GARY - The Calumet Artist Residency is taking on a mission to let people know that the city of Gary is rich with nature. The organization's year-long project this year focuses on nature. The Miller-based arts nonprofit's year-long Nature Project is to remind people of the woods, lagoons and lakes, prairie and plants that can be found in Gary. Calumet Artist Residency Secretary Sam Love says there are numerous nature areas in the city that people don't even realize exist.
"We're starting with the question, is nature one of the first things you think of when you think of Gary, Indiana? And if it's not it, it should be," Love says.
Love says that even though the city of Gary isn't known for its abundance of nature, nature is plentiful throughout Gary regardless.
"When you look at it there are a great number of large nature preserves in Gary that have high quality native plants," Love says. "You know this area is known for its bio diversity in the Indiana Dunes but what a lot of people don't realize is that whole ecosystem stretches throughout the city of Gary."
The Calumet Artist Residency and the Center for Urban and Regional Excellence are hosting the first public planning meeting of the Gary Nature Project on Saturday, January 20th at the Anderson Library at IU Northwest, from 11a.m. until 12:45 p.m.
At 1 p.m. the Calumet Artist Residency will then host the inaugural public hike of the Gary Nature Project at the Little Calumet River Prairie and Wetlands Preserve at the northwest corner of 3300 Broadway.
