Paint the Town of Rockford

Published Summer 2024 Audubon Magazine by Maddie Burakoff

When Jennifer Kuroda sees a beautiful sunset getting underway, she knows it’s time for a detour. She drives a couple extra blocks on her way home in Rockford, Illinois, to admire an avian scene that’s larger than life: a Peregrine Falcon diving into a cluster of songbirds, painted in vibrant brushstrokes across a brick wall. “It’s just an incredible feeling to drive by and see that work,” says Kuroda, president of Sinnissippi Audubon. 

The mural is part of an unusual flock taking flight: storefront sparrows, grouses on grates, walls full of warblers. As part of the Audubon Mural Project, more than 100 such works have proliferated in New York City, where the public-art initiative featuring climate-threatened bird species launched in 2014. Now, the murals are winging their way across the country—from a Black Rail peering into a Washington, D.C., park, to a White-crowned Sparrow alighting on a campus in San Diego. 

“I can’t think of anything better than a bird mural in your community,” says Kuroda, who spearheaded the first chapter-led Audubon Mural Project satellite six years ago. Since then she’s produced eight murals in Rockford, Illinois, working with a range of local partners. Identifying the right artist is crucial, Kuroda says—ideally, someone who brings unique perspective as well as creative chops. In Rockford, that’s meant recruiting both middle school students, who “painted their hearts out” on a Golden-crowned Kinglet, and conservation-minded artists like Justin Suarez, who brings experience handling raptors to soaring murals of birds of prey. 

Read the full article here.