If you stand on the far end of the Central Gallery at the Yale Peabody Museum, you might catch a green-hued glimpse into the past - and future - of biodiversity.
A new mural installed in the gallery, "Temporal Portal," collapses millions of years of plant and evolution into a cave scene nested within a wall arch. Ancient species like the trilobite and calamites, a genus of extinct horsetails, occupy the foreground in dark hues. Further back, existing species like the elm tree stand in lighter green.
The mural also looks into the future with imaginary plant and animal species painted in dotted outlines - the creative contribution of Peabody staff and New Haven residents, who came together during a recent Community Day at the museum to contribute to the mural.
"Temporal Portal" was the culmination of the Yale College fall semester course "Cave Paintings to Graffiti," taught by Kymberly Pinder, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Dean of the Yale School of Art. The course walked students through thousands of years of mural painting history, moving from the ancient Lascaux cave paintings in France to present-day graffiti as they explored themes of accessibility and ownership in public art.
