BELFAST — From April 14 through August 2023, The National Audubon Society’s Seabird Institute and Waterfall Arts present Welcome to Egg Rock: 50 Years of Seabird Conservation by Maine-raised artist and printmaker Pippin Frisbie-Calder and Terrie Frisbie, in the Clifford Gallery of Waterfall Arts.

A General Opening Reception will be held Friday, April 14, 2023, from 6 - 8 p.m. All Waterfall Arts exhibitions are free and open to the public.

With floor-to-ceiling prints and paintings, this immersive, multimedia art installation transports participants to the world’s first restored seabird colony on Eastern Egg Rock in Midcoast Maine.

Celebrating the 50th anniversary of Project Puffin, Frisbie-Calder and Frisbie bring to life the inspiring return of Maine’s Atlantic Puffins after nearly disappearing due to hunting, and the challenges they now face with climate change. Surrounded by the sights and sounds of this small, six-acre island, participants are invited to peek into puffin burrows, explore the Egg Rock field station, and take home their very own handmade puffin print.

“This is an exhibit of hope, where the actions of a few scientists changed the outcomes of seabirds forever,” said Pippin Frisbie-Calder, in a Waterfall Arts news release. “Art can communicate to people of all ages and backgrounds to understand this powerful story and contemplate their own actions for the future of seabirds." 

The Gulf of Maine is one of the fastest-warming bodies of water on earth, and seabirds are struggling to find the fish they rely on for food as a result. This project highlights the triumph of puffins’ return to their historic nesting range on Eastern Egg Rock, as well as the care and collective action needed to ensure their long-term success in the face of climate change.

“At its inception, Waterfall Arts was modeled on the values of appreciation of nature and its ability to restore the spirit, and a commitment to live creatively,” said Amy Tingle, Program Director for Waterfall Arts. “This philosophy is in perfect alignment with Pippin’s project and the reason why I am so thrilled that Waterfall Arts is the first host location of this powerful, transformative exhibition.”  

"The Gulf of Maine is a living laboratory already showing us the effects of climate change – effects that will ultimately be seen throughout the world" said Don Lyons, Director of Conservation Science for Audubon's Seabird Institute. "Pippin's Welcome to Egg Rock showcases a critical conservation message and provides an uplifting opportunity to act now and promote change that benefits seabirds in the Gulf of Maine and beyond."

Today, Audubon’s Seabird Institute continues the legacy of Project Puffin. The program trains young biologists on seven seabird nesting colonies along Maine’s coast each summer. Social attraction and other seabird restoration and conservation techniques developed on these islands have been used to benefit rare and endangered seabirds all over the world. Educational programs for kids, families, and adults are provided through the Project Puffin Visitor Center in Rockland, Maine and the Hog Island Audubon Camp in Bremen.

Welcome to Egg Rock will be open April 14 through August, 2023 at Waterfall Arts’ Clifford Gallery in Belfast, Maine. 

About The Artists

Pippin Frisbie-Calder and Terrie Frisbie are intergenerational (mother-daughter) artists who have combined their love of birds and printmaking to bring this show to Belfast. Follow Pippin Frisbie-Calder at pippinfrisbiecalder.com or on Instagram at @pippinprint.

About Waterfall Arts

Launched in 2000, Waterfall Arts is a community arts center that offers resources to arts enthusiasts of all ages and abilities. We welcome the public to engage in the arts through classes, exhibitions, art events, performances, public art projects, open studios (in clay, glass, print, and darkroom photography) and more. 

In September, Waterfall Arts welcomed multidisciplinary artist and environmental activist Pippin Frisbie-Calder as our artist-in-residence. During her residency, which focused on humanity's complicated relationship with nature, Pippin carved and printed works using our printing press. Frisbie-Calder also led a printmaking workshop and taught a month-long course for students from the Belfast Community Outreach Program in Education. The BCOPE students explored climate change by selecting a locally threatened or extinct species and then designing and carving a linocut print. Welcome to Egg Rock: 50 Years of Seabird Conservation will be the culmination of Pippin’s residency with Waterfall Arts, a program exemplary of the work we do to support artists who are doing meaningful work with the community and for the community. 

Learn how to engage at waterfallarts.org or on social media at @waterfallarts. For more information, call 207-338-2222 or contact Amy Tingle at amy@waterfallarts.org.

About Audubon  

The National Audubon Society protects birds and the places they need, today and tomorrow, throughout the Americas using science, advocacy, education and on-the-ground conservation. Audubon's state programs, nature centers, chapters and partners have an unparalleled wingspan that reaches millions of people each year to inform, inspire and unite diverse communities in conservation action. Since 1905, Audubon's vision has been a world in which people and wildlife thrive. Audubon is a nonprofit conservation organization.

The National Audubon Society started Project Puffin in 1973 in an effort to learn how to restore puffins to historic nesting islands in the Gulf of Maine. Today, Project Puffin refers to the active seabird restoration programs for puffins and other Maine seabirds as well as many public education programs. In Maine and beyond, Project Puffin is also known as Audubon’s Seabird Restoration Program as it actively works to share restoration methods to benefit rare and endangered seabirds worldwide while building a culture of seabird conservation and appreciation.

Learn more how to help at audubon.org and follow us on Twitter and instagram at @audubonsociety.