Cartoonist Peter Kuper really likes insects. He’s shown it in many ways, including his graphic novel INSECTOPOLIS, which I think is a masterpiece. A few years ago he had an installation at the New York Public Library that was the best comics-related installation I have ever seen – butterflies, dung beetles, ants, humans and insects, all crawling around the main library’s stunning architecture. you had to be there.
Now Kuper’s depiction of our six-legged friends is a permanent part of the American Museum of Natural History. “Monarch’s Journey” opened this past weekend and I was able to attend the press preview. As the museum notes:
This new exhibit celebrates the monarch butterflies’ remarkable annual journey from the northern U.S. and Canada to the mountain forests of central Mexico through the work of award-winning graphic novelist and environmentalist Peter Kuper.
Wrapping the walls near the Museum’s extensive butterfly research collection, Monarch’s Journey explores the challenges monarchs face on their flight through Kuper’s bold illustrations, accompanied by a video of monarchs in motion. The exhibit merges art, storytelling, and science to bring visitors into the world of these determined travelers.
The exhibit features Kuper’s drawings showing how monarch butterflies migrate thousands of miles, and also film footage of swarms of butterflies. Moving through the space gives you an idea of the monarchs’s journey, and it becomes quite immersive. It’s also a reminder of the dangers facing monarch’s as their preferred food for larva, milkweed, faces encroachment from humans.
It’s a lovely exhibit and you should all check it out next time you are at AMNH.
It’s also quite an accomplishment for a cartoonist! Congratulations, Peter Kuper!
As part of the press preview we were allowed to enter the museum’s butterfly collection, which is housed in dozen of cabinets which are (I presume) full of cases of insects. They brought out some monarch samples in the wooden cases. If you don’t like bugs this is not the place for you, but luckily it is not open to the public.
I also got to enter the “Butterfly Vivarium” a room full of…live butterflies! To enter and exit you had to go through a butterfly lock to make sure nothing got out and you didn’t bring a traveler with you.
This was a magical room, and I wandered around it in a dream, blue morphos aggressively circling their territory, other butterflies feating on oranges, silk moths hanging motionless. A butterfly landed on me so my day was complete. If you are going to the AMNH, you need a separate ticket for the Butterfly Vivarium, but it is so worth it.
Then I went to see the dinosaurs because the wonder and mystery of this exhibit is truly one of the best things you can see in New York City.
The Museum of American History is a must for visitors and residents alike…and now it has a beautiful Monarch exhibit by cartoonist Peter Kuper. Check it out!
