Big Boned Copy

**Help Bring Big Boned Home**

About the Project

Whale images copyright Allied Whale, College of the Atlantic (15 Eden Street, Bar Harbor, ME, 04609, USA), taken and provided under permit by provision of NOAA Stranding Agreement. Reproduction of images by permission only.

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Funds raised in 2021 directly support the project's Planning Phase.

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Details

Big Boned, a new exhibition and programming project centered on the permanent display of a full-size whale skeleton to deepen public understanding of one of the most significant industries in Long Island’s history and its environmental implications today.

This project will champion the whale skeleton as an everlasting symbol of Long Island’s historic and complex relationships with the sea. Dovetailing with the museum’s projects of recently improved exhibits & facilities, this project will accompany the museum’s strategic efforts to present the most comprehensive understanding of whaling on Long Island. Big Boned will greatly enhance public awareness and appreciation for the key role whaling played in our country’s maritime heritage, strengthen understanding of whale biology, and help audiences comprehend and discuss stories of global change to become responsible stewards of the planet. Big Boned will make history as first exhibit of its kind to permanently feature a full-size whale skeleton in the New York metropolitan area, and the first Sperm whale in the State.

Beneficiaries

25,000 beneficiaries of the diverse general public of all demographics will benefit annually from Big Boned into perpetuity. Integrated programming will serve a wide audience from the Long Island region and beyond, from preschoolers to seniors, exposing a wide spectrum of the community to the benefits of this project.

Goals

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Strengthen knowledge of whaling on Long Island

Recent initiatives nationwide have helped create a resurgence of interest in whaling history.

However, Long Island’s deep, prolific, and economically significant involvement in the whaling industry is often sidelined.

Promote Ocean Literacy

A good understanding of the role and function of the ocean is
of paramount importance in recent years, constituting the basic tool for the promotion of healthy and sustainable marine
environment, which humans and whales depend on. Developments in Marine Education, spurred by the Save The Whales environmental movement in the 1960s and 70s, was reborn as an Ocean Literacy movement in 2004.

Ocean Literacy is defined as “an understanding of the ocean’s influence on you and your influence on the ocean” and includes whaling history and its impacts.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration published “Essential Principles of Ocean Sciences” in 2013, which represent the major ideas that HS graduates should understand about the sea. However, Ocean Literacy is underrepresented in school science curriculum.3 Relative knowledge still appears inadequate. Coastal and marine topics remain almost absent in Science & Geography curricula. To protect and sustainably use marine resources, citizens of all ages need to comprehend the connection between people and the sea. Promotion of ocean literacy in elementary and secondary education is vital, as children represent the future citizens, consumers, and agents of social change.

Highlight Marine & Whale conservation

The ocean has shown severe signs of change as a result of human activities. Centuries of unregulated whaling (internationally banned only 33 years ago) caused at least 5 of the 13 great whales being listed as endangered, with others threatened. Decades of intensive exploitation of marine resources, pollution, and climate change have led to the degradation of ocean health and, subsequently, of human health. The last WWF Living Blue Planet Report shows a decrease of 49% in populations of marine organisms between 1970 and 2012.

Highlight a growing trend. In the past few years, there has been an alarming trend of beached whales filled with plastic, suffering from the 8 million metric tons of plastic which enters the ocean each year. Debris in the ocean is a major problem around Long Island waters; in 2017, 18,000 pounds of debris were collected in one day along the Long Island Sound. An understanding of marine conservation on Long Island is essential to sustainability.
Answer a Worldwide Call To Action. In 2017, the United Nations convened an “Our Ocean” conference, the first conference of its kind where there was universal agreement among 193 countries on the need for measures to reverse ocean deterioration. One breakthrough was a “Call To Action” to “Support plans to foster ocean-related education to promote ocean literacy and a culture of conservation.” There is a need to dovetail with this call to action “to involve local communities” with an “interdisciplinary approach to raise awareness of the natural and cultural significance of the ocean."

SUPPOrt ARTS & SOCIAL STUDIES EDUCATION

Support Social Studies Education: A strong humanities & history background is essential to thrive in today’s world. It’s clear that the humanities offer invaluable benefits to both society and the economy, fostering knowledge, creativity, empathy, innovation, and critical thinking. However, research shows that almost two-thirds of the elementary teachers reported that instructional time in history had decreased substantially since 2002. 88% of the elementary teachers noted that it history education was considered a low priority compared to other subjects. The number of Bachelor’s degrees in the humanities awarded fell almost 9% between 2012 and 2014. There is a clear need to address marked deficits in national social studies education.
Strengthen Deficits in Arts Education: There is a direct correlation between arts education and higher educational performance with new research this year showing measurable academic, social, and emotional outcomes. Unfortunately, arts education opportunities in the US have been in steady decline since the 1980s. Few American children are getting access to arts education today, whether at school (the number of schools offering visual arts programs dropped 83%) or elsewhere. Arts instruction has been weakened by disinvestments and disincentives, with a 47% decline in spending to hire arts and cultural organizations for educational services at schools.
Academia aside, fewer Americans are engaging with the arts in museum settings. The federally-funded Survey for Public Participation in the Arts revealed an overall decline of about 20% in art museum attendance from 2002–2012. There is a clear need for museums to provide diverse opportunities- and exciting ones – to catch the public’s eye and engage more deeply in the arts. A whale skeleton would provide an exciting, interdisciplinary entry point into the world of art and stimulate visitorship.
Whalebone was a commercially important material and an artistic medium through the centuries. During the age of pelagic whaling (18-19th centuries) when whalebone became a byproduct of the hunt for oil, bone provided a canvas for creativity for whalers and mariners during their leisure time. This occupationally-rooted art form gave whalers an artistic diversion at sea as they transformed bone into carved pieces with distinct aesthetic, iconographical, and technical characteristics. Many of the whalebone artifacts on display - tools, sculptural forms, handles, kitchen utensils, canes, boxes, and human and animal figures will be contextualized with an actual skeleton beneath an actual skeleton.

Recent Advancements

We recently completed an engineering structural analysis of the existing gallery.
A designated committee is now working with Agencie Architecture & Engineering to create concept designs, to be completed in 2021. We'll share them with you and the world when they're ready!