Endangered Species Day

Endangered Species Day National Art Contest Judges Panel

is the host of a variety of popular television series and specials, including Animal Planet's Jeff Corwin Experience, Giant Monsters, Realm of the Yeti, Corwin's Quest, Spring Watch USA, Snake-Tacular, and King of the Jungle; Disney's Going Wild with Jeff Corwin; Investigation Earth with the Discovery Networks; NBC's Jeff Corwin Unleashed, which was nominated four times for an Emmy and for which Corwin won an Emmy for Outstanding Host; and the Travel Channel's Into Alaska and Into the American West. For the Discovery Health Channel Jeff hosted Pets and People, the Power of the Health Connection. His popular television series have been broadcasted in over 130 countries worldwide. He also created and co-presented CNN's Planet in Peril with Anderson Cooper in 2007. On November 20th 2008, Animal Planet premiered The Vanishing Frog. This powerful documentary highlights Jeff’s year long, global odyssey exploring the mass extinction of our planet’s important amphibian species. In November of 2009, Jeff executive produced and presented 100 Heartbeats. Produced for the NBC networks, this groundbreaking documentary investigated the plight of our planet's most endangered wildlife species along with the conservation heroes trying to save them.

http://animal.discovery.com/fansites/jeffcorwin/bio/bio_01.html

is Director Emeritus of the Columbus Zoo, and a well known conservationist, author, television personality, and lifelong adventurer. After twelve years hosting Jack Hanna’s Animal Adventures, he launched his latest syndicated TV series, Jack Hanna’s Into the Wild which received an Emmy for Outstanding Children's Series. Recognized around the country as America’s favorite zookeeper, Jack has made countless television appearances since 1983 on shows such as Good Morning America, the Late Show with David Letterman, Larry King Live, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, The Maury Show, Fox News Programs, and CNN News Programs. Author of eleven books and counting, his timeless tales continue to captivate audiences from every generation. He is an active supporter of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Partners In Conservation, Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project, and SeaWorld Busch Gardens Conservation Fund.

http://www.jackhanna.com/

is a sculptor and painter. Her sculptures and installations mix the exotic and the banal, creating disquietingly mysterious scenes and tantalizing imaginary creatures. After graduating from the Rhode Island School of Design, she moved to New York in 1997 where her shamanistic sculpture was included in "American Bricolage" at Sperone Westwater in 2000.

is picture editor at Orion magazine, a nonprofit, noncommercial, award-winning bimonthly periodical that examines the contemporary relationships between nature, culture, and place through a diverse array of cultural lenses. Jason has also worked for nearly 20 years as an independent documentary photographer in a dozen countries and across the U.S. for editorial outlets and non-profit organizations on projects addressing social and environmental issues. His images have been used in print, online, and broadcast media and by clients around the world.

http://www.orionmagazine.org and http://www.jasonhouston.com

was born in Tananarive, Madagascar, and studied in England. He was awarded the Owen Ridley Prize for drawing and completed his art degree in 1981. In early 2007 he had the honor of holding a solo exhibition of his work in the Flemish Parliament in Brussels and in March of 2010 will be showing his work at The Council of Europe in Strasbourg, France. For the past five years he has been the artistic director for “Fete du N‘ouef” St. Antonin Noble Val in France. This major event attracts artists from across Europe. In October 2009, Tim organized a similar event at the Zoo Zurich, which focused on protecting the rainforests of Madagascar. Artists and young people were invited to decorate giant egg shapes (the size of the eggs of the now-extinct Elephant Bird of Madagascar) in order to draw attention to the planet's biodiversity crisis.

http://timgrosvenor.posterous.com

is a freelance photographer who, after working with Richard Avedon in New York in the eighties, left advertising to focus on portraiture and natural history. Now a regular contributor to National Geographic, Liittschwager has produced a number of books. Among his many honors is a World Press Photo Award in 2008 for his article “Marine Microfauna” in National Geographic.

http://www.liittschwager.com/

has been photographing rare and endangered species since 1986, and her work, with collaborator David Liittschwager, is collected in four books, two published by National Geographic Books and two by Chronicle Books. The working process developed by Middleton and Liittschwager is documented in an Emmy Award–winning National Geographic television special America’s Endangered Species: Don’t Say Goodbye, 1997. A book of Middleton's photographs with text by Mary Ellen Hannibal, "Evidence of Evolution" was published by Abrams in September 2009 to coincide with the 150th anniversary of the publication of 'Origin of Species'. She was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2009.

http://www.crownpoint.com/artists/middleton

is an American artist known for his paintings depicting the precarious relationship between man and nature. His artworks are information-rich depictions of how our culture perceives and interacts with plants and animals, and the role culture plays in influencing the direction of natural history. His 8-by-24-foot mural, "Manifest Destiny," offers a view of the Brooklyn waterfront after catastrophic climate change. This epic painting was first exhibited from April 2004 - September 2004 at the Brooklyn Museum of Art in New York City.

http://www.alexisrockman.net.

is a sculptor, best known for his elaborate recreations of various Modern icons, all of them masterpieces of engineering and design of one kind or another. His projects have included his versions of various Cold War masterpieces, like the Apollo 11 Lunar Excursion Module, and the bridge of the battleship USS Enterprise. His works also include Balaenoptera Musculus (2006), a life-sized reconstruction of an 18-metre long blue whale exhibited at the Fondazione Prada in Milan and his Animals show at Sperone Weswater, which consisted of works that literally depicted, or figuratively alluded to, animals, exploring the presence of the “animalistic” in our everyday lives.

http://tomsachs.com

has been a photographer for National Geographic Magazine for over two decades. He is committed to conservation, especially in the Great Plains where he has lived his whole life. In his time with National Geographic, he has focused on endangered species and land use issues. He is co-founder of the Grassland Foundation, and a founding member of the International League of Conservation Photographers. He has written several books including Photographing Your Family, Face to Face with Grizzlies, and Nebraska: Under a Big Red Sky. His most recent book, Rare: Portraits of America's Endangered Species is now available for pre-order.

http://www.joelsartore.com/

Marine Life Artist Wyland has earned the distinction as one of America ' s most unique creative influences, and a leading advocate for marine resource conservation. Hailed a "Marine Michaelangelo" by USA Today, Wyland's work is sought by millions of collectors and his galleries throughout the United States are considered a must-see on the itineraries of travelers everywhere. His equally successful Wyland Foundation, in partnership with the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, is actively engaged in teaching millions of students around the world about our oceans, rivers, lakes, streams, and wetlands. The artist's efforts, moreover, have been recognized by the United Nations, Sierra Club, the Underwater Academy of Arts and Sciences. Listed in Who's Who in American Art, the Guinness Book of World Records, and many other national and international publications, the multi-faceted artist has even hosted several series for television, including, "Wyland's Ocean World" on the Discovery Channel's Animal Planet Network.

http://www.wyland.com/

has published three photography books. CREATURE, a portrait series of animals, was released worldwide in November 2007 to critical acclaim and is now in its fourth printing. WISDOM, a book, film, and traveling exhibition, released in October 2008, is an ongoing project of portraits in interviews made with the support of Archbishop Desmond Tutu. His latest book, BIRD, a visual study of birds from the rarest to the most common, was released in October 2009.