From Dallas South News Wire

Local Nature Art to Be Featured at Education Center

To celebrate its first year, the Trinity River Audubon Center explores its potential as a premier riverside venue by spotlighting local artists, musicians, and dancers at Nature Fest, October 10 & 11, 2009. The festival will expand on the center’s educational mission, reaching out to the Dallas community for a cultural celebration of the natural world.

Artists and crafters have been chosen for this art show because of their focus on nature and connection to the local ecosystems. The show will include wildlife photographers who patiently stalk the Trinity River’s birds throughout the seasons, sculptors who use natural objects as their materials and inspiration, and crafters who “upcycle” materials, giving new life to discarded items.

Also featured will be a group of dancers and drummers who use fallen timber from the Great Trinity Forest to make their drums, and celebrate their cultural roots with traditional Aztec dances. Storytellers from the Dallas Storytelling Guild and Twice Told Tales will engage families with the art of oral history and relating to nature. Several local bands and singer-songwriters will bring their talents to the open air stage, including Annie Benjamin, Cabe Lindsay, honeybutton, and Oliver’s Army, an Elvis Costello tribute band.

National Audubon Magazine calls The Trinity River Audubon Center “a beacon of progressive environmental education in an underserved neighborhood.” For the past year the center has been introducing school children and adults to the wonders of the forest, prairie, and river in their own backyard. Nature Fest will be true to this mission, offering opportunities to explore the trails and have close views of the wildlife such as birds of prey, snakes and frogs, even dragonflies and crawdads. The Blackland Prairie Raptor Center will bring birds of prey, and Rogers Wildlife Rehabilitation will be releasing some of their recovered birds.

Experts will be on hand to teach seminars on green living, everything from composting and smart water use to backyard poultry and beekeeping. Native grasses will be available for purchase from Bluestem Nursery, while community garden and native plant specialists will share their expertise. Families will have a chance to try out outdoor skills like paddling and birding, and enjoy yoga and tai chi in a beautiful natural setting.

The Trinity River Audubon Center enjoyed an overwhelming response to its grand opening in October 2008. Over 10,000 visitors came to see the former illegal landfill that had been turned into a natural sanctuary for the wildlife of the Trinity River. The building itself has received lots of attention for its progressive architectural style and sustainable features. It was designed with the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED certification in mind, and will make an elegant backdrop for an art show inspired by nature. The City of Dallas and Audubon’s efforts are part of a growing national trend converting areas of urban blight into natural oases. Similar projects have been recently completed in Phoenix, Arizona and Columbus, Ohio, bringing nature education to neighborhoods that have never had it before.

The center is located on South Loop 12, between interstate 45 and highway 175, just a few minutes’ drive south from downtown Dallas. There will be a $5 parking fee per car for Nature Fest, and carpooling is encouraged. Members can park for free. The festival will be open on Saturday, October 10 10:00am to 4:00pm, and Sunday, October 11 from noon to 5:00pm. There is more information at www.trinityriveraudubon.org.

Now in its second century, Audubon connects people with birds, nature and the environment that supports us all. Our national network of community-based nature centers, chapters, scientific, education, and advocacy programs engages millions of people from all walks of life in conservation action to protect and restore the natural world. www.audubon.org

Check out a post about personal outing with a friend and our children at the Trinity River Audubon Center last year.

Photos by Shawn Williams