Honoring the Future’s Art Advisor Peter Handler will receive the prestigious Audubon Award for Art Inspiring Conservation on April 10th at the 2015 Philadelphia Invitational Furniture Show. The award, sponsored by the John James Audubon Center at Mill Grove, honors an individual who uses art to communicate the value of nature, interpret conservation challenges, and inspire humanity to protect wildlife.
Previous award recipients include Pulitzer Prize-nominated author Scott Weidensaul, nine-time Grammy winner Paul Winter, award winning National Geographic photographer Joel Sartore, and Todd McGrain, creator of The Lost Bird Project memorializing extinct North American bird species.
“Peter was the unanimous choice for the 2015 Award,” said Jean Bochnowski, Director of the Audubon Center, citing Handler’s extraordinary craftsmanship, extensive environmental advocacy, and “Canaries in the Coal Mine,” a series of sculptural objects highlighting the consequences of climate change.
“I am grateful to the Audubon Center for this amazing honor,” said Handler. “My Canaries In The Coal Mine” series references the practice of coal miners to carry a caged canary with them when they descended into the mines. If the canary collapsed and died, that signaled the air was bad. This is a good working metaphor for what we now face on Earth. With the ever-increasing burning of fossil fuels, we have ‘canaries’ all around us.”
The Maldives Table
“The Maldives Table” from the series is shown above. The table depicts the principal islands in the Republic of the Maldives, the world’s lowest-lying country. A coral archipelago strategically located along major sea lanes southwest of India, the Maldives is, on average, only 4 feet above sea level. If sea levels rise as predicted, most of the Maldives’ 192 inhabited islands – and their nearly 400,000 citizens – would need to be relocated. Australia, India, and Sri Lanka are potential destinations.
The Philadelphia Invitational Furniture Show is an annual exhibition of exceptional, artisan-quality furniture and furnishings showcasing the City’s centuries-old tradition of fine woodworking. Photographs and objects from the series will be on display at the show, which runs from April 10-12, 2015.
The John James Audubon Center at Mill Grove was Audubon’s first home in America and the place where he honed his artistic technique for creating life-like images of birds. Today the National Audubon Society operates the site as a museum, bird sanctuary, environmental center and living memorial to John James Audubon’s legendary life and art.
