This art and environmental program engaged the local community to help the Monarch butterfly. With art and conservation education we conveyed how the health and well being of the Monarch butterfly is connected to the health and well being of us all. 

“We Are All Connected” was a 2023 nine week art and education program that engaged the local community to help save the Monarch butterfly. Ruth Marshall, a local Bronx artist, and Patti Cooper, an educator and retired zookeeper from the Wildlife Conservation Society are managing this program with funding via a community arts grant from Bronx Council on the Arts in partnership with the Morris Park branch of the New York Public Library and Morris Park Business Improvement District. 

Every Saturday from June 10 – August 5, at 2pm-4pm, workshops were conducted at Morris Park Library, 985 Morris Park Ave, Bronx NY 10462, ph: 718 931 0636. The focus was on education and art activities. We grew live butterflies inside the library!

For 2024 we hope to continue this art and conservation project with “Art For Habitat”. Our partner again will be the Morris Park Library where the program will be held. The plan is to create public outdoor artwork to help support, enhance and advertise the habitat protection along the Hutchinson Parkway. Funding approval from Bronx Council on the Arts is in progress. Stay tuned!

The 2023 project identified habitat in our community that supports the Monarch butterfly, (Danaus Plexippus).  Milkweed, (Asclepias syriaca), is the host plant for the Monarch butterfly, the only plant it can lay eggs on and that Monarch caterpillars eat. The loss of milkweed habitat is one of the main reasons the Monarch butterfly population has become drastically reduced and was listed as endangered by the IUCN in 2022.  

We have identified patches of dozens of milkweed plants variable in size in the Bronx along Hutchinson Parkway and Pelham Parkway.

We have the hope of protecting this habitat from mowing or spraying,  at least until the Monarch butterfly has migrated through our area before it continues its migration back to Mexico in early Fall.

There is a terrific opportunity here to involve and educate the public and surrounding communities about this extraordinary wonder of nature occurring in accessible and public areas as well as the opportunity to take action in helping this species survive.