UMass Art Students Collaborate with U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service on Environmental Art Project

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Students of Jeffery Kasper, professor of art, recently partnered with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) to create an extensive online library of graphics to be used by National Wildlife Refuge System employees for educational materials and outreach efforts throughout the Northeast United States and beyond, bridging the gap between art and environmental impact. 

Spearheaded by Jacquelyn Sadowski, who works for USFWS Visitor Services, the project helped the organization meet its needs for wildlife graphics to be used in its junior ranger booklets, social media posts, events/programs flyers, presentations and potential exhibit displays. 

Kasper led his students to create the graphics through his course ART364: Design Thinking for Social Innovation. He says the collaboration was a perfect fit, as his service-learning class was ready in rotation for the partnership. Both Kasper and Sadowski saw an opportunity for UMass students to make a tangible, real-world impact.

The project—which began in the fall 2023 semester and continued through the spring—was structured with 14 students organized into teams focused on different environmental settings: coastal, wetland, urban and woodland. Each team delved into research on species within their assigned habitat, producing a diverse array of hand-rendered and digital artwork ranging from animals to flora and backgrounds. With guidance from the USFWS students visited refuge sites, executed research and pitched different styles and visuals to align correctly with each of the species that were to be illustrated.

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Students focused on many aspects of their artwork and learned about the design process alongside the agency. With an expertise in accessibility through art, Kasper ensured students would be creating a variety of materials that would work for all audiences, such as line versions of the illustrations for touch tours, images with alternate colors to accommodate those who may be color blind, and rich image descriptions. Along with this, students created different visualizations to demonstrate the application of each illustration by the agency, such as how the graphics might specifically be used, or how it would be best laid out on a page.

Kasper says he was pleasantly surprised by the variety of artwork and approaches his students came up with, along with how supportive the agency was to work on-on-one with students to give them feedback.

“I’m honored that the USFWS took the time and care to create a system where these designs are going to have a life, and I’m happy that the students took on the process,” he says. “It’s a good example that we can take what we can learn while also contributing to our community, beyond the walls of the university.” 

The art is currently available for use by employees of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service via an online library. Each student who participated was awarded a certificate of appreciation by the Department of the Interior U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for their extraordinary efforts to the organization. 

More information about the project can be found on the College of Humanities and Fine Arts website.