A couple of years ago a new street art campaign rolled out in Manhattan. The mural series is being commissioned by the National Audubon Society to bring awareness to the risk climate change poses to both birds and people.
▲ Cerulean Warbler by Tom Sanford (601 W. 149th St., New York, NY 10031)
The hundreds of species of North American birds (314 to be precise) are climate-threatened or endangered. The scientists found that climate change will threaten the existence of 389 bird species — two-thirds of all North American birds — and that no bird will escape the impacts of related hazards like increased wildfire and sea-level rise. But the report also offers hope because if we take action on climate change now, hundreds of bird species will be better off — and nearly 150 will no longer be vulnerable to extinction.
It’s the perfect, modern-day homage to John James Audubon, the ornithologist, and painter after whom the society was named after. The idea was conceived not by an ad agency or even the Audubon Society itself, but by Harlem gallerist Avi Gitler and artist Tom Sanford http://gitlerand.com/
It began in the Harlem and Washington Heights neighborhoods of northern Manhattan, where pioneering bird artist John James Audubon once lived and is buried, and is now stretching its wings across the country. The project commissions artists with a diverse range of styles and life experiences to paint birds imperiled by climate change. Dozens of birds now perch on doors, walls, and security gates throughout New York City, and the project has been widely celebrated in the media, including by The New York Times.
PROJECT MAP
▲ Bald Eagle by Peter Daverington (3623 Broadway, New York, NY 10031)
▲ Piping Plover by Colleen Smith (3740 Broadway, New York, NY 10032)
▲ American Three-toed Woodpecker, Bullock's Oriole, Red-breasted Sapsucker by Jacinta Stewart (3612-18 Broadway, New York, NY 10031)
▲ Bohemian Waxwing and Fox Sparrow by ESPY (511 West 182nd Street, New York, NY 10033)
▲ American Goldfinch by Samuel Medina (565 W 169th Street, New York, NY 10032)
▲ Black-capped Vireo by George Boorujy (601 W. 162nd Street, New York, NY 10032)
▲ Gang of Warblers by George Boorujy (601 W. 162nd Street, New York, NY 10032)