‘Overwintering’: to spend the winter; e.g.: ‘many birds overwinter in equatorial regions’
The Overwintering Project: Mapping Sanctuary is a project about home, our unique environment and the migratory shorebirds that spend the greatest part of their year here, on the shores of Australia and New Zealand. Migratory shorebirds are the fastest declining group of birds in Australia, and this project is designed to make them and their habitat visible, which I hope will in turn help to save them from extinction.
To participate in the project, artists from Australia and New Zealand are asked to respond to the unique nature of their local migratory shorebird habitat. Australia and New Zealand have over 100* internationally important shorebird overwintering sites#. These sites are not interchangeable: each possesses a unique combination of physical and biological features that make it the perfect sanctuary for migratory shorebirds to return to, year after year.
Migratory shorebirds suffer from an image problem: brown birds that inhabit the intertidal zone, often mudflats, they are cryptic birds in an often overlooked landscape. What is more, much of their habitat has been reclaimed, used for marinas, docklands, ports, cities etc. For example, records tell that Melbourne was once the 'Kakadu of the south' - an area unrivalled in rich wetland habitat. I am inviting artists to seek out their local habitat and document their personal response to it, whether it is an industrial waterway awash with the wakes of passing container ships or a pristine tidal zone shared with sharks and turtles. As artists, we can make it visible, and in this way we will create an intricate and personal map of our precious shorebird habitat.
To date over 200 artists from around Australia and New Zealand have joined the Overwintering Project. Anyone can join. To find out how, and to find out the details of the project including upcoming and past exhibitions and current deadlines, visit the project website www.theoverwinteringproject.com
The Overwintering Project: Mapping Sanctuary is a project about home, our unique environment and the migratory shorebirds that spend the greatest part of their year here, on the shores of Australia and New Zealand. Migratory shorebirds are the fastest declining group of birds in Australia, and this project is designed to make them and their habitat visible, which I hope will in turn help to save them from extinction.
To participate in the project, artists from Australia and New Zealand are asked to respond to the unique nature of their local migratory shorebird habitat. Australia and New Zealand have over 100* internationally important shorebird overwintering sites#. These sites are not interchangeable: each possesses a unique combination of physical and biological features that make it the perfect sanctuary for migratory shorebirds to return to, year after year.
Migratory shorebirds suffer from an image problem: brown birds that inhabit the intertidal zone, often mudflats, they are cryptic birds in an often overlooked landscape. What is more, much of their habitat has been reclaimed, used for marinas, docklands, ports, cities etc. For example, records tell that Melbourne was once the 'Kakadu of the south' - an area unrivalled in rich wetland habitat. I am inviting artists to seek out their local habitat and document their personal response to it, whether it is an industrial waterway awash with the wakes of passing container ships or a pristine tidal zone shared with sharks and turtles. As artists, we can make it visible, and in this way we will create an intricate and personal map of our precious shorebird habitat.
To date over 200 artists from around Australia and New Zealand have joined the Overwintering Project. Anyone can join. To find out how, and to find out the details of the project including upcoming and past exhibitions and current deadlines, visit the project website www.theoverwinteringproject.com
Above is a selection of prints from the Overwintering Project Print Portfolio. You can view all the prints here, on the project website.
PROJECT AIMS
‘Knowledge bestows ownership; uniqueness bestows value.’
FUNDRAISING
Artists who join the project donate two prints from the same edition, one to exhibit in ongoing Overwintering Project exhibitions, and one to sell for $200 to raise funds for BirdLife Australia's migratory shorebird conservation and research. In 2019 the project donated $10,000 to BirdLife Australia's special interest group, the Australasian Wader Studies Group, with the funds contributing to the purchase of satellite trackers for Oriental Pratincoles. These birds have never before been satellite tracked, so the information gleaned from the trackers about which countries the birds migrate through and where they breed will be vital to ensure the habitat is protected.
- to raise awareness of Australia and New Zealand as the major destination for migratory shorebirds of the East Asian-Australasian Flyway**, as they spend the greatest single portion of their migratory cycle on our shores (Sept./Oct. – April/May)
- to raise community and individual awareness of the intrinsic value and uniqueness of local shorebird habitat
- to map a personal response to the richness of our shores
- to link artists around Australia and New Zealand
‘Knowledge bestows ownership; uniqueness bestows value.’
FUNDRAISING
Artists who join the project donate two prints from the same edition, one to exhibit in ongoing Overwintering Project exhibitions, and one to sell for $200 to raise funds for BirdLife Australia's migratory shorebird conservation and research. In 2019 the project donated $10,000 to BirdLife Australia's special interest group, the Australasian Wader Studies Group, with the funds contributing to the purchase of satellite trackers for Oriental Pratincoles. These birds have never before been satellite tracked, so the information gleaned from the trackers about which countries the birds migrate through and where they breed will be vital to ensure the habitat is protected.
Oriental Pratincole SEP fitted with a satellite tracker. You can see the delicate antennae of the tracker parallel to the SEP's tail feathers. Photo by S. Subramanya.
THE OVERWINTERING PRINT PORTFOLIO
Printmakers are invited to create and contribute one print in response to the unique nature of their local shorebird habitat. In pondering how their local habitat is precious to shorebirds, artists are also invited to reveal how it is precious to them. Migratory shorebirds provide the focus for the project, but artists can respond to any aspect that they perceive as rendering the area unique e.g. the geology, prey species, tidal patterns, flora, other local native fauna etc.
Artists can contact the Project Co-ordinator Kate Gorringe-Smith for information about their local shorebird habitat.
Contributed prints will become part of a unique print portfolio that will provide an in-depth personal response to our unique coast and the sites on which our migratory shorebirds depend. At the project’s end, the portfolio will be donated to a state or national collection.
How to join the Overwintering Project Print Portfolio
Artists must contact the Project Co-ordinator Kate Gorringe-Smith in order to join the project. If required, I can provide help with information about your local migratory shorebird habitat and put you in touch with local shorebird experts. I will also send you the project documentation including general information and the Artists’ Agreement. I will also put you on the mailing list for the project newsletter. Email: [email protected]
Conditions to join are:
This project is expected to continue for at least three years. The project website will list Overwintering Project exhibitions and deadlines and display images of the art generated in response to each site.
Informal groups of printmakers and/or print workshops are invited to hold their own Overwintering Exhibitions. The conditions are as below for organising bodies and galleries.
If an artist would like to organise a solo exhibition around the project theme, to contribute more than one work, or to create an artists book, please contact the Project Co-ordinator.
The Overwintering Print Portfolio provides both the fundraising aspect of the Overwintering Project and the enduring core of work that can be exhibited at any time to aid shorebird or coastal conservation.
Artists will be alerted to upcoming deadlines through the project newsletter and the project website (http://www.theoverwinteringproject.com).
The Overwintering Print Portfolio will be cumulative, i.e. prints will continue to be accepted until the end of the project. This means that if an artist misses a deadline or does not hear of the project until after a deadline, there will be other opportunities to join the project until the project ends.
FOR ORGANISING BODIES
Councils, schools, BirdLife groups, NPWS services etc. that have an interest in raising awareness of their local shorebirds and shorebird habitat are invited to organise Overwintering Project exhibitions.
As Project Co-ordinator I will document and publicise the project through the project website, facebook page and newsletters, will help seek further publicity and, if required, I will try to co-ordinate with local services to provide talks and information about the local shorebird habitat and species. While I am unable to assist with funding, the benefit of joining the project is that it will build a national picture of co-ordinated events so that people realise how important the coasts of Australia and New Zealand are to the survival of migratory shorebirds. As a courtesy I would also appreciate acknowledgement as the instigator and co-ordinator of the project, and that the project website address appears in promotional materials.
In order to be part of the Overwintering Project organisers must
If it is a print-media exhibition, and the prints are to become part of the Overwintering Print Portfolio, the conditions and requirements for entry are as detailed in the Overwintering Print Portfolio section above.
FOR GALLERIES
Galleries are welcome and encouraged to hold iterations of ‘The Overwintering Project: Mapping Sancturay’. As long as two copies of any prints made for the project are forwarded to the Project Co-ordinator by the artist or the gallery as per the above conditions the gallery is under no obligation to donate any proceeds to the project.
To be part of the project the conditions are as above for Organising Bodies, except re ‘providing participating artists with information about their local migratory shorebird habitat’. If the gallery is unable to fulfil this condition, the Co-ordinator will help to organise a local information session for participating artists. Additionally, galleries can choose an alternate name for the exhibition, as long as it is stated somewhere prominent, including in all publicity materials that it is an iteration of the Overwintering Project, and the project logo is used. As a courtesy I would also appreciate acknowledgement as the instigator and co-ordinator of the project, and that the project website address appears in promotional materials.
***Printmakers who participate in an Overwintering Project exhibition in a gallery that charges a commission on the sale of prints are waived the administration charge for joining the project. Also, if the fee prevents anyone from joining the project, or if participants have paid for a workshop or other event to join the project, the fee can be waived.
BACKGROUND
The Overwintering Project is designed to be organic in nature. In my experience of co-ordinating the shorebird-related project, ‘The Flyway Print Exchange’, the idea of the Flyway and the shorebirds that migrate annually along it resonated with far more artists than could practically join the original project. We overcame this limitation by holding other exhibitions where local artists could make related artwork and exhibit these alongside the Flyway Print Exchange. This led to some beautiful exhibitions, but it would have been more satisfying to incorporate those artists’ works permanently into a larger project. The Overwintering Project is designed to be able to contain the works of as many artists as want to be a part of it.
Australia has 36 species of migratory shorebirds that breed above the Arctic Circle in Siberia and Alaska, migrating south to spend the major part of their migratory cycle (October – May) on the shores of Australia and New Zealand. The route they fly annually between their two homes is called the East Asian-Australasian Flyway, and their journeys link 23** countries from New Zealand to Russia along the coast of Asia through which they fly, stop to rest and refuel, and breed. They travel this 25,000 circuit every year of their adult lives.
Largely due to their dependence on habitat in every one of the 23 Flyway countries – most of which number among the fastest-growing economies on the planet – migratory shorebirds are the fastest declining group of birds in Australia. As their home for the majority of the year, we in Australia and New Zealand have a particular responsibility to preserve their critical overwintering habitat. Through the Overwintering Project I hope to raise awareness of migratory shorebirds – their existence and their needs – to help us do our part to preserve the lives of these extraordinary creatures.
This project is endorsed by BirdLife Australia and by the East Asian-Australasian Flyway Partnership.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
For further information please contact Kate Gorringe-Smith, Overwintering Project Co-ordinator.
M: 0432 322 408
E: [email protected]
W: www.theoverwinteringproject.com www.kategorringesmith.com.au
*the existing list of sites was identified in the paper Bamford M, Watkins D, Bancroft W, Tischler G and J Wahl. 2008. Migratory Shorebirds of the East Asian - Australasian Flyway; Population Estimates and Internationally Important Sites. Wetlands International Oceania. Canberra, Australia.
#many of these sites have global significance and are also listed under the Ramsar Convention Treaty as internationally significant wetlands (www.ramsar.org), and are Key Biodiversity Areas (A Global Standard for the Identification of Key Biodiversity Areas was launched by BirdLife International and ten other leading conservation NGOs in September 2016 http://www.birdlife.org.au/projects/KBA).
** The East-Asian Australasian Flyway extends from Arctic Russia and North America to New Zealand and is used by over 50 million migratory waterbirds. The countries that comprise the East-Asian Australasian Flyway are: the USA (Alaska); Russia (Siberia); Mongolia; China; North Korea; South Korea; Japan; the Philippines; Vietnam; Laos; Thailand; Cambodia; Myanmar; Bangladesh; India; Malaysia; Singapore; Brunei; Indonesia; Timor; Papua New Guinea; Australia and New Zealand.
Printmakers are invited to create and contribute one print in response to the unique nature of their local shorebird habitat. In pondering how their local habitat is precious to shorebirds, artists are also invited to reveal how it is precious to them. Migratory shorebirds provide the focus for the project, but artists can respond to any aspect that they perceive as rendering the area unique e.g. the geology, prey species, tidal patterns, flora, other local native fauna etc.
Artists can contact the Project Co-ordinator Kate Gorringe-Smith for information about their local shorebird habitat.
Contributed prints will become part of a unique print portfolio that will provide an in-depth personal response to our unique coast and the sites on which our migratory shorebirds depend. At the project’s end, the portfolio will be donated to a state or national collection.
How to join the Overwintering Project Print Portfolio
Artists must contact the Project Co-ordinator Kate Gorringe-Smith in order to join the project. If required, I can provide help with information about your local migratory shorebird habitat and put you in touch with local shorebird experts. I will also send you the project documentation including general information and the Artists’ Agreement. I will also put you on the mailing list for the project newsletter. Email: [email protected]
Conditions to join are:
- artists are required to visit their local shorebird habitat and create a new print in response to it
- editions can be of any number, but artists are required to submit two copies of the print to the co-ordinator: one to exhibit and one to sell to raise funds for shorebird research
- any medium of original print is accepted
- prints must be printed on good-quality, archival printmaking paper, 180 gsm or heavier
- prints must be printed on paper 28 x 28cm; any image size within these bounds is accepted
- along with their prints, artists are required to submit:
- a good-quality image of the print to the project (300dpi and no smaller than 1MB)
- an image caption including title and medium
- a maximum 100 word artist statement including a description of your site and its location
- a signed artists’ agreement
- artists are required to pay an administrative charge of $25***
This project is expected to continue for at least three years. The project website will list Overwintering Project exhibitions and deadlines and display images of the art generated in response to each site.
Informal groups of printmakers and/or print workshops are invited to hold their own Overwintering Exhibitions. The conditions are as below for organising bodies and galleries.
If an artist would like to organise a solo exhibition around the project theme, to contribute more than one work, or to create an artists book, please contact the Project Co-ordinator.
The Overwintering Print Portfolio provides both the fundraising aspect of the Overwintering Project and the enduring core of work that can be exhibited at any time to aid shorebird or coastal conservation.
Artists will be alerted to upcoming deadlines through the project newsletter and the project website (http://www.theoverwinteringproject.com).
The Overwintering Print Portfolio will be cumulative, i.e. prints will continue to be accepted until the end of the project. This means that if an artist misses a deadline or does not hear of the project until after a deadline, there will be other opportunities to join the project until the project ends.
FOR ORGANISING BODIES
Councils, schools, BirdLife groups, NPWS services etc. that have an interest in raising awareness of their local shorebirds and shorebird habitat are invited to organise Overwintering Project exhibitions.
As Project Co-ordinator I will document and publicise the project through the project website, facebook page and newsletters, will help seek further publicity and, if required, I will try to co-ordinate with local services to provide talks and information about the local shorebird habitat and species. While I am unable to assist with funding, the benefit of joining the project is that it will build a national picture of co-ordinated events so that people realise how important the coasts of Australia and New Zealand are to the survival of migratory shorebirds. As a courtesy I would also appreciate acknowledgement as the instigator and co-ordinator of the project, and that the project website address appears in promotional materials.
In order to be part of the Overwintering Project organisers must
- Discuss the scope and shape of the local exhibition with the Project Co-ordinator, Kate Gorringe-Smith ([email protected]; 0432322408)
- Register the project with the Project Co-ordinator and supply details (dates; opening time; venue; participants) to be publicised on the project’s website, social media and newsletter
- Title the exhibition ‘The Overwintering Project: [location] (e.g. The Overwintering Project: Maroochydore)
- Use the Overwintering Project logo in publicity and gallery signage
- Provide participating artists with information about their local migratory shorebird habitat, which can include information on any aspects of the local environment
- Provide images from the exhibition to be included as documentation on the project website
- Provide the Project Co-ordinator with a 150 word description of the local shorebird habitat to appear on the website and with a list of participating artists
If it is a print-media exhibition, and the prints are to become part of the Overwintering Print Portfolio, the conditions and requirements for entry are as detailed in the Overwintering Print Portfolio section above.
FOR GALLERIES
Galleries are welcome and encouraged to hold iterations of ‘The Overwintering Project: Mapping Sancturay’. As long as two copies of any prints made for the project are forwarded to the Project Co-ordinator by the artist or the gallery as per the above conditions the gallery is under no obligation to donate any proceeds to the project.
To be part of the project the conditions are as above for Organising Bodies, except re ‘providing participating artists with information about their local migratory shorebird habitat’. If the gallery is unable to fulfil this condition, the Co-ordinator will help to organise a local information session for participating artists. Additionally, galleries can choose an alternate name for the exhibition, as long as it is stated somewhere prominent, including in all publicity materials that it is an iteration of the Overwintering Project, and the project logo is used. As a courtesy I would also appreciate acknowledgement as the instigator and co-ordinator of the project, and that the project website address appears in promotional materials.
***Printmakers who participate in an Overwintering Project exhibition in a gallery that charges a commission on the sale of prints are waived the administration charge for joining the project. Also, if the fee prevents anyone from joining the project, or if participants have paid for a workshop or other event to join the project, the fee can be waived.
BACKGROUND
The Overwintering Project is designed to be organic in nature. In my experience of co-ordinating the shorebird-related project, ‘The Flyway Print Exchange’, the idea of the Flyway and the shorebirds that migrate annually along it resonated with far more artists than could practically join the original project. We overcame this limitation by holding other exhibitions where local artists could make related artwork and exhibit these alongside the Flyway Print Exchange. This led to some beautiful exhibitions, but it would have been more satisfying to incorporate those artists’ works permanently into a larger project. The Overwintering Project is designed to be able to contain the works of as many artists as want to be a part of it.
Australia has 36 species of migratory shorebirds that breed above the Arctic Circle in Siberia and Alaska, migrating south to spend the major part of their migratory cycle (October – May) on the shores of Australia and New Zealand. The route they fly annually between their two homes is called the East Asian-Australasian Flyway, and their journeys link 23** countries from New Zealand to Russia along the coast of Asia through which they fly, stop to rest and refuel, and breed. They travel this 25,000 circuit every year of their adult lives.
Largely due to their dependence on habitat in every one of the 23 Flyway countries – most of which number among the fastest-growing economies on the planet – migratory shorebirds are the fastest declining group of birds in Australia. As their home for the majority of the year, we in Australia and New Zealand have a particular responsibility to preserve their critical overwintering habitat. Through the Overwintering Project I hope to raise awareness of migratory shorebirds – their existence and their needs – to help us do our part to preserve the lives of these extraordinary creatures.
This project is endorsed by BirdLife Australia and by the East Asian-Australasian Flyway Partnership.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
For further information please contact Kate Gorringe-Smith, Overwintering Project Co-ordinator.
M: 0432 322 408
E: [email protected]
W: www.theoverwinteringproject.com www.kategorringesmith.com.au
*the existing list of sites was identified in the paper Bamford M, Watkins D, Bancroft W, Tischler G and J Wahl. 2008. Migratory Shorebirds of the East Asian - Australasian Flyway; Population Estimates and Internationally Important Sites. Wetlands International Oceania. Canberra, Australia.
#many of these sites have global significance and are also listed under the Ramsar Convention Treaty as internationally significant wetlands (www.ramsar.org), and are Key Biodiversity Areas (A Global Standard for the Identification of Key Biodiversity Areas was launched by BirdLife International and ten other leading conservation NGOs in September 2016 http://www.birdlife.org.au/projects/KBA).
** The East-Asian Australasian Flyway extends from Arctic Russia and North America to New Zealand and is used by over 50 million migratory waterbirds. The countries that comprise the East-Asian Australasian Flyway are: the USA (Alaska); Russia (Siberia); Mongolia; China; North Korea; South Korea; Japan; the Philippines; Vietnam; Laos; Thailand; Cambodia; Myanmar; Bangladesh; India; Malaysia; Singapore; Brunei; Indonesia; Timor; Papua New Guinea; Australia and New Zealand.