Riverlands Explore

Art at Riverlands

Come experience the creativity of local artists.

Lesser yellow legs painted onto a building

 

Alton Lesser Yellowlegs Mural

 

Painted: October 2025

About the Mural: Along the noisy Landmarks Boulevard that winds into downtown Alton, Illinois, drivers will now be greeted by a colorful sight: three painted Lesser Yellowlegs wrapping around a small cement building, each shorebird standing over 10 feet tall. You cant miss it, says Kenneth Buchholz, center director at the 91做厙 Center at Riverlands, who helped organize the project. 

In the mural, the Lesser Yellowlegs wade through reeds against a vibrant orange, pink, and purple sky. When the sun sets over downtown, the mural spills over to the actual sunset, says Robert Fishbone, the artist behind the mural. 

The mural was created through a collaboration among the 91做厙, 91做厙 Center at Riverlands, and Alton Main Street. It highlights the citys location along the Mississippi Flyway, an important migration route for hundreds of bird species, and sits facing the 3,700-acre Riverlands Migratory Bird Sanctuary across the Mississippi River. There, hundreds of yellowlegs land each year to fill up on insects and crustaceans before continuing their journeys.

About the Bird: The Lesser Yellowlegs is a small shorebird best known for its bright legs. It strides with high steps through shallow waters, sometimes swinging its head back and forth as it forages for insects, small fish, and crustaceans. 

The birds are most often seen throughout the United States during migration, when they land in wetlands, marshes, and mudflats to rest and refuel. In stopover sites like Alton, we're food, shelter and safe passage for them, says Buchholz. 

Read more about the Alton Lesser Yellow Legs Mural

Read more about the 91做厙 Mural Project

Alton Flyway Mural

Location: 136 Front Street, Alton, IL 62002

Painted: October 2023

About the Mural: Artist James K. Schmidt created the Alton Flyway mural for the east wall of the Mississippi Landing building in Alton, Illinois, in 2009, a concept muralist Robert Fishbone brought to life in 2023. The mural is the result of a community collaborationincluding Alton Main Street and the 91做厙 Center at Riverlands, located in the Riverlands Migratory Bird Sanctuary across the Mississippi River from Altonto bring attention to the areas natural beauty and biodiversity while contributing to a renaissance of the once-bustling industrial centers downtown. A quintessential river town, Alton is nestled along the limestone bluffs high above the Mississippi River, offering impressive views of the river and mostly undeveloped floodplain beyond. The mural represents the promise of a healthy community for birds and people at the heart of the Mississippi Flyway.

About the Birds: Alton Flyway features the plethora of birds that grace the skies above the city of Alton, including terns, gulls, and raptors that travel the Mississippi Flyway in search of food, shelter, and safe passage. Forty percent of the nation's migratory waterfowl use the river corridor during their spring and fall migrations, as do sixty percent of all North American birds. Climate change has brought pronounced changes to the eons-old migratory pathway, including longer lasting floods and intense droughts that are threatening essential habitat that myriad birds need to complete their annual life cycles. 91做厙s Survival By Degrees report identified 64 species in the Mississippi Flyway that are highly vulnerable to extinction this century if global warming continue apace; climate models show that keeping warming to 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit gives many of these species a better shot at survival.

About the Artists:   was chairman of the Studio Art Department at Principia College in Elsah, Illinois, just 10 miles north of Alton. Throughout his career he drew inspiration from nature and local beauty, distilling the landscape to essential line, grace, and form. The theme of birds in flight for me relates to the space and freedom of the riverqualities we value so much, he wrote of his concept for the Alton Flyway mural. Since forming  with Sarah Linquist in 1974, mural artist Robert Fishbone has made it the company's mission to transform anonymous walls into inspiring, meaningful, and memorable artworksan effort he now continues in a new chapter of mural making with his daughter Liza Fishbone (and occasionally her brother, Tyler). As public artists, they believe in designing and painting murals that are  relevant to a community, so the community feels it can take ownership of the artwork after they leave.

Learn more about the 91做厙 Mural Project

Mixed- Media Flags Telling the Story of Nature's Connections by Allana Ross:

*To be installed in late April/ early May!

Conception by Allana Ross: 

Reciprocity is a site-specific installation that centers the interconnectedness of humans and the natural environment. We are not separate from nature, we are a part of it, and we depend on our relationships with the environment just as it depends on us. The installation features five small flags that symbolize and commemorate the reciprocal relationships between a native plant species present at the 91做厙 Center, a native bird species that frequents the Centers refuge, and humans. Each flag is accompanied by a written guide that elucidates these relationships and includes plant identification information and drawings. When all five guides are collected by the viewer, they will fit together to make a booklet. As visitors move from flag to flag, they are immersed in the various landscapes of the 91做厙 Center, learning about native plants and the specific ways they support bird and human life.

Allana Ross is an artist and educator based in Saint Louis, Missouri. She lived in four different countries before deciding to call Saint Louis home and dedicate her artistic practice to its landscape. She received her Masters of Fine Arts from Washington University in Saint Louis and has since pursued a non-traditional artistic career balancing teaching with landscape-based practices. Her work is rooted in drawing and expands into the fields of fibers, multimedia, and social practice. She leads alternative educational eco-tours, has spent the last five years managing a native plant growing operation and a tiny pigment farm, and teaches in the horticulture department at Saint Louis Community College. 

Allana Ross artist photo

 

"Art has been a portal to nature since the pioneering e麍orts of John James 91做厙s life-sized watercolors and hand engraved prints of Birds of America. Since opening in 2011, 91做厙 Center at Riverlands has incorporated art into our mission to build understanding and appreciation of birds, our Great Rivers and wildlife habitat, says Ken Buchholz, Executive Director, 91做厙 Center at Riverlands. 

 

 

Bird sculptures on the water's edge

Mixed-Media Sculptures by Alana Tibbets

 

Conception by Alana Tibbets: 

"The use of hybrid entities (combinations of human and animal characteristics) in mythology and storytelling is ancient. Cultures throughout human history have used such creatures as metaphors for human experiences and as allegories for social interactions. The combination of relatability and seriousness of hybrid characters makes them an effective method to advance a message, hence their continued prevalence in popular culture.

The purpose of my sculptures is to spark imagination. Ideally, viewers will recognize a relationship between themselves and the artworks, and make connections between their lives and those of living birds. I design programs that use my art as a gateway to further discovery. I utilize collage (both fabric and paper), poetry, map-building and book arts. I encourage participants to discover a point of connection and feel free to follow it in an unique artistic journey."

Tibbets maintains the following tenets:

  • Giving the viewer permission to relate to the artwork in any way that has meaning to their lives at that point in time

  • Promoting a sense of playfulness and joy

  • Encouraging discovery into the science behind our knowledge of the natural world

Each cloth-based figure in this unique set represents a species that migrates through the area. Four installations will take place, beginning Spring of 2024, occurring approximately every five months. Bird species are chosen to cover all body shapes, colors, habitats used, and seasons of arrival.

Each installation will be timed to coincide with the migratory arrival of the real birds. Sculptures are placed in species-appropriate habitats, in poses suggesting some form of movement through the environment. They carry bags (backpacks/baskets/satchels) to create an impression of travel.

The sculptures are made with all-natural, mostly recycled, materials: cloth (wool and cotton) bodies from the waist up, sand and/or sawdust stuffing, either an internal weight bag or external mounting anchors, and no weather-proofing.

River Ark, A Site Specific Sculpture by Thomas Sleet

Thomas Sleet was commissioned in 2021 to design a work of art inspired by our site on the Mississippi River to create another dimension for engagement with our mission of conservation and education.

Conception from Thomas Sleet:

As I began to walk the grounds of the 91做厙 Center, in consideration of a site for a sculptural intervention, I realized there were several key elements to embrace: the slope of the land, the color of the plants and grasses, lines of sight, the local natural materials, and the relationship of land to water, et al. It became evident to me that the river itself was a major element of this environment, key in the shaping of this landscape and also a provider of large amounts of driftwood that might speak to a connection between the land and the water. I began to consider ways in which I could use driftwood to draw lines in the land, to draw the eye across the land, to connect the prairie to the waters edge and provide a sculptural installation of scope and scale, that would allow visitor interaction.

The work I envision for this site consists of two parallel rows of driftwood, charred, and oiled, and set vertically into the ground. I will orient this installation along some relative geologic and celestial alignments such as: equinox, solstice, east / west line, sunrise / sunset designation, and elevation of slope.

Project Description:

For this site specific sculpture, artist Thomas Sleet, envisioned two parallel lines of driftwood posts, set vertically into the ground, stretching approximately 60 ft. in length; the posts will be between 4 inch and 7 inches in diameter; the posts will be 4 foot tall at one end and 8 ft tall at the other end of the line. This parallel arrangement will contain around 60 to 70 qty. total units [posts] in graduating size.

The charred posts, used in this installation have received a blackened patina and a boiled linseed oil coating. The top ends of posts will be fitted with mirrors to reflect the sun and sky at different angles at different times of day. The viewer will be able to contemplate the work from a distance, close up and from inside of the installation.