Audubon bird watercolors on display for last time until 2018
mongabay.com
March 6, 2008
Last chance to see water colors until 2018
More than 40 original Audubon watercolors depicting birds that once flourished but are now gone forever or threatened with extinction — along with species that have come back from the brink -- will go on display as part of Audubon's Aviary: Portraits of Endangered Species, the fourth installment of the New-York Historical Society's five-year Audubon exhibition series, from February 8 through March 16, at the N-Y Historical Society, 170 Central Park West (at 77 Street).
A rite of spring for New York museum goers, the Historical Society's annual Audubon show explains the current conservation status of this year's featured flock -- from the once-endangered and now extinct Carolina Parakeet and the Passenger Pigeon to the critically threatened Piping Plover and Whooping Crane. The exhibition also features success stories of species that have rebounded due to changes in habitat, human recovery efforts, or pure accident, including the California Condor and the Eastern Bluebird.
Audubon's Aviary: Portraits of Endangered Species has as its centerpiece the giant, original watercolors that Audubon prepared for the seminal Birds of America, as well as rarely seen selections from the Society's unrivaled collection of Auduboniana. A multi-sensory experience, the exhibition will also feature recorded bird calls and video from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
Supplementary public programs will include a gallery tour and guided bird walks in Central Park.
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