Where Art and Biodiversity Meet

Amy Huestis (Fine Arts Department) has been pursuing artistic work in Important Bird Areas in Richmond and Delta and collaborative projects in our landscape. She is a past recipient of the Faculty of Arts Excellence and Advancement Fund, and most recently the 0.6% PD fund and a Canada Council of the Arts Research and Creation Grant ($25,000). Amy will also be pursuing related work as Artist-in-Residence at the Richmond Art Gallery beginning in the spring of 2021. In this “Faculty Voices” feature, Amy reflects on her interconnected creative projects and the collaborative energy she shares with KPU students and our living communities.

When did you first join the Fine Arts Department and what do you enjoy most about being a faculty member at KPU?

Having taught at KPU since 2017, I feel such a devotion to my students – who are great amazing people – and to the whole community. We as a university are so willing to collaborate and join forces and minds on creative projects.

Tell us about your involvement with the Bird Friendly Fraser Delta project and your upcoming Artist in Residence with the Richmond Art Gallery (RAG), which begins in the spring of 2021.

These are two projects that wonderfully overlap — both are part of an effort to bring art and science together to conserve and protect biodiversity in the Fraser River Delta. As Artist in Residence at RAG, I’ll host community art/biodiversity events in Richmond, and KPU students and I will work with Richmond’s Andersen Elementary K-4 students as we develop art/science curricula around the Motus tracking system for migratory birds. We’ll work with Birds Canada, KPU’s community collaborator in the Bird Friendly Fraser Delta Program. In partnership with them, I’m leading this program that aims to educate and promote bird-friendly practices — at KPU campuses, in a community pledge drive, in Bird Friendly city certification, and in supporting sustainable agriculture.

What first inspired you about these initiatives?

Since 2016, my art practice involves walking each day in a globally recognized “Important Bird and Biodiversity Area” in Ladner called Brunswick Point. This place inspires me — a small and complex piece of paradise where a million migratory birds land each year, and a place that is fast disappearing.

Studying it means witnessing both extreme beauty (such as the sight of hundreds of thousands of western sandpipers visiting) as well as environmental degradation by forces such as the DeltaPort, which is threatening to expand. The science happening around this little marsh and mudflat is incredible — I want to share the story of this place and the incredible creatures that rely on it.

What are the next steps for these projects in the coming semesters?

My artworks launch the Bird Friendly Fraser Delta program with the Delta Animal Resistance Flag as the common emblem in an education and pledge drive, the first phase of the program.

We are currently in our fundraising, community consultation, and research phase, and are building partnerships within the university. We are beginning outreach to Musqueam and Tsawwassen First Nations, and are consulting the community on what it means to be “bird friendly,” as well as laying out a data science study with CloudArmy research. And my residency at RAG is interwoven in this — next year I’ll curate community art/science events and work with Richmond schools in partnership with Birds Canada.

How do these projects connect with your teaching within the Department of Fine Arts? Will KPU students be involved?

While KPU students are losing employment due to Covid19, these projects provide Fine Arts students jobs and provide volunteer opportunities for them as well as for Indigenous youth. Last year, I worked with a student assistant from KPU Graphic Design and Marketing (thanks to FAEAF Award funding) to create posters, branding, and my badge designs (see images). Next year, I’ll work with a FINA student assistant and volunteers at RAG events and in the K-4 classroom (thanks to 0.6% PD funding). There are many ways to weave these projects into Fine Arts classes — for instance, this fall we focus on Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas in my Observing the Natural World/Art+Science course.

I’ve been so lucky in my life to have elders teach me to love nature — this is what I’m doing for our students. These projects offer a way to develop a greater sense of place and a deep connection to the natural world.

Do you anticipate any challenges related to Covid, and have you devised some solutions to keep moving forward?

Yes, absolutely — all of these programs are shifting creatively with the pandemic. For instance, I chose to develop a curriculum around the Birds Canada Motus tracking system for the Andersen Elementary project because it works both for online learning as well as for direct in-person observation. Students can make art about online Motus tracking data (birds passing through their schoolyard), and they can see the birds in person. They can also locate other students in other parts of the world who are seeing the same migrating birds.

Where do you see these projects heading in the coming years?

I see the arts playing a significant role in partnership with science in our region. We can be storytellers for the fantastic science happening in the Fraser River Estuary. If we really want to, we can make KPU a Bird-Friendly institution! I see many departments in KPU coming together and creating change where community initiatives are so needed — currently there is no provincial policy to protect species at risk, but we can step in and partner with those scientists and conservation organizations who really need help. In the long term I hope to play an increasing role in Art/Biodiversity collaborations.

If you could offer faculty and/or students one piece of advice about pursuing a larger project, or working with community partners, what would it be?

See the land itself and the other species who live here as your living community. That means our KPU community partners are trees, fish, birds and insects! KPU has such an instrumental role in our locale of the Fraser River Estuary, and we are uniquely situated to protect and conserve the natural culture and heritage of this place. If we guide and teach each other to love it, we will be bound to take care of it.

To see the artist at work at Brunswick Point Important Bird Area, view this YouTube video lecture/demonstration that Amy produced for KPU Art & Ecology Cross Disciplinary Project 2020.