Our Future Exists Because We Have Imagined It was an exhibition and series of workshops that engaged the larger community of students, faculty, and staff at Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa. These workshops and exhibition became the foundation for an ongoing collaborative project with faculty members in English, Biology, and Fine Art, an initiative that seeks to transform Cornell College into a bee-friendly campus. The project focused on art as a form of collective “sustainable envisioning,” which enabled members of the community to transform Cornell College campus into a refuge for endangered pollinators.
The project was initiated in October of 2015, with an exhibition of the artist's work, documentation of workshops, and student photography and envisioning drawings. The project has since gone on to inspire students to advocate for and receive funding to start a campus apiary, and has gained approval by the president of Cornell College to bring honeybees onto the college's campus. In addition, Professor Mouton has continued to advocate for both Cornell College and Mount Vernon to be officially designated "bee-friendly" sites through Bee City USA certification.
Photo by Brianna Mullan
Photo by Liz Martin/The Gazette
Photo by Liz Martin/The Gazette
Photo by Liz Martin/The Gazette
Photo by Cody Bankson
Photo by Sandy Dyas
Photo by April Richards.