Fledgling Voices, an exhibit of student work from Redwood Cooperative School

Fledgling Voices features the work of students from Redwood Cooperative School, a progressive Pre-K through 8 school in the heart of Lexington’s Zandale neighborhood. Led by art teacher Carrie Blaydes, the work shares a common thread: inspiration from naturalist John James Audubon’s artistic and scientific masterpiece Birds of America. Published between 1827 and 1838, Audubon’s oversized “elephant folio” book includes 435 life-sized images of North American birds, which he personally scouted, illustrated, and painted. Redwood students, in turn, have created artworks inspired by the book and their cross-curricular study of both the artistic and scientific principles involved in Audubon’s work. As a school committed to conservation and environmental sustainability, this exhibit also invites students and spectators alike to consider the best way to be both admirers and responsible stewards of our birds, whose populations have dwindled alarmingly in the last several decades.

Fledgling Voices is now open at Pam Miller Downtown Arts Center and will be open during Gallery Hop on Friday, January 20.