The Return of the Western Monarch

A Photographic Exhibition and Scientific Roadmap for Protecting this Endangered Species

In The Studio, March 17 through April 30, 2023

Elizabeth Weber  is an independent documentary photographer, raised in Bolinas and currently living in Santa Barbara.

Elizabeth is an environmental advocate and focuses her photography on ecological issues, in relation to both nature’s degradation and nature’s healing. Whether through personal projects or for nonprofit work, a deep concern for the environment guides her work and is at the core of all projects that are undertaken.

While raising her three children, Elizabeth has pursued her career as a photographer, taking courses at Anderson Ranch and Santa Fe Photographic Workshops. She is currently an MFA student at the Academy of Art University.

Elizabeth has traveled with and photographed for Global Green Grants Fund for over 12 years and has a current exhibit of her work on plastic marine debris in the Hawaiian Islands, on display at the Hawai’i Wildlife Discovery Center on Maui.

Born in Bolinas to activists, writer/rancher Orville Schell and photographer Ilka Hartman, Ole Schell graduated from the NYU Tisch School of the Arts. He is the founder of the West Marin Monarch Sanctuary and partner in Orville Schell Farms, growing many crops. 

When not tending to his family land, he works around the globe, creating diverse documentaries and ads for major companies emphasizing sustainability and electric cars.

His documentaries have been released theatrically and on TV by the Sundance Channel, RTL, Warner Brothers, Channel 4 in the UK, and many more.

The alarming decline in this butterfly population has moved Schell to establish a Western Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary on his family land in Bolinas. With extensive research, partnership with specialists, and a creative vision, Schell has planted hundreds of native plants and developed a program to support the butterflies and inform and inspire the public.

Elizabeth Weber’s photographs are both an expression of reverence and a call to remember the western monarch’s plight as it nears extinction. Habitat loss, overuse of pesticides, and climate change have all contributed to their decline. In August of 2022, monarch butterflies were categorized as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Elizabeth’s photographs marry documentary photography and writing with an ethereal aesthetic. The process of printing in black and white on vellum paper and adding gold leaf creates a physical aesthetic that suggests the fragility of monarchs, speaking to both the fragility of their habitat and the fragility of their existence. It also expresses a feeling of reverence. By removing the magnificent color that monarchs are known by, Elizabeth is asking the viewer to look at them in a new way and to think about what it would mean to lose them from our world

IRS Guidelines for Gifts from Donor Advised Funds to Support MAGC Events

Thank you for your interest in giving to the Marin Art & Garden Center events from your Donor Advised Fund (DAF) or Family Foundation.

We sincerely appreciate your generosity and support!

To ensure your gift follows the current IRS guidelines for DAF/Family Foundation support of an event, we would like to share the below guidelines with you.

  • Raffle tickets, tickets to galas and other special events, auction items, and benefits conferred in connection with a DAF/foundation grant are not permitted.
    • IRS has specifically ruled that fair market value associated with fundraising events cannot be separated, a practice known as “bifurcation.”
      • For example, with Edible Garden, if the price of the ticket is $200 and the FMV fair market value (non-tax-deductible amount) is designated to be $50, the donor must pay from sources other than her DAF/foundation for the full value of the ticket ($200) and not just for the non-tax-deductible amount ($50).
    • We recommend you confer with your financial advisor to confirm if any of these examples of how donors may still use their DAF to support an event would work for you:
      • A donor could sponsor the event, and not attend, and pay fully out of the DAF/foundation.
      • A donor could sponsor the event using DAF/foundation funds and attend by purchasing an individual ticket through non-DAF/foundation funds.
      • A donor could sponsor the event, join the event as a guest of another donor/table guest, and pay fully out of the DAF/foundation.
      • A donor could sponsor the event and host the afforded number of people at their chosen level as long as they pay for the seats at the lowest ticket price ($200 for Edible Garden) outside of their DAF.
        • As an example, a $1,500 sponsor that covers 2 guests, could pay for their sponsorship with $400 from a different source of funds, and then give an additional gift of $1,100 out of their DAF.

 

Please email Tod Thorpe, Director of Development at tod.thorpe@maringarden.org to discuss your gift to Marin Art and Garden Center