August 10, 2024 – The Discovery Center dedicated two new installations of children’s artwork in our Native Prairie Grass and Wildflower Habitat this weekend. Students that participated in Topeka Public Schools’ Native American Summer Camp were invited to create artwork using a butterfly template. Our team reproduced the artwork on aluminum shapes that are arranged on bicycle wheels on top of 8-foot-tall poles. They have been designed to spin freely as the wind blows through the Native Prairie Grass and Wildflower Habitat.

The result is colorful, chiming aluminum butterflies that are a testament to the spectral nature of the prairie’s vital ecosystem. This event is also a springboard for future, Native-led programming and activities that will occur through the remainder of 2024.

Prairie land, at one time the world’s largest ecosystem, once sprawled across North America. Today, the 170 million-acre span that was once tallgrass prairie has dwindled down to an estimated 4 percent of its original territory. The tallgrass prairie maintained at the Discovery Center, located outside the museum gates and free to the public, is designed to allow families to explore this endangered ecosystem.