Are you sweet on honeybees? Ever wanted to help the pollinators thrive but don’t want to commit to a whole hive? The Cincinnati Art Museum has a fun new program for you.
At the end of April, the CAM installed two beehives — named Pablo Bee-casso and Reigning Queen (from an Andy Warhol work) — on its grounds with the help of the Queen City Pollinator Project.
Those two hives are filled with about 60,000 bees, says the museum, and you could be the lucky symbolic owner of one of them via the Adopt-a-Bee program.
From now until May 31, anyone can donate $5 to the museum to be able to name one of the bees. For $10, you can name a bee and get a packet of wildflower seeds to plant. Just text BEES to 41444 to donate and adopt or visit cincinnatiartmuseum.org/bees.
The goal of the hives is to help with declining pollinator populations. The CAM says these bees are friendly, rarely sting and will fly up to 3 miles from their hives — “so the museum’s bees may be seen all over the Queen City,” they say in a press release.
And starting May 24, things get competitive with the launch of the Queen City Bee Bracket tournament. The museum will be sharing bee names on Instagram, and the public can vote for their favorites.
“The contest consists of a two-sided bracket where names for the Queen Bees go head-to-head or wing-to-wing. One winner/name will advance to the next round, while the other is eliminated. Each match winner advances until only the winning names remain,” says the museum.
Names for the tournament will be selected by museum staff from adopted bees.
If you don’t want to adopt and just want to check out the new hives, they’re located in a mulch bed near the Longworth administrative wing. Sponsored by the CAM’s Women’s Committee, more hives may be added in the future.
The Cincinnati Art Museum is located at 953 Eden Park Drive, Mount Adams/Eden Park. For COVID precautions and other info, visit cincinnatiartmuseum.org.
This article appears in May 1-31, 2021.
