The Bee Project

The Bee Project is an outdoor installation on the grounds of the Museum of Early Trades & Crafts consisting of multi-dimensional modular sculptures in the pattern of beehives.

These vibrant, colorful honeycombs function as a base for a multitude of hand-crafted bees created by visitors, students, artists, and educators using reclaimed and recycled objects.

The Bee Project is a visual and tactile exhibit that encompasses art, education, and science, drawing attention to the long history of local beekeeping, and the human-caused threats to honeybee colonies and wild bees worldwide.

View our calendar of events for to make replica bees for the exhibit, create Mason Bee homes, and attend lectures on bees and pollinators. 

The concept was created by Elena Smyrniotis, a multimedia installation artist with a background in architecture. Elena is a Grant Wood Fellow in printmaking and Assistant Professor at the University of Iowa. Her large installations investigate the relationship between architecture, space, and abstracted topography to underline environmental anxieties in a constructed landscape. Elena’s most recent projects seek to address the climatic impact of melting ice caps and the progressive extinction of bees and other pollinators. She earned her MFA in printmaking from the University of Notre Dame, her MA in printmaking and drawing from the University of Saint Francis, and her MA in Architecture and Engineering from State Petroleum University, Ufa, Russia. Elena’s experience at a global network of cultural institutions include a Fellowship at the Rome Global Gateway and cooperation with the Geographical Society of Italy; teaching art workshops in Dubai, OAE; partaking in workshops at The Painting School of Montmiral, France. Elena’s exhibition record includes shows in the USA, Russia, Spain and Turkey.