During our Bahamas CBEMR training that took place from April 8-14 in Freeport on Grand Bahama, Monica Gutierrez-Quarto collaborated with Waterkeepers and with the resident artist Marie Louis Hayward to run the Kids Art Mangrove Workshop on April 13th. Two art projects were presented to the students: a Painting workshop about animals of the mangroves and a silk screen workshop producing prints of a mangrove tree. 

Before the hands-on art projects, the students received an educative presentation by a scientist from Waterkeepers about mangroves in Grand Bahama. The students also had the opportunity to see the mangrove nursery at the Rand Center, where both the CBEMR training workshop and the children’s art workshop took place. Twenty students from ages 7 to 13 participated in this project. The event lasted 3 hours, and the kids had a great time producing their varied creations.

In addition, we had youth volunteers from the Waterkeepers who assisted and helped in the activity. It was a successful opportunity to educate Bahaman youth about the mangrove ecosystem via an integrated art curriculum.