“Through the Eyes of the Piping Plovers: the Flora, Fauna and People of the Waukegan Shores” is an art exhibit that will share the beauty and fragility of the endangered Great Lakes Piping Plovers with the community. By showcasing a diverse range of artistic works, we will encourage widespread awareness of the need to protect a unique habitat that supports a rich biodiversity, including human life! Through the use of watercolor paintings, photographs, interactive information panels and electronic displays, we will connect a wider audience to this local success story. This exhibit will complement the permanent exhibits at the Waukegan History Museum at the Carnegie.
Lake County Audubon Society (LCAS) invited the Brushwood Botanical Artists and other local artists to submit watercolors, paintings and other mediums of artwork inspired by the birds and their habitat for this exhibit. Photographs and videos of the Waukegan piping plovers in 2024 and 2025, taken by Sharing Our Shore-Waukegan (SOS-W) volunteers, will also be featured. A renowned National Audubon photographer will be contributing photographs of our SOS-W volunteers taken on the Waukegan Beach to round out the exhibition. The photographer’s work was recently featured in the National Audubon Summer Magazine seen here in an article about the Great Lakes Piping Plover Recovery Program.
During the exhibition timeframe there will be showings of the LCAS documentary“Sharing Our Shore and the Return of the Piping Plover to the Shores of Waukegan”This film was created using photos and videos submitted by SOS-W volunteers. Speakers will provide presentations on four themes: Piping Plovers, Habitat, Migration and Community.
PROGRAMMING DURING EXHIBIT RUN
September 18
J’orge Garcia, Windy City Bird Lab Director
J'orge Garcia is a Chicago-area birder who brings his unique skill set from working to support Chicago's maker community into our great birding community. He first discovered birding after modeling a 3D-printed lens mount to attach vintage lenses to a mirrorless camera. Jorge shared his birding journey online through Twitter as he explored printing postcards and learning about Chicago's avian diversity.
His online sharing led him to become increasingly involved in the local birding community. He previously served on the board of the Illinois Ornithological Society and coordinated the Birds in My Neighborhood program at Openlands.
He now serves as the Director of the Windy City Bird Lab, leading projects like the Chicago Bird Migration Monitoring Network, which studies bird migration across the region. The program has since grown to support monitoring efforts in Minnesota, California, Colorado, and Mexico.October 9
September 20, 2025
Artist Walk Through hosted by Heeyoung Kim
October 9, 2025
Dr. Francesca Cuthbert, Distinguished Teaching Professor Emerita in the Department of Fisheries, Wildlife and Conservation Biology at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
Francesca J Cuthbert is a Distinguished Teaching Professor Emerita in the Department of Fisheries, Wildlife and Conservation Biology at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. She has studied waterbirds in the North American Great Lakes for more than 40 years. Her research has focused on distribution and abundance (based on aerial and ground survey methodology) of colonial waterbirds as well as breeding ecology, demography, winter and migration ecology of waterbirds including the federally endangered population of the Great Lakes piping plover. For her work on piping plovers, she received a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Recovery Champion Award, the Ralph Schreiber Conservation Award from the American Ornithological Society and the Kai Curry Lindahl Conservation Award from the Waterbird Society.
Cuthbert has coordinated research and field season activities for the Great Lakes piping plover recovery effort as well as the US portion of the binational (with Canada) colonial waterbird survey in the Great Lakes. She has published more than 100 peer-reviewed articles and many reports on various topics of avian ecology, conservation andmanagement. Her research has been supported by over 60 grants from federal and state agencies as well as non-profit organizations. Additionally, she has advised over 50 graduate students on diverse aspects of avian biology. She is a member of the Waterbird Council of the Americas, Fellow of the American Ornithological Society and past-president of the Waterbird Society.
The Return of the Endangered Piping Plover to Waukegan Shores Film Screening
Carolyn Lueck, President Lake County Audubon Society
Director and Producer