Bee conservation is the common theme explored by two visiting scholars in an upcoming lecture and art exhibit at Linfield College, in honor of the legacy of the late Jane Claire Dirks-Edmunds.
Michael Breed, professor emeritus in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at University of Colorado, Boulder, will present “Save The Bees: A Call for Action” on Wednesday, Oct. 2, at 7 p.m. in the Richard and Lucille Ice Auditorium in Melrose Hall at Linfield.
The lecture will be preceded by an exhibit, “As The Bee Sees: A Pollinator’s Perspective,” and talk by artist Susan Curington at 5:30 p.m. in Nicholson Library. The exhibit runs Sept. 27 through Dec. 13.
Breed’s research interests include the behavior of social insects, including kin recognition, nest defense and division of labor in honeybees. His work with graduate and undergraduate students discovered the biological basis for nest-mate recognition in honeybees, the mechanism by which bees exclude intruders from their hives. He has also investigated the behavior and ecology of ants and other bee species in diverse habitats ranging from Rocky Mountain alpine meadows to tropical rainforests. Breed’s research has been published in a variety of journals, and he has served as Editor-in-Chief of the social insect research journal Insectes Sociaux. He has also authored The Encyclopedia of Animal Behavior and the textbook Animal Behavior (Academic Press). Breed is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and of the Entomological Society of America.
Curington melds passion for painting with passion for pollinator health in a super-size exhibition of fruit and vegetable blossoms seen from a bee’s perspective. Nine 6×4-foot paintings use color, light, lush texture and scale to stimulate the viewer to experience a fresh world view. In the large paintings, artist Curington invites a perspective shift through imagination. The viewer becomes the bee, drawn to the blossom, its food source.
“Shifting out of our human-centric perspective to any other point of view is a breath of fresh air. It expands our understanding of the coherent whole,” said Curington.
The Jane Claire Dirks-Edmunds series honors Dirks-Edmunds, a professor of biology at Linfield from 1941 to 1974. The series brings speakers to campus to address critical environmental concerns and biological issues and to support student-faculty collaborative research. Dirks-Edmunds recognized the importance of ecological issues and humanity’s impact on nature long before environmental issues became part of the public agenda.
The lecture and exhibit are free and open to the public. They are sponsored by the Jane Claire Dirks-Edmunds Fund and Linfield’s Nicholson Library. For more information, contact Chad Tillberg at 503-883-2221 or ctillbe@linfield.edu.
