Artists for Conservation

Due to now knowing that I aim to be able to produce work that will bring the problems of wildlife conservation. I have decided to look into organisations that are made up of artists that are also passionate about wildlife and produce work that supports the conservation of wildlife.

The Artists for Conservation Foundation (Formerly the Worldwide Nature Artists Group's) is a non-profit juried association of artists dedicated to celebrating and protecting our natural heritage founded in 1997.

Their mission is to support wildlife and habitat conservation, biodiversity, sustainability and environmental education through art that celebrates our natural heritage. The key objectives of the Foundation are:

• To be a world leader in the use of art to support the environment.

• To engage the general public through artistic expression and to impress upon them the importance and relevance of preserving our natural heritage and the imperativeness of environmental sustainability.

• To organize, support, and publicize science-guided, environmentally themed artistic field expeditions.

• To increase overall funding for nature conservancy and environmental sustainability.

• To educate a diverse audience through a range of publications, venues and channels, including the world’s largest conservation-oriented international traveling exhibit of nature art.

• To provide, for posterity, the impetus and resources for the development of a body of artwork that captures a wide spectrum of biodiversity and the essence of threatened habitats, flora and fauna of the world.

• To generate professional development and career support opportunities for artist members.

Founded in 1997 as the “Worldwide Nature Artists Group” by Jeffrey Whiting – a prominent Canadian artist, author, biologist and professional software engineer – the Group’s strength lies in its membership and represents a who’s-who of nature artists worldwide. To maintain the highest level of talent, membership is limited to 500 artists worldwide. New members are admitted by invitation only, through a juried process, and only as placements become available. The Group dedicates its resources to nurturing its world-class community of nature artists and leveraging this pool of talent to support its mission through a variety of activities, including:

• Facilitating art sales to raise funds for conservation.

• Supporting artistic field research expeditions to study endangered species and threatened habitats.

• Maintaining the world's largest gallery of nature art (online or offline).

• Recognizing individuals for their work in support of the conservation cause.

• Producing an annual art exhibition in support of conservation, and a major international touring exhibit.

• Planning and spearheading large-scale international environmentally themed art projects.

The Group has several active programs. Through its banner “Flag Expeditions” program, the Group offers fellowships to artists, supporting artistic field research in remote areas of the planet, with a strong emphasis on raising awareness to threatened habitats and endangered species. In the “Art for Conservation” program, artists collectively pledge millions of dollars to conservation organizations and programs around the world. The Group also supports the conservation cause with a monthly award, recognising individual artists for their dedication to conservation and the annual prestigious “Simon Combes Conservation Award”.

Today, the Group is the most progressive and prestigious organization in the world of nature art and represents hundreds of millions of dollars in artwork, though it does NOT take any brokerage fees or sales commissions on sales made by its members. For the first ten years of its operation, benefiting in part from a donated state-of-the-art technological infrastructure, the Group was sustained entirely on membership dues and volunteer labour, although it now seeks patrons, donors, sponsors and partners to enable the continued expansion of its activities.

#INDUSTRIAL