The Great Elephant Migration is a public artwork installation of handcrafted elephant sculptures by Elephant Family USA, presented by Art&Newport and curated by Dodie Kazanjian. Each elephant was designed and sculpted by Indigenous, or Adivasi, artisans from the Bettakurumba, Paniya, Kattunayakan, and Soliga peoples who are from the Nilgiri Hills region.
The exhibition also features Searchers by Hadi Falapishi, inside the Solarium at Rough Point.
The CoExistence Project works to support human and animal shared existence by promoting Indigenous-led conservation work. The goal of these projects is to protect migratory animals making spectacular journeys across land, rivers, and oceans. As these elephant sculptures travel the world, they tell the story of Asia’s wild elephants and the indigenous communities living alongside them, where people and elephants coexist in the densest populations in the world.
At the Newport Restoration Foundation, our focus on resiliency sustainability intersects with The Great Elephant Migration project and is in conversation about the ways climate change, energy costs, and economic pressures have an impact on the livability of the built environment and the sites we steward, like Rough Point Museum.
The elephants are also hosted at other Newport sites, including The Breakers, Salve Regina University, and the Great Friends Meeting House.
