Endangered Species: Flora & Fauna in Peril is a juried art competition and museum exhibition designed to recognize, promote, and reward excellence among outstanding contemporary artists and to heighten public attention and awareness about endangered and threatened flora and fauna. The exhibition, currently on display at the Wildling Art Museum, is scheduled to travel to the U.S. Department of the Interior Museum in Washington D.C. (Nov. 1, 2008-Feb. 28, 2009) and to The Wildlife Experience in Parker, Colorado (May 9-July 12, 2009).

The Wildling Art Museum would like to thank the Dancing Star Foundation (www.dancingstarfoundation.org), who led the way by providing a challenge grant to help make the Endangered Species competition, exhibition, and catalogue possible; and who supplemented that amount with an additional grant when the challenge was exceeded. Thank you also to the donors for the prize awards: First Prize: Nancy and Joseph Byrne; Second Prize: Louise B. Clarke, John Carbon, and Heloise and Alexander Power; Third Prize: Susan Bower.

Artists:

Joy D. Barnes, Katherine R. Beck, Linda Besse, Ray Brown, Michael E. Calles, Chris Chapman, Janet Collins, Peggy Croft, Shane Dimmick, Shane Duerksen, D. L. Engle, Oscar Famili, Peter Gaede, David C. Gallup, Ann Hefferman, Pat Jackman, Richard Lindekens, Lotus McElfish, Deian Moore, Arillyn Moran-Lawrence, B.B. Nelson, Ken Newman, Anne Peyton, Julio J. Pro, Michael James Riddet, Ines E. Roberts, Junn Roca, Amy Sadle, Kent D. Savage, Rachelle Siegrist, Wes Siegrist, Debbie Sullivan, Mathew Tekulsky, Suzan Hamilton Todd, Raúl Trejo, Diane Versteeg, Nina Warner, Joe Weatherly, Dan Wood, Terry Woodall

2nd Place: D. L. Engle, “Puma Ways,” Bronze (Florida panther)

3rd Place: Raul Trejo, “American Burying Beetle...Going,” Pencil and colored pencil on Bristol board (American Burying Beetle)

Curator:

David J. Wagner, Ph.D, a nationally renowned scholar and author of American Wildlife Art (Marquand Books, 2008), served as consulting curator and tour director for the three-year project. www.american-wildlife-art.com/index2.html

Jurors:

The jury consisted of Ph.D., F. G. (“Eric”) Hochberg, Ph.D., Curator of Invertebrate Zoology, Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, Santa Barbara, California; Hunter Hollins, Director, U.S. Department of the Interior Museum, Washington, D.C.; Amy Scott, Visual Art Curator, Autry Museum of the American West, Los Angeles, California; and Karen Sinsheimer, Curator of Photography, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, California.

The U. S. Endangered Species Conservation Act of Fish and Wildlife of 1969 is considered by many the most significant legislation to come out of the environmental movement. This legislation, re-enforced and expanded in the Endangered Species Act of 1973, provides for the “conservation, restoration, propagation, and protection of selected species of fish and wildlife, including migratory birds, that are threatened with extinction,” as well as flora and invertebrates, and it defined endangered species “as any species that is in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range.”

For a list of animals and plants threatened or endangered in the United States,
see: www.fws.gov/endangered

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