Beehive Collective

There are many advantages to having college campuses nearby when you live out in the boonies and for this 'retired' instructor the main one is 'campus programming.' 

Some events are definitely better advertised than others and we miss out on a lot now that I'm not on campus but a friend notified us re: a Beehive Collective presentation being given in Winona, followed the next evening on the UW-L campus, much closer to home.

The Beehive Collective is a volunteer grassroots arts collective which creates tools to share complex global stories which affect all of us. As the name implies the importance of 'Bees' in our lives. Specifically to understand what happens in South and Central American bees directly affects us in Biodevastation/BioJustice against genetic engineering (Monsanto).  Creating Art narratives that"warn of the dangers of biotechnology and monoculture in agriculture and in our society at large."
                                              
Artists created these visual tools of cross pollination art anonymously and collaboratively to tell the bee story. They first did listening projects in refugee camps in Latin America and then began their graphics. Purchases of this art in the form of posters and fabric wall murals allow more to be disseminated to other communities. Over 160,000 posters have been given away across the Western Hemisphere. 

10-15 members constitute the core group and there are many volunteer part timers as well. The group is mainly from eastern Maine which stewards and owns 4 historic buildings along with a cultural center and community arts space. There are also many local revitalization projects across the map.

Visits to different communities can be in the form of lectures, both formal and informal and workshops too re: numerous environmental and 'socioeconomic' issues.


The second large graphic completed had to do with NAFTA negotiations of  (Free Trade Area of the Americas)  "linked to specific social movements and campaigns."

Mesoamerica Resiste (2004)

The Mesoamérica Resiste, the final graphic of the trilogy took nine years and  documented resistance to the mega-infrastructure development plan "Project Mesoamerica" (previously known as Plan Puebla Panama). During this decade other projects included climate change, water privatization, G8 and coal mining and fracking.

Here are a couple recent article links re:  BEES in case you'd like to read more 
Bee killer

Robobee