DrawNow!: at Central Park Zoo

DrawNow! Central Park Zoo

Saturdays, May 6, 13, 20, 27, 10am–3pm

DrawNow! at Central Park Zoo Field Station: William Beebe’s Department of Tropical Research

Draw from specimens! Learn how ecologist William Beebe and his team of scientists, Jocelyn Crane and Gloria Hollister, worked side by side with artists to illustrate ecosystems in their jungle laboratories and oceanographic workshops during the 1920s–1930s.

Presented by The Drawing Center, Wildlife Conservation Society, and The Uni Project, a nonprofit bringing learning opportunities to public spaces in New York City, in conjunction with The Drawing Center’s exhibition, Exploratory Works: Drawings from the Department of Tropical Research Field Expeditions, April 14-July 16, 2017.

WHAT:

• Central Park Zoo’s Wildlife Theater Troupe presents a 30 minute drawing program

at 11am, 12pm, 1pm, 2pm on Saturdays, May 6, 13, 20, 27.

• Between the hours of 10am-3pm, self-guided drawing activity cards available to be used with Drawing Center’s Drawing Papers:Exploratory Works: Drawings from the Department of Tropical Research Field Expeditions.

• Engage in self-guided observational drawing from ocean biofacts, specimens and still-life objects from WCS aquarium collection.

The Drawing Center presents DrawNow! in collaboration with Central Park Zoo’s Wildlife Theater Troupe and The Uni Project, a nonprofit bringing learning opportunities to public spaces in New York City. DrawNow! communicates the important role drawing played in advancing field biology and ecological research, combining science and art in practice led by pioneering naturalist William Beebe during expeditions to South America and the Caribbean in the first half of the 20th century. The Uni Project’s custom designed cart and benches transforms an ordinary corner of the zoo into a fully equipped Department of Tropical Research Field Station, complete with art supplies, biofacts, and specimens to draw. The live interpretive narrative provides a historical conversation between Beebe and artist Else Bostelmann describing techniques used during the first bathysphere dives, followed by an observational drawing exercise featuring the sea lion exhibit in the center of the zoo.

Photo: Central Park Zoo’s Sea Lions enjoying spring. Photo by Julie Larsen Maher © Wildlife Conservation Society.