Nature Foundation is proud to support the 2023 Nature Festival as a Festival Partner and by hosting two events as part of the program.
Nature Festival is a two-week celebration of our love of nature in South Australia, and from 1-15 October 2023, it offers over three hundred events for all ages, full of creative ways to connect with nature and each other.
The first of our events was Art & Invertebrates on Kangaroo Island, held on Monday, 2 October 2023.
Nature Foundation members Janine Mackintosh and Dr Richard Glatz are a couple from Kangaroo Island who highlight the importance of nature conservation through their respective fields of art and science.
They have generously decided to bequest their 600-acre bush heritage property on Kangaroo Island to Nature Foundation, as they believe our organisation can provide the best long-term stewardship.
They also agreed to host a small group tour of their property and unique workspaces for us for Nature Festival, a very fitting connection with this year's festival theme: 'the nature of home'.
The limited event sold out, and the morning saw an excited and interested group gather to learn about Janine and Richard's work and property.
Janine Mackintosh is a contemporary artist who collects and assembles natural materials to create windows for the natural world. She originally studied and worked as a graphic designer but 15 years ago turned to art and now considers the bushland her client and collaborator. Her artworks exist in public and private collections around Australia, with 80 unique assemblage pieces welcomed into homes across 15 countries.
Janine is working on a major commission to create artwork for permanent display throughout the new Southern Ocean Lodge, which is being rebuilt following the devastating Kangaroo Island bushfires in 2020.
She shared many of these artworks with us – completed and in progress – as part of a tour of her art studio. The group was fascinated by the process of gathering, planning and assembling natural materials to become such impressive artworks.
Dr Richard Glatz is a nationally recognised entomologist and Chief Editor of the science journal Austral Entomology. Richard has studied the insect ecology of Kangaroo Island since the late 1990s and has now amassed a collection with around 70,000 specimens from the island.
His work has produced a range of discoveries, such as the Enigma moth, representing a new moth family (Aenigmatineidae) and its parasitoid wasp, representing a new genus (Ovaustra).
Richard has a purpose-built fireproof pod on their property that houses his impressive invertebrate collection. He shared this space and key specimens from his collection with the group, who were in awe of the variety of insects and Richard's incredible details about their behaviour.
Following the tour of their workspaces, we enjoyed morning tea on the deck, taking in the incredible views and the impressive scones with cream and lavender jelly from Emu Bay Lavender Farm.
Refuelled, we set out on a bush walk across part of Janine and Richard's 600-acre property, with the couple pointing out the rare flora in this special spot.
The morning ended, and the group disbanded feeling energised by this inspiring couple's creativity, warmth and generosity.
Thank you for sharing your home with us, Janine and Richard!
View photos from the day on Facebook here.