This story is sponsored by the Mansfield Art Center.
Hundreds to thousands of crows migrate to the woods by the Mansfield Art Center each year, settling into the wooded acres of the property. The staff decided to celebrate this phenomenon through the first annual Crow Festival. A call-to-artists was placed, and the staff was shocked by the enthusiastic response. Approximately 200 crow-inspired artworks from artists across Ohio are on display, encompassing the entire lower level of the art center.
“The sound is actually deafening,” Marketing and Development Director Jennifer Beavis said, “When we walk out of the building and into the parking lot, sometimes we can barely hear each other talk over the squawking of the crows.”
In conjunction with the Ohio Bird Sanctuary, the Mansfield Art Center is paying homage to the crow migration through crow-themed art and events like the recent MAC Masquerade. There are even two crow artists, themselves. CeCe and CoLee are permanent residents at the Ohio Bird Sanctuary, and have been trained to paint on canvases with their talons.
“We are always looking for ways to work with our birds in a positive manner that can get people excited about birds and nature,” Amanda Vanderford, who trained the two crows, said.
All of the training is positive reinforcement based, so when CeCe and CoLee complete their tasks, they’re rewarded with mice.
“Once we find their favorite treat, we start to encourage them to do something we want. In this case, they learned to hop onto a dry cloth and then onto a blank canvas. Each time they hopped where we wanted, they would receive a reward. After a couple days of doing this, we added paint to the cloth which acted like a sponge and repeated the behavior,” Vanderford said.
Stellare Strings Quartet came from Cleveland on Friday night to provide music for the MAC Masquerade, as visitors mingled and admired the art of all different mediums spread throughout the building. Saturday, trick-or-treaters were led through “crow-alley” for an educational scavenger hunt through the woods amongst other activities.
“The crows are a prevalent part of everyone’s fall and winter, whether it’s downtown or in our woods. It’s something that a lot of people have talked about, and we’re really excited to actually do it and put it out there for our community to have a space to celebrate this wonderful migration of crows that we have come to the art center and downtown Mansfield,” Ms. Beavis said.
The art show began on October 22 and goes through November 6. For more information, visit their website.
