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The Galleries at Moore Children's Activities Site Komar & Melamid’s Asian Elephant Art and Conservation Project |
 
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Komar & Melamid’s Asian Elephant Art and Conservation Project is both a serious non-profit organization that cooperates closely with the World Wildlife Fund and a humorous look at modern culture. In the 1980s, the government of Thailand passed strict anti-logging laws. About 3,000 tame elephants in Thailand, who earned their living in logging camps, lost their jobs. They were forced to move into the crowded cities to perform circus tricks. They barely earned enough for their handlers (mahouts) to feed them. The Asian Elephant Art and Conservation Project has established three Elephant Art Academies where the elephants learn to paint. Animal-created art has been a topic of discussion since the end of the nineteenth century. There are chimpanzees who paint and a donkey who paints with his tail. About 30 elephants paint in American zoos. It was after painting with Renée, in the Toledo (Ohio) Zoo, that Komar & Melamid thought of the Thai project to solve the problem of that country’s elephants. Today, the AEACP is literally allowing the elephants and the mahouts of Thailand to support themselves with dignity. Who is an artist?
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