Event at NYPL: Cartography as Stewardship | Connie Brown in Conversation with Katie Losey

Join us at the New York Public Library (42nd Street and 5th Avenue) on Monday, January 22, 2018, 6:30 p.m, for a talk entitled The Elephant Map Project:  Cartography as Stewardship--Connie Brown in Conversation with Katie Losey.  As described by the New York Public Library:  

Can an illustrated map be a call to action?

This was the question mapmaker Connie Brown asked herself two years ago. She resolved to make a map celebrating the magnificent and imperiled African elephant, a creature she had depicted frequently in her work creating commissioned painted maps. She wanted to create a pro bono work with rhetorical strength, one which—through cartography and illustration—would educate, enhance awareness, and spur viewers to action. Though she had the requisite cartographic and artistic skills, she needed a collaborator who was knowledgeable about African elephants and their plight. To that end, she reached out to wildlife conservation champion Katie Losey. Together they determined the map’s thematic choices, aided by experts in the field, as well as journalists, a nature poet, and photographers.

In this conversation, Connie Brown and Katie Losey discuss how the maps came to be, detailing the themes, cartographic sources, the design traditions which inspired them, and more. The conversation will be followed by a Q&A.