The BioArt Bayou-torium @ 2024 KBR Kids Day & Tony Marron Send Off

The BioArt Bayou-torium, opened its doors for the Oct. 19, 2024 KBR Kids Day, a free annual event for the entire community. Thousands of children and their families gathered at Tony Marron Park in the Buffalo Bayou East to experience a full day of fun with exciting activities for all ages. This year had a special ground-breaking activity as we bid a temporary farewell to Tony Marron Park before park space enlargement construction begins in late 2024.

The Bayou-torium introduced a new activity that Saturday: we enlarged specimens under the microscopes for kids to discover images to draw using neon crayons and colored construction paper. They then placed their finished art under blacklight boxes as devices to imagine nature’s phosphorescence and to imitate how pollinators and animals see plant life.

We estimate at least 70 children participated in drawing and experimentation activities (which does not account for the overall numbers of individuals and families coming into the container to observe and question). The flow of attendees was constant throughout the day!

This is an example of what a social engaged art project does. It allows for the participants to become collaborators and contribute to its mission. The “audience” becomes the artists and authors of the art project.

Again, thank you to all the organizations, institutions and entities for 6 years of cooperation and support that made this happen. Thank you to all my assistants, and Michael my nature guide. Thank you to all the artists and friends who came to visit, experience and see for themselves. Thank you to mi communidad in el Segundo Barrio!

That’s a wrap for the BioArt Bayou-torium for now. Four out of six years it operated in Houston’s East End, twice in Tony Marron Park and twice in Yolanda Black Navarro Nature Park. More than a stationary hunk of metal, the Bayou-torium opened its doors to fulfill a mission of engaging my bilingual community in order to foster stewardship of our bayou environment through natural science, exploration and creative imagination. This placemaking project opened in 2019. It closed its heavy container doors last weekend. Now it rests in a rustic field within the city limits, waiting for it next mission.