Wildlife Arts
Arts-based nature education in Cambridge
Green Cambridge’s Wildlife Arts program honors and nurtures children’s affinity for nature through art-making, storytelling, species explorations, and festivities. Our place-based program strengthens the connection between Cambridge’s young people and their city.
We work in developmentally appropriate ways that allow kids and youth not just to learn facts, but to follow their own paths of curiosity, creativity, and environmental awareness.
Teenagers are the illustrators of our wildlife trading cards that feature creatures, trees, and plants in our urban ecosystem.
We introduce families to citizen science opportunities through our City Nature Art Challenge and local City Nature Challenge wildlife observation events.
We invite Cambridge folks of all generations to participate in our outdoor art workshops and annual summer nature festival. We love puppets and pageants! Whenever possible, we invite all of Cambridge to march with our giant puppets and animal costumes in the October Honk! parade, the children’s parade at Fresh Pond Day, and the city’s River Festival.
Let’s explore and celebrate Cambridge’s biodiversity in community with one another.
The Cambridge City Nature Art Challenge
Co-sponsored by Green Cambridge and Cambridge Local First, the Cambridge City Nature Art Challenge (CCNAC) aims to bring awareness to biodiversity in Cambridge by engaging children to create art depicting the species of wildlife in our city. Children choose their subjects from the list of wild animals, plants, fungi, and other organisms that have been observed and identified by both citizen scientists and professional scientists on iNaturalist (iNaturalist.org). iNaturalist is a partner in the global City Nature Challenge, a citizen science "bio blitz" that happens annually in late April/early May.
Fly, Buzz, & Hop! Festival
Each summer, join the Fly, Buzz, & Hop! Festival for a free day of art- making, music, storytelling, and a parade.