Arts & Humanities students paint with unexpected partners: zoo animals

The Lincoln Public Schools Arts & Humanities Focus Program offers many unique opportunities for its students to combine their artistic talents with community engagement. There’s no better example of this than the program’s partnership with the Lincoln Children’s Zoo this spring on the zoo’s annual Animal Art fundraiser.

Animals at the zoo raise their paws and paintbrushes to create original masterpieces. They paint with non-toxic paint on canvas with a little help from their zookeepers. This year, students from Arts & Humanities researched each of the animals and painted the canvas backgrounds that were used.

Animal artists included a tiger, a bearded dragon, a spider monkey, a giraffe and a ring-tailed lemur.

"Lincoln Children's Zoo is proud to partner with the LPS Arts & Humanities students on these fantastic works of art,” said the zoo’s director of development and communications, Sarah Wood. “The students created beautiful backgrounds for our animals to paint on, and the results are both creative and stunning. The zoo is thrilled to have the opportunity to collaborate with these talented young artists on a project to benefit the animals in our care."

LPS Director of Strategic Initiatives and Focus Programs James Blake echoed Wood’s appreciation for the collaboration.

"The Lincoln Children's Zoo provided an amazing learning experience for our students this year,” Blake said. “We love this partnership and were honored to be asked to co-create unique works of art with zoo animals." 

You can still view the paintings on the zoo’s website.


Published: June 10, 2021, Updated: June 10, 2021