Grange Insurance Audubon Center hosted a Juneteenth Celebration on Saturday, June 21. This year, the staff at Grange prioritized supporting their community partners’ visions for a series of events, free to attendees, that illustrated the interplay between art and birding, conservation, and community.  

Grange’s community partners – artist Mah Leah Cochran, The Poetry Festival and WIT Gallery founder and artist Larry Robertson, and birder, environmental educator, and Black Birders Week Co-founder Nicole Jackson – shaped the programming, building on previous and continuing work they have done with Grange.

Participants joined Jackson for a beginner-friendly Urban Bird Walk while exploring how green spaces, native plants, and bird-friendly urban design create healthier habitats for birds to thrive, even in a bustling city. Then, they were invited to relax and reflect on their experience in a painting workshop led by Cochran, expressing their experiences of a morning outing on canvas. Lastly, attendees joined Robertson in a nature walk in search of inspiration and prompts for poems, which they then used to create poems in a guided mini-workshop.

 “As a lover of birds and nature, I’m beyond grateful for the Grange Audubon Insurance Center,” Robertson said. “[Grange] has always felt like an oasis in downtown Columbus, and over the years, I've told my friends that it’s my happy place where I go to relax and find a bit of zen. To be asked to collaborate for the Juneteenth event was truly a dream come true, to invite members of the community to share the space with me and share their art with everyone.” 

All the partners have deep roots in the community and a history of partnership with the center. Cochran first teamed up with Grange in 2022 when the center featured her work in  “Natural Connections,” an Art at Audubon exhibit. The partnership has bloomed since then, first with quarterly painting workshops and, this year, post-bird walk painting sessions. Jackson is a longtime Grange Audubon partner, and former Grange camp counselor (who will also be an Instructor at Hog Island’s Sharing Nature: An Educator’s Week this year!) Robertson first linked up with Grange seeking a venue for part of the poetry festival he founded, and has since organized live poetry readings.  

Grange sits five miles from the center of downtown Columbus in Scioto Audubon Metro Park, bordered by the Scioto River on one side and the Brewery District on the other. “We have a very diversified visitor base,” Sandy Libertini, Grange’s Engagement Manager, shared. “Our programming has to offer something for all those communities.” 

Libertini highlighted how important it is for people in the surrounding city to see Grange as a partner for their community initiatives.  “We want people to know that we’re here, that we’re a safe space. I want people to know that we have room – if you want to have a meeting, a gathering, we are here for you.”