An Invitational Traveling Exhibition
Curated by Bernice Steinbaum
Works by 50 artists, architects, designers and landscape
architects on the theme of the birdhouse.

September 19 – October 28, 2004
Opening Reception Sunday, September 19, 1:00 - 3:30 PM
Jazz by the Carole Sudhalter Duo

“The Bird Nature of Humans:
A Bird's Eye View of Human Behavior”
Barbara Pierce, Ph.D.
Thursday, September 30, 7:00 PM Artist's Talk: Helene Brandt
Tuesday, October 5, 2005

“There is nothing in which birds differ more from man than the way in which they can
build and yet leave a landscape as it was before.”
- Robert Lynd, The Blue Lion and Other Essays

Birds have always been a part of our landscape. We observe them, emulate them, and are amazed by them. They occupy our lives and our language, both literally and figuratively. They wake us in the morning with a cock's crow and put us to sleep at night with lilting birdsong.

Birds even inhabit our language. When panicked, we take flight. We take risks “on a wing and a prayer.” We gather with kindred spirits—like birds of a feather, who flock together, and would love to have a group of “fine feathered friends.” Of course, we are always looking for the elusive bluebird of happiness and would hate it if we were consigned to being forever earthbound.

In homage, we build structures to protect them and fill feeders to entice them to come closer, so that we may observe them. We watch them build nests and feed their young, and even act as protectors should anything threaten them in the process.

“It's for the Birds” is an extraordinarily varied exhibit that presents the way 50 artists—from different countries and cultures—approach the challenge of creating works that have been inspired by “birdhouses.” The results are inventive, intriguing and delightful.

Limited only by their imaginations, it wasn't necessary for the artists' finished creations to provide actual shelter for the birds. As a result, some are highly conceptual while others reflect on the nature of birds, and still others upon the fanciful idea of shelter. Each work offers a different and unique way of looking at or thinking about our feathered companions, and is accompanied by an artist's statement as well as snippets of novels, essays or poems—as varied as Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird and Chekhov's Uncle Vanya, works by poets like William Blake, John Keats, Emily Dickinson, and the words of historical figures such as Henry David Thoreau, Calvin Coolidge and Theodore Roosevelt.

              --Sophia Gevas, Director