A range of projects around the world where people are using the arts to draw attention to the plight of bees and pollinators.

KEEP THE GLOBAL HIVE ALIVE

Small and vital, bees work together for the good of the whole ecosystem. They are excellent pollinators who bring the abundance of food to our gardens and farms by transferring pollen as they collect the nectar and pollen from the flowers.

A Community Arts Project initiated by Julie Armstrong to raise awareness of the importance of bees for pollination for a whopping 2/3 of our food production. Fruit and nuts including apples, almonds, avocados, cherries, kiwifruit, apricots, peanuts, blueberries, plums, mangos, oranges, peaches, pears, watermelon and honeydew melons. Vegetables and seeds including beans, broccoli, carrots,cucumbers, cauliflower, celery, onions, pumpkins, squash and sunflowers. Livestock feed including clover and lucerne all depend on honeybees for pollination.

What is your favourite food on the Global Hive?

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Requiem for Insects (2019)

‘A Requiem for Insects’ discusses the current decline in insect populations across Australia and explores my concern about the extinction crisis in the Anthropocene Epoch. All the species depicted in my work are on the threatened species list or – from my observations – are declining in my local environment.
The work is created through laser cutting and engraving of wood, then adding watercolour to make the insects appear more lifelike. The process of painting each piece is an action of focusing attention on each insect as it slowly disintegrates and disappears from existence.
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Australian native bees posters- Gina Cranson

Wonderful illustrations of Australian native bees state by state. There are over 1500 species of native bees in Australia.
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Heart of Gold by Lea Bradovich

“My magical realist portraits depict a playful engagement with nature in her guise as the eternal feminine. Allegorical figures wear honeycomb garb, butterfly crowns, and caterpillar necklaces.”
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The Good of the Hive

Artist Matthew Willey is the founder of The Good of the Hive Initiative, and has committed to personally paint 50,000 honeybees – the number necessary for a healthy, thriving hive – in murals across America. Through art and social media engagement, The Good of the Hive raises awareness about the current struggle of the honeybees, celebrates their amazing behaviors, and draws attention to the inextricable connection between people and honeybees.
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Tears of Ra KYRA CRAMER

“The Sun-god Ra wept again and the water from his eyes flowed to the ground and transformed itself into working bees, working in flowers and trees of all kinds, creating honey and wax from the tears of RA.” passage found in ancient Egyptian scriptures.
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Bee Chapel HafenCity- Terence Koh

Terence Koh’s sculptural work offers space for a single person and enables an intimate encounter with the bee colony living within it. Safely separated by a protective net, the visitor can follow the insects’ goings-on and observe and listen to their daily business as well as take in the aroma of their honey.
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Seeing is Beelieving: Elise Fogg: Save the Bees

Connecting with her essential passion for insects and photography, Elise Fog began taking portraits of bee behavior in Oregon’s beautiful McKenzie River Valley in 2009, leading to her regenerative work in the world, in the form of her fervent bee advocacy at savebees.org. She asks us all to take one or more small actions to save these pollinators that are so vital to our food system and to the beauty and diversity of our Earth.
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