Climate Conversations

An Interactive Art Exhibit by Wil Bosbyshell

Celebrate Earth Day 2024 beautifully and thoughtfully with a visit to Wil Bosbyshell’s Climate Conversations art exhibit.

Bosbyshell manages to make the vast climate challenges we face personal and relevant. His large-scale drawings of trees—the largest is over 6 feet tall--are mesmerizing in the level of detail they provide; and they hang amidst suspended banners that flutter as you walk through them like leaves in a forest.

The exhibit is interactive in several ways, inviting your participation. You can touch the fabric tree hangings as you walk through. You can write a thought from your past and hang it on the memory tree. You can take a tree memory poster home with you.

We premiered the Memory Tree, a tree/large branch where viewers write memories on tags and hang them on the branches. Hence, we began collecting memories from viewers.

This installation was a key part of the organization’s month-long Creation Care program. We curated an art show with an environmental theme, which served as a fundraiser for the program. We co-lead a youth tour of the art exhibit, discussing environmental impacts in their lives and in the future. We also lead an adult program by sharing examples of memories we had collected. Group exhibition curated by Wil Bosbyshell.

Since Earth Day is family friendly, we include a hands-on art component for young children. We displayed tree disks, slices of tree trunks that have been cut down, to discuss loss of trees. The tree disks also provided a tactile aspect. We are currently planning for Charlotte Earth Day ‘23.

Detail of the posters created from memories collected from past installations.

Climate Conversations: The Language of Trees is traveling to New York!

Wil’s drawings and Memory Tree installation will be exhibited this in 2025 at St. Bonaventure University in upstate New York. The exhibit runs from March 20th to April 5th in the college’s Quick Center for the Arts, and will feature large-scale tree drawings, hanging banners, and the interactive Memory Tree, where Wil collect visitors’ memories of the impact of trees in their lives. He will be speaking to visitors, staff, and students.

He is pleased to be exhibiting in a university setting again. He also looks forward to exploring northwestern NY, and hopefully, squeezing in a couple hikes for new inspiration.