2016: Audubon Mural Project
In 2016 the Mile of Murals collaborated with New York's Audubon Mural Project to pilot the Chicago edition. The Audubon Mural Project began in 2014 as a public art initiative of the National Audubon Society, in partnership with the Harlem-based Gitler &_____ Gallery of upper Manhattan, New York. The goal of the project is to paint murals honoring North American bird species that Audubon’s research has determined are threatened by climate change in this century, in order to bring awareness to this environmental crisis. A report published in 2014 found that 314 North American bird species will be severely threatened by future climate change. By 2080, these species are projected to lose at least half of their current climatic ranges as conditions (especially temperature and precipitation) become unsuitable for their continued survival.
For this project, we worked closely with the Audubon Great Lakes Regional Office to identify birds within our Chicago area region that are threatened, across six habitat categories. The birds featured in these murals include the Tree Swallow, Baltimore Oriole, Peregrine Falcon, Bald Eagle, Hooded Merganser, Mallard, and Wood Duck, Black Crowned Night Heron, Black Cormorant, Yellow Bellied Sapsucker, Hairy Woodpecker, Red-breasted Nuthatch, and White-breasted Nuthatch.
The artists are: Ruben Aguirre, Cheri Charlton. Andrea Jablonski, Anthony Lewellen, Tyrue Slang Jones, and Chris Silva.