Hike for Hope X Art For Our Parks
A Creative Fieldwork Collaboration Inspired by Connection, Place, and the Natural World
As part of Hike for Hope, a campaign hosted by the Jane Goodall Institute of Canada, Art For Our Parks invited artists to explore the ways we connect with nature through time spent outdoors.
Throughout summer and early fall 2026, artists from the Art For Our Parks community were invited to step outside, walk, hike, observe, and create — responding to the landscapes and places that shaped their experiences.
What began as individual acts of exploration became a collective creative journey.
Through field journals, photographs, sketches, writing, and artwork, participating artists documented their encounters with the natural world and reflected on what it means to build a deeper relationship with the places around us.
The project culminated in a collaborative body of artwork created in response to the experience and in support of Hike for Hope.
—> Explore Hike for Hope:
About the Project
Hike for Hope invited people to get outside and move through nature while raising awareness and support for conservation.
For Art For Our Parks, the invitation offered another way to engage: through art.
Rather than asking artists to respond to a single landscape or location, the project encouraged each participant to explore their own surroundings and pay attention to what they encountered along the way.
A trail, a familiar park, a forest, a mountain, a shoreline, or even a quiet place close to home could become a site for observation and creative reflection.
The result is a collection of individual experiences connected by a shared intention:
to slow down, notice the natural world, and consider our relationship to the places we inhabit.
Field Journal Archive
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Field Journal Archive ✳︎
Following the Fieldwork
Throughout the summer and early fall of 2026, participating artists documented their experiences through field notes, photography, sketches, writing, and other creative forms.
These contributions offer glimpses into the places artists explored and the ways they experienced them.
Together, they form a record of the project — a collection of personal encounters with land, place, and the more-than-human world.
Explore the Field Journals
The Collaborative Artwork
Many Places. Many Perspectives. One Collective Work.
Each participating artist was invited to contribute a small piece inspired by their experience in the field.
These contributions came together to form one collective artwork—a visual record of the many places, perspectives, and encounters that emerged throughout the project.
The finished work reflects the spirit of Hike for Hope: individual actions becoming part of something larger.
Connected Trails
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Connected Trails 〰️
Connected Trails is the collaborative artwork created through the Hike for Hope × Art For Our Parks project.
The piece is a visual story about connection — to nature, to one another, and to the unseen systems that sustain all living things.
The idea began with a simple observation on a hike. From there, each artist contributed a different piece of the story: artwork inspired by the places they explored, field journal sketches, natural materials, drawings, and symbols of movement and connection. When brought together, these individual contributions became one collective work.
At the center is an intertwined oak and aspen, inspired by something Ashley observed on her first Hike for Hope hike that summer. Around them are real aspen leaves, pine cones, twigs, rocks, mushrooms, artwork from different landscapes, and stamped boot prints that move throughout the piece.
Together, these elements represent the many ways that nature connects and supports itself — both in ways we can see and in ways that exist beneath the surface.
The title Connected Trails speaks to more than the physical trails we walk. It reflects the idea that every trail, every organism, every person, and every experience is connected to something larger.
One Work, Many Connections
Every element of Connected Trails began somewhere different.
An observation on a hike became the inspiration for the centerpiece.
A field journal captured the experience of the Catskills.
Artwork carried the experience of Costa Rica into the piece.
Aspen leaves, pine cones, twigs, and rocks brought physical pieces of nature into the work.
Mushrooms revealed the hidden networks beneath the forest floor.
Boot prints marked the journey — the act of continuing forward — while also echoing the unseen pathways connecting the living world.
And at the center, an oak and an aspen grow together.
Individually, each element tells its own story. Together, they tell one larger story:
We are all connected. Everything in nature is connected.
The trails we walk may be different, and our experiences may begin in different places, but none of us exists entirely on our own.
Like the trees at the center of the work, we are part of something larger — connected through the visible and invisible networks that sustain us.
Connected Trails is a reminder to keep moving, keep noticing, and keep looking for the connections that are already there.
The Artists
The project brought together artists connected through Art For Our Parks, each approaching the experience of being outdoors in their own way.
While their practices and environments varied, they shared a common invitation: to spend time outside, pay attention, and respond creatively to what they found.
Participating Artists
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Participating Artists 〰️
Ashley Glasco
Skye Hendrix
Fawn Brown
Katie Smith
Jean Habeck
Alley Kocinski
Virtual Exhibition
The Project, Collected
The completed virtual exhibition brings together the artwork, field journals, reflections, and documentation created through the Hike for Hope × Art For Our Parks project.
It offers a chance to experience the project as a whole — from the individual journeys of participating artists to the collective artwork that brought those experiences together.
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Nikki Molick: Trumpeter Swan colored pencil drawing inspired by the Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge. Reference Photo purchased from Wildlife Reference Photos, Photographer Daisyree IJben Bakker
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Nikki Molick: Munsinger Gardens - Mixed Media Painting - Watercolor Painting, Digital Line Art
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Nikki Molick: Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge - Mixed Media Painting, Watercolor, Digital Drawing.
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Alley Kocinski: Lily Pads in Plein Air - 6x8", oil on panel; painted at Lincoln Marsh in Wheaton, IL
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Jean Habeck: Buffalo Mountain
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Katie Smith
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Katie Smith
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Fawn Brown: American Ghosts, Grand Tetons
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Fawn Brown: Grand Tetons
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Fawn Brown
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Fawn Brown
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Fawn Brown
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Fawn Brown
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Fawn Brown
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Nikki Molick: Native Grasses Along Lake Superior - Pastel Drawing.
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Nikki Molick: Lake Superior Wildflowers - Pastel Drawing.
Looking Back
Hike for Hope gave Art For Our Parks an opportunity to approach conservation through experience rather than simply observation.
Across different landscapes and communities, participating artists were invited to slow down, pay attention, and spend meaningful time outside.
Their resulting field notes, photographs, sketches, and artworks became a record not only of particular places, but of the relationships formed through being present in them.
What began as individual experiences became a collective creative response — a reminder that connection to the natural world can take many forms, and that art can help us notice, remember, and care for the places we share.
With Gratitude
Thank you to the artists who participated, explored, documented, and shared their experiences throughout this project.
And thank you to Hike for Hope and the Jane Goodall Institute of Canada for creating an opportunity to bring movement, conservation, community, and creativity together.
We are grateful for every trail walked, every observation made, every story shared, and every contribution that became part of this collective work.
Art can help us see a place differently. And sometimes, seeing differently is where caring begins.
Project Details
Hike for Hope x Art For Our Parks 2026
A creative fieldwork project created as part of Hike for Hope, a campaign hosted by the Jane Goodall Institute of Canada.
Project period: June–September 2026 Final artwork: Oct 4, 2026
Learn more about Hike for Hope →
Visit Art For Our Parks →