CHILDHOOD MEMORY: That’s the title of this work by Taryn, a participant in the Arts Council of Princeton’s ArtsExchange program in conjunction with HomeFront. It will be shown with other works by children in the exhibition “All Eyes on Nature,” which opens Thursday, May 14, in the Olivia Rainbow Gallery at the D&R Greenway Land Trust, One Preservation Place. The show will continue through June 26. For more information, call (609) 924-4646 or visit: www.drgreenway.org.

D&R Greenway welcomes the public to “All Eyes on Nature,” an exhibition of innovative works by ArtsExchange students of the Arts Council of Princeton, through HomeFront. Dynamic images of nature from the insects’ perspective may be viewed in the land trust’s Olivia Rainbow Gallery from May 14 through June 26.

Since 1993, the Arts Council of Princeton has partnered with HomeFront, which serves thousands of Mercer County families to help break the cycle of poverty and end homelessness in offering ArtsExchange, a weekly program where year-round arts instruction is provided to more than 75 children, ages 5-18, whose families are currently living in transient circumstances.

For “All Eyes on Nature,” Arts Council of Princeton Outreach Program Manager/Instructor Eva Mantell guided her students to create paintings from the vantage point of insects. Ms. Mantell asked, “What are flowers, leaves, even surrounding landscapes, when you are an insect? Where is the horizon? Where is the ground? Where is the sun? What size are the elements in the painting?”

“All Eyes on Nature” comprises the children’s vibrant answers. The lively results are intended to catalyze a greater sensitivity to nature, its beauty and its peril. “They recreated nature’s own shifts in scale, colors, and textures, as well as its marvelous complexity and interconnectedness,” explained Ms. Mantell. “Native species were their starting point, each communicating his or her own ‘insect’ energy and excitement.”

D&R Greenway’s Olivia Rainbow Gallery is funded in memory of four-year-old Olivia Kuenne, who cherished nature and art. Sequential nature exhibitions by students extend Olivia’s enthusiasms into our time.

The Arts Council of Princeton thanks the following funders for their support of the ArtsExchange programming in 2014-15: ACP Fundraising Galas, Charles Galbraith Testamentary Trust, Colgate via United Way, The Concordia Foundation, The Firmenich Charitable Foundation, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Johnson & Johnson Family of Consumer Companies, Contributions Fund of the Community Foundation of New Jersey, Mary Owen Borden Foundation, The Migedan Foundation, Inc., New Jersey State Council on the Arts, NRG.

“All Eyes on Nature” will be on view at the D&R Greenway Land Trust, One Preservation Place, from May 14 through June 26. For more information, call (609) 924-4646 or visit: www.drgreenway.org.

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