A Wing and a Prairie

Plains photographer Terry Evans takes both ground-level and aerial shots of her native Kansas landscape.

A conservationist, Evans asks, "How did our good intentions and values based on productivity lead us to exhaust the land we thought we loved?" She has served on the board of The Land Institute, a Salina, Kansas-based group that researches farming practices that maintain productivity while preserving the prairie ecosystem.

Learn more about prairie ecology in our educational Website Campfire Stories with George Catlin. This site provides contemporary commentary on George Catlin, a painter of Indians and landscapes in the 1830s. In the multimedia campfire story Western Landscape Wes Jackson, cofounder and director of The Land Institute, talks about the changing ecology of the prairie. In addition, Native American author William Least Heat-Moon (Osage/Wa-zha-zhe I-e) discusses the topography of the prairie.

If you happen to be in Washington, D.C., today, stop by the Renwick Gallery and see our new exhibition George Catlin and His Indian Gallery. There you can experience Great Plains wilderness in our surround video room!

Tonight in the Grand Salon of the Renwick Gallery at 7:00 P.M., meet Least Heat-Moon as he discusses his new book, Columbus in the Americas (Wiley, 2002). A book signing and reception will follow. Pre-registration is required.

The Renwick Gallery is located at Pennsylvania Avenue and 17th Street N.W., across the street from the White House. Please see our program calendar for more exciting exhibition-related events.

Pictured top: Terry Evans, born 1944, Fairy Ring #2, Fent's Prairie, 1979, ektacolor print, 14 15/16 x 14 15/16 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Consolidated Natural Gas Company Foundation.

Pictured bottom: Terry Evans, born 1944, Solomon River Oxbow, 1990, gelatin silver print, 20 x 16 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Consolidated Natural Gas Company Foundation.