Photo by Chris Rackley

Ascend

2024

Alyssa Baguss & Erin Sharkey

A Public Art Initiative for Bird Safety

Rochester Art Center is on a mission to create a haven for our feathered friends and elevate the intersection of art and conservation.

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In 2024, we installed two magnificent 50-foot-tall window installations by the talented duo Alyssa Baguss and Erin Sharkey. These installations serve, not only as artistic expressions, but also act as deterrents to the tragic bird collisions that have plagued our building since its construction in 2004.

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Sharkey and Baguss collaborated to create poetry and imagery for the surfaces of the front and rear windows at the Rochester Art Center. The poetry and art is adhered using perforated vinyl decals that prevent bird strikes, while still allowing for light to enter the museum and guests to see out. Erin Sharkey wrote a short poem with conceptual themes of sky, flight, and migration. In response to Sharkey’s poem, Baguss created a drawing working with these themes. The words of the poem are visible on the front windows of the art center and the drawing is on the back windows of the Art Center.

About the Installation

​Rochester Art Center set out on a mission to offer safe passage for birds passing its building and elevate the intersection of art and conservation with two 50-foot-tall window installations. A panel of public art advisors, local artists and conservationists was assembled to select the proposal.

Artist Alyssa Baguss collaborated with writer, arts and abolition organizer, cultural worker, and film producer Erin Sharkey to develop the concept for the two window installations on either side of the Art Center building. Sharkey wrote the poem responding to the Art Center’s desire to deter bird collisions, while Alyssa identified the appropriate application and design. 

Sharkey’s poem, on the front of the building, encompasses conceptual themes of sky, flight and migration. In response to Sharkey’s poem, Baguss designed Ascend for the rear windows of the building that is composed of high contrast geometric shapes representing natural and manmade forms. The bottom portion of the window incorporates a quilt-like pattern that mimics shattered glass. The triangles take formation like birds flying up as arrows going in two directions, reference migration and return. The central section of the windows is treated with clear perforated vinyl so that various projects occurring in the gallery can be viewed from the exterior. 

The material used overall is perforated vinyl by Colidescape.org, produced specifically for the purpose of preventing bird collisions with glass surfaces. Many applications can mitigate bird impacts on windows, but  the chosen material maintains the view of the outside world from inside, offers infinite design possibilities, and touts three times the longevity compared to other perforated vinyl products used for signage. We hope these installations inspire others to prevent bird impacts at homes and places of work. 

Significant support for this project is made possible through a Rochester Downtown Alliance Facade Improvement Grant and the Minnesota Main Street Economic Revitalization Program. The DMC EDA and City of Rochester administered the Main Street grant from the MN Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) as a partner organization.

Ascend, by Erin Sharkey

Not everything 

real is material.

Pane/pain can mean vessel 

or sore

spectacle to see-through 

aperture to sea threw 

a portal

a glasshouse, not stone,

not launched but melted hard

a fragile protection

This is a tool-

glass Eye 

spyglass

glass half full

looking glass

To perceive the invisible

one must 

name a feeling 

both transparent and inert 

take new space in the v 

and soar

flap 

lean 

wander

loft 

glide

Ascend poem by Erin Sharkey, visible on the front windows of the Rochester Art Center.

Ascend art by Alyssa Baguss, visible on the rear windows of the Rochester Art Center.

Artist Bios

Alyssa Baguss

Baguss’s practice explores mediated natural environments through the drawing

processes and interactive creative experiences. She is a multi-year recipient of the

Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative and Creative Support Grants, the 2017/18

Jerome Foundation Fellowship for Emerging Artists and a part of the Minnesota Artist

Exhibition Program at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts in 2019. Her work has been

exhibited at the Rochester Art Center, Minnesota Center for the Book Arts, Minnesota

Museum of American Art, Minneapolis Institute of Arts and most recently through a

Forecast Public Art Mid-career Artist project Grant in 2019 and Professional Development Grant in 2020. In addition to exhibiting artwork in traditional settings, Alyssa has a long history of creating and

facilitating interactive creative experiences at events, art festivals, museums, and public

spaces for all ages.

Erin Sharkey

Erin Sharkey is a writer, arts and abolition organizer, cultural worker, and film producer based in Minneapolis. She is the cofounder, with Junauda Petrus, of an experimental arts collective called Free Black Dirt and is the producer of film projects including Sweetness of Wild, an episodic web film project, and Small Business Revolution (Hulu), which explored challenges and opportunities for Black-owned businesses in the Twin Cities in the summer of 2021. Sharkey has received fellowships and residencies from the Loft Mentor Series, VONA/Voices, the Givens Foundation, Coffee House Press, the Bell Museum of Natural History, and the Jerome Foundation. In 2021, Sharkey was awarded the Black Seed Fellowship from Black Visions and the Headwaters Foundation. She has an MFA in creative writing from Hamline University and teaches with the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop.