In early summer 2022 Bee City Brandon sent out a call for entries for a new exhibit: Brandon © Bees: A community exhibit. Our call invited any sort of “response” to pollinators: art, poetry, personal reflections, etc. We also collaborated with Brandon Shopper’s Mall to offer a $10 gift card to those whose work was exhibited. We advertised widely on social media, and we ended up with 58 pieces of art to display at the Curve Gallery at the John E. Robbins Library. The 58 pieces of art ranged from drawings created by students at Maryland Park School, to digital photographs, to needlework, and more. Each piece of art emphasized the beauty and necessity of bees and other pollinators, many of which are in decline in Manitoba and globally. Some of the art also drew attention to the City of Brandon’s campaign to “create a buzz for Ukraine” by growing sunflowers, a plant that attracts and feeds bees.
Using funds from Brandon Neighbourhood Renewal Corporation, we hired a designer to create poster templates for us, templates that volunteers from Bee City Brandon filled with information about local pollinators, creating 9 11x17 foam-core, laminated posters. Volunteers from Bee City Brandon installed the exhibit during the week of June 27, and it has been up at the Curve Gallery ever since. Staff at the John E Robbins library installed a display of “pollinator” books available at the library, and a guest book was available for people’s comments.
