The BGS Building will soon look a lot brighter!
Artist Jane Kim has been commissioned to paint a mural titled “Reading Rainbows” on two exterior walls of BGS. This piece is one part of a large-scale public art series, Migrating Murals, that Kim has created through her studio, Ink Dwell. These murals, which highlight various endangered species and the natural world, are painted along animal migration routes in an effort to raise awareness and inspire conservation.
“Reading Rainbows” is inspired by the monarch butterfly's use of solar navigation to undertake their incredible annual migrations. Receptive fields in their eyes and antennae, a well-developed magnetic compass, plus an internal clock, allow Western monarchs to migrate down the west coast of North America from Canada to Mexico. Our monarch finds her way to narrow-leaf milkweed and an array of other native plants.
Saddleback will host various projects and campus events around the creation of the mural in service of the artist’s goal—to connect people to nature by creating focal points of art and conversation. For example, students in horticulture have been designing a pollinator garden at the edge of the quad to attract butterflies and other pollinating insects. Saddleback will be invited to help plant a Monarch Habitat Kit, provided by our partners at the Xerces Society, an invertebrate conservation organization. Finally, a campus celebration will take place when the mural is complete.
More information coming soon!