Winter is still a great time for birding in Connecticut. It is a season filled with the dark-eyed junco, tufted titmouse, white-breasted nuthatch and the Northern cardinal, to name a few.
This winter, a bird-inspired public arts organization was founded in Granby with a mission to connect fellow bird lovers and local land stewards. The Flyway Institute is a new nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting migratory birds, local farms and land trusts through the arts.
Co-founded by West Granby residents Austen Camille and Dr. Joshua T. Anderson, the Flyway Institute aims to foster connections and conversations across the four North American flyways: Atlantic, Mississippi, Central and Pacific. Both Camille and Anderson are artists and avid birders dedicated to fostering community engagement and collaborations in the rural landscapes that they love deeply.
Austen Camille is a Canadian-American artist with roots ranging from the pine forests of the Pacific Northwest to the coastal prairies of Texas. Now a Granby resident, Camille brings her experiences as a land steward and an artist to rural Connecticut, where she hopes to build relationships with the local environment and local communities through the arts and other disciplines.
In 2024, Camille teamed up with Dr. Joshua T. Anderson, a writer from rural North Dakota and former American literature professor at the University of Saint Joseph in West Hartford. Since relocating to Granby, Camille and Anderson have been inspired by local landscapes and land stewards, including folks from the McLean Game Refuge, Friends of Holcomb Farm and the Granby Land Trust. By forming the Flyway Institute, Camille and Anderson seek to foster and deepen community engagement with local lands through public arts projects, workshops and multimedia storytelling.
This winter, the co-founders of the Flyway Institute will host artist workshops through a partnership with the New Hartford Artisans Guild, including a poetry open mic series, a seasonal writing workshop and several nature-inspired artist projects. For more information about current and upcoming work or ways Granby residents and organizations can get involved with Flyway Institute projects, visit flywayinstitute.org or send an email to info@flywayinstitute.org