When we designed the new Center we created our lobby as a place for artists to express the connection between life on Earth and the human community.  We had a sympathetic ear in our architectural team, Strekalovsky and Hoit.  Cvey Strekalovsky, our team leader is a well-known South Shore artist.

Eleanor Whitney, one of the Center’s stalwart volunteers, has from the day we opened our doors, used the lobby as a satellite studio for her oil painting.  Richard Porior, another Center volunteer and retired graphics artist, has shown young visitors how to draw through his “little books” and impromptu drawing sessions.

Recently, Younia Kowal, a power force in art, art education and architecture, has joined our staff as Artist-in-Residence.  Like a whirlwind she has created T-shirts, post cards, name tags, flyers, wall graphics, exhibits, and even “Araquon Lodge,” an authentic full-sized Wompanoag longhouse in our Weezie Nature Center.

Younia is launching a series of art education and public exhibition programs.  We will now host weekly sketching sessions with Younia guiding students in the art of seeing and drawing the life around them.  Younia says, “There is no better way to build empathy for others and for planet Earth than drawing. You understand and truly see what you try to re-create through sketching.”

We now also offer a “window art” program.  Artists and budding artists can create art on the many windows of the Center. In addition, over the next few months the Center will begin to create an outdoor sculpture garden on its grounds.  This is an art form in which Younia excels.  She will guide artists in the formation and lay-out of woodland setting sculptures.