Kids Campus-created nature banners adorn Klauer trails
October 16, 2024
Remember the first time a butterfly landed on your hand? You stood ever so still as it flapped its intricate, colorful wings before flying away. Or maybe you caught lighting bugs or a grasshopper in a glass jar with holes punched in the lid. Even with a limited attention span (beyond cartoons), you spent measurable time observing and wondering about nature. And for you, it wasn’t so much about learning. It was about having fun.
In partnership with Imagine Children's Museum in Taos, the Kids Campus created nature-inspired art banners that were recently installed along the Pathways building and apiary trail.
Exploring Nature Through the Eyes of Children is “a vibrant, playful display of the innate creativity of our Taos children ages 3 to 9,” said Kids Campus Director Ali McPartlon. Paso a Paso Network sponsored the project in collaboration with UNM-Taos Kids Campus, INSPIRE! Bilingual Early Learning Center, Anansi Charter School, and Imagine Children’s Museum.
“The children’s study of nature was inspired by a long-term study of micro and macro views of the natural world,” McPartlon explained. “Children explored and we offered opportunities to share their interpretations of landscapes and floral designs with the guidance of Sara Tisdel.”
Tisdel was an art instructor in Minnesota for many years before relocating to Taos 3 years ago. A team of Imagine Children’s Museum staff members, including Andrew Schwartz, Tammy Dobbs, and Tracy Jaramillo (the latter retired from the Kids Campus in 2021 after 11 years), helped various school programs create large bird nests accompanied by metal birds modeled after children’s drawings that are larger than life.
Exploring Nature Through the Eyes of Children—on 3' x 5' banners—was previously displayed at the Taos Land Trust (TLT) entrance through Fred Baca Park and north to the TLT “Fairy Fields” in the fall of 2023.
“Seeing them on the way to the Bee Campus native garden and UNM-Taos Apiary makes the garden we planted even more special,” said Cathy Brandenburg, principal investigator for the Bee Campus grant.
