A Wisconsin grad is using art to educate about the school`s prairie past: BTN LiveBIG

A native of the Midwest, Liz Anna Kozik spent much of her childhood surrounded by prairies. Yet it wasn’t until Kozik left her home in Naperville, Illinois, for her undergrad studies in Rhode Island that she began to appreciate their beauty. She opted to go to graduate school at the University of Wisconsin – not just so she could be close to the prairie again, but also to study the grassy habitat’s history.

In April, as part of her master of fine arts thesis, Kozik unveiled the art exhibit “Stories of the Land” at the UW–Madison Arboretum. The exhibit tells the stories of Curtis Prairie, which was the first prairie restoration in the world. Kozik wanted to really give a visual demonstration of how prairies had changed and what impact restorations have, so the exhibit features a mixture of custom-built wooden signs, comics and hand-woven tapestries...