wild magnolia.
THE EXHIBIT 2023-24 She reached out to artists across Alabama to create work for the show. A group of poets came together to immerse in the hemlocks and then write original poems that formed a chapbook edition of The Hemlock Poems that were sold to benefit Wild Alabama. Workshops in Nature Journaling, Painting with Natural Materials, Glass Mosaic, and Writing Hemlocks Poetry Workshop emerged as well, offered by the artists and poets in the show.
The show emerged alongside a Wild Alabama citizen science program Save Alabama's Hemlocks designed to catalog and inspect segments of the Bankhead National Forest. To learn more about that program and to participate
The 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
CONSERVATION THROUGH ART: SAVING ALABAMA'S HEMLOCKS Art Exhibit and Workshops Little Old Rock Building 25121 Highway 195 Double Springs, Alabama
November 4 - November 29, 2024 CLOSING RECEPTION Friday, 11/29 3 - 5 p.m.
This exhibit of paintings, photographs, handmade paper, book art, glass and poetry by Alabama artists is rooted in each artist’s and poet’s intimate relationship with the eastern hemlock forests of northwest Alabama where the hemlock trees are among the few populations currently unaffected by the hemlock woolly adelgid, a non-native invasive insect that has decimated the hemlocks up the Appalachian chain from east Alabama into Canada.
Saving Alabama's Hemlocks Participating Artists and Poets at the Little Rock Building
Gary Anderson
Anne Markham Bailey
Janice Barrett
Sam Calhoun
Jim Felder
Leisha Hultgren
Timothy Joe
Maggie Johnston
Bryce Lafferty
Allison McElroy
Linda Munoz
Yuri Ozaki
Charles Seifried
Jillian Sico
Beth Stewart
Starr Weems
Thanks to all of the exhibiting artists and associated support people including Gary Anderson, Anne Markham Bailey, Janice Barrett, Sam Calhoun, Jim Felder, Leisha Hultgren, Timothy Joe, Maggie Johnston, Bryce Lafferty, Allison McElroy, Yuri Ozaki, Charles Seifried, Jillian Sico, Beth Stewart, Starr Weems.
The Future Conservation Through Art: Celebrating 50 Years of the Eastern Wilderness Act in Alabama The initiative of promoting conservation of our wild places through art resonated. Wild Alabama under the leadership of former Executive Director Maggie Johnston applied for and received funding from the Alabama State Council on the Arts to move forward with the 2025 Conservation Through Art art exhibit and workshops. We will be posting more as the program develops.
Enjoy. Value. Protect. Wild Alabama's mission is to inspire people to enjoy, value, and protect the wild places of Alabama.