Return of the Pollinators
Lawrence, Kansas 2017
Assisted by Nedra Bonds, Janada Birdling and Eugene Sarmiento. With help from many community volunteers.
Two years after the original Pollinators was demolished to make way for an upscale apartment building, Lawrence residents came together to create this new mural in its place. Heartened by hundreds of supporters who demanded that the Pollinators mural be recreated, artists and volunteers imagined a design that referenced the original - celebrating African-American artists with roots in Kansas - while also adding elements that addressed threats to pollinators and their habitats. The reimagined design, commissioned by the Spencer Museum of Art, features pollinating creatures and imaginary pollen grains created by Lawrence youth, and all seven of the original artists, Aaron Douglas, Gwendolyn Brooks, Oscar Micheaux, Gordon Parks, Hattie McDaniel, Coleman Hawkins and Langston Hughes, plus musician and actress Janelle Monáe. In 2022, Return of the Pollinators was included in the new Public Art Archive Map of works from across the U.S.
Pollinators
Lawrence, Kansas 2007 - 2015
Assisted by Yuri Zupancic and Jill Ensley. With help from our mural design team and many community volunteers.
Commissioned by the Spencer Museum of Art in conjunction with the exhibition Aaron Douglas: African American Modernist, the mural designers employed pollination as a metaphor to connect the contributions of great African-American artists from Kansas with the Lawrence Farmers Market where the mural was located. Aaron Douglas, a Topeka native who became the foremost visual artist of the Harlem Renaissance in New York City is one of the seven artists included in the mural along with Gordon Parks, Gwendolyn Brooks, Langston Hughes, Oscar Micheaux, Hattie McDaniel, and Coleman Hawkins. The mural was designed and painted by University of Kansas students, local youth, and community members.
