Spring 2025 Membership Campaign
A Letter from the Board Chair
Spring is a time of change in the natural world. The days are warming and growing longer, trees are leafing out and migratory songbirds are making their long-awaited return.
This is also a transitional time for RTPI. After more than five years of outstanding leadership, our CEO Arthur Pearson will be retiring at the end of the year. With the help of highly respected executive search firm Disston Search, the RTPI Board is conducting a nationwide search for an experienced, topflight museum professional to become our next CEO. Meanwhile, Arthur and the rest of the staff are planning for a seamless leadership transition.
We are grateful to Arthur for his many contributions, including the development and execution of our strategic plan, RTPI Rising; for launching a rich and varied series of exhibitions highlighting Peterson’s legacy and showcasing Art That Matters To the Planet; for greatly improving our financial sustainability while growing membership and attendance; and for building a skilled and dedicated professional staff to meet the needs of our mission.
significance. We are better positioned than ever to reach a broader audience, cement our financial sustainability, and serve as a vital cultural resource for local residents and visitors to our region.
To say that we cannot accomplish these things alone is more than an understatement. Everything we do depends, as ever it has, on the continued generous support of our community of members, individual donors, and institutional funders. Financial sustainability is the bedrock on which we are building our museum as a living embodiment of Peterson’s Field Guide.
We are better positioned than ever to reach a broader audience, cement our financial sustainability, and serve as a vital cultural resource for local residents and visitors to our region.
While I look back with great satisfaction on these achievements, I also look to the future of our organization with even greater optimism and determination to continue the momentum we have established toward achieving our goal of becoming a nature art museum of national and regional
As it happens, I am a part of the current transition as well. I’ll be concluding my term limit of nine years’ consecutive service on RTPI’s Board of Directors in July. It has been a privilege to participate in RTPI’s growth and transformation over those nine years, but I am not going away. I will be joining the Board of the RTPI Foundation as its Chair, to grow our endowment to help secure the long-term financial health of the organization.
I wouldn’t miss the chance to be part of this next chapter of the Roger Tory Peterson Institute, and I hope we can count on each of you to be right there with us.
In gratitude,
Wilson D. Mudge, Board Chair
A Message from our CEO
It has been the privilege of a lifetime to help guide RTPI over the past five years. I am grateful for the support of an engaged Board of Directors, the dedication of a skilled staff, and of course the embrace of our growing family of members, friends and supporters. Together, we launched a suite of new and expanded programs that have enriched the cultural tapestry of our community. Museum attendance is up 360 percent. Last year alone, we doubled the number of members and quadrupled total individual giving, leading to our strongest financial year in decades.
How do we top all that?
By sticking to our plan. In January, our Board unanimously approved an extension of our strategic plan, RTPI Rising. In the pages ahead, you may notice some minor refinements to the plan, but mostly what you’ll see is our commitment to rising higher still – to realizing RTPI’s full potential as a nature art museum of local, regional and national significance.
My wife, Susan, and I will be returning to Chicago at the end of the year – in part due to the siren call of grandchildren. Meantime, we have an exciting season of exhibitions and programs in store for you – the highlight of which is the unveiling of a monumental mural to the monumental legacy of Roger Tory Peterson in downtown Jamestown.
The best way to ensure RTPI’s continued rise is to join our family. To become a member. To renew your membership at the next level. To give the gift of a membership to friend or to the art and nature lover in your family.
Sincerely,
Arthur Pearson, CEO
A Monumental Mural for a Monumental Legacy
Born and raised in Jamestown, NY, Roger Tory Peterson sparked a worldwide love of birds, thanks to his Peterson Field Guides. Artist, author and international ambassador for nature, he received countless honorary degrees and awards over the course of his illustrious career, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
This summer, a public art mural celebrating Roger’s legacy will take its place in downtown Jamestown alongside several murals featuring another hometown hero and Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient, Lucille Ball.
RTPI commissioned artist Chuck Tingley Chuck, a Buffalo-based artist whose public art projects may be found throughout Western New York, from Buffalo and Niagara Falls to Hamburg, Lewiston, and Medina. Currently, his work is featured in Hi-Vis, a Buffalo AKG Art Museum group exhibition celebrating artists of its Public Art Initiative.
“My vision,” Chuck shared with us, “is that this mural be a vibrant celebration for the Jamestown community and its visitors, honoring Roger Tory Peterson, the father of the modern field guide, and his enduring legacy. Through
My vision is that this mural be a vibrant celebration for the Jamestown community and its visitors, honoring Roger Tory Peterson.
this artwork, I hope to bring awareness to RTPI’s vital mission: inspiring others to see, study, and protect the beauty of the natural world.”
Funding for the mural was generously provided by the Gebbie Foundation, whose leadership support was instrumental in the very founding of RTPI 40 years ago. We are also honored to be partnering with Cynthia and Mark Carlson of the Pearl City Arts Center, where the mural will be created.
Art that Matters to the Planet Exhibit
If you come to America, I will meet you in Newfoundland and conduct you around the continent… you will see a more complete cross section of wild America than any other Englishman, and all but a few North Americans, have ever seen.
Roger Tory Peterson and his British colleague, James Fischer covered thirty thousand miles in 100 days. Along the way, they each tallied more than 500 bird species. Roger sketched. They both wrote. The book they ultimately published in 1955 was an instant classic and has inspired generations of birders, artists and conservationists.
Kenn Kaufmann was among those inspired by Wild America. He dropped out of school at the age of 16 to hitchhike around the country in search of birds. Today, he is a renowned artist, writer, and the author of his own series of field guides.
We are honored to have Kenn join us as the guest juror for this year’s iteration of Art that Matters to the Planet. The exhibition provides the opportunity for visitors to revisit many of the wild places Roger and James visited, as seen through eyes of 35 contemporary artists from throughout the United States.
Knowing Where to Stand
North American Nature Photography Association
Environmental Impact Award Winners
August 8, 2025 through March 15, 2026
A little over 25 years ago, Roger Tory Peterson invited about 100 of the nation’s most accomplished nature photographers to visit RTPI to discuss the future of nature photography. (Roger, himself, was an accomplished nature photographer – RTPI is home to more than 200,000 of his original images.) The result of the gathering was the formation of the North American Nature Photography Association.
Today, boasting 2,500 members, NANPA provides information, education, inspiration, and opportunity for all persons interested in nature photography through tools and principles that include ethics, conservation, advocacy, education, and networking.
NANPA acknowledges excellence in the field through a robust awards program, which includes its Environmental Impact Award. This award honors a photographic project undertaken by an individual or a team that addresses an important and urgent regional or global environmental problem. This year, RTPI is a proud sponsor of NANPA’s Environmental Impact Award. For us, this award embodies the spirt of Art that Matters to the Planet.
Following the presentation of the award at NANPA’s annual Summit, RTPI will host the firstever exhibition of current and past winners of the award.
Art + Nature + Community = Hope
Each of the past several years, RTPI has participated in the Annual Survey of Museum Goers, sponsored by the American Alliance of Museums. This past year, the survey asked an intriguing question: “what kinds of things give you hope?”
Astonishingly, the top three responses, from museum-goers from throughout the United States, were nature, art and feeling part of a community. We can’t think of any better way of summing up the experience RTPI has to offer.
In addition to great art and spectacular nature, all your favorite Programs and Special
Events are back this year and better than ever. Art After 5, Banff, Summer Soiree, Roger’s BirdDay Bash, Plein Air Festival and Holidays at the Lodge. Plus, we’re launching a new Bluebird Festival.
If you look closely at the Roger Tory Peterson mural on the front cover, you will spy his famous painting of an Eastern Bluebird – the same one that graces conservation license plates in New York. In 1970, the year New York officially named the Eastern Bluebird as its state bird, the species was in peril – its population had plummeted 90% throughout the country due to habitat loss and competition from non-native bird species.
RTPI is a proud member of the New York State Bluebird Society. In partnership with the North American Bluebird Society, its members have worked hard over the years to help the Eastern Bluebird make an astounding recovery.
RTPI has done its part by establishing a new Bluebird Trail in the Peterson Preserve, lined with nest boxes, which are regularly monitored by volunteers. Our inaugural Bluebird Festival, scheduled for June 14, is a free and family friendly. We’ll have bluebird art projects, bluebird cookie decorating, bluebird nest box building, and lots more.
Nurturing the Next Gen
We fulfill our education mission as a nature art museum in lots of different ways – we host field trips for school and youth groups, we offer artist workshops for adults, we enrich our exhibitions with programs by artists and environmentalists. Since 2020, our signature educational offering has been our Artistin-Residence.
Each year, we invite two to three artists to spend a week exploring the Peterson Collection – the art, the archives, the books and films, even the equipment Roger used throughout his career.
This year, artist Jennifer Anderson joined us from Monterey, California, and had this to say about her experience at RTPI:
“I just spent a week as an Artist in Residence at the Roger Tory Peterson Institute, and wow — what an experience. I've done residencies before, but this one was completely different. It wasn't just about having quiet time to focus (though yes, that was glorious). It was about stepping directly into the world of Roger Tory Peterson — surrounded by his original paintings, correspondence, field notes, and the kind of archival treasures that make a bird-nerd like me feel like a kid in a candy store. A very quiet, reverent, museum-quality candy store.
Time to create, space to reflect, and a legacy that kept whispering: keep going!
There's this low, humming energy in the building — like every flat file is whispering, “Psst, wanna see something amazing?” And it delivers. It's not just the finished pieces that moved me — it was the in-between stuff: the pen and ink drawings, the scratched-out drafts, the 'skins' of feathers, the BOOKS! All of it gave me a fuller picture of Peterson as not just an iconic artist and naturalist, but as a guy who really, truly wanted people to fall in love with the wild world.”
RTPI Rising
Mission
In 2021, following Covid and an electrical fire, RTPI’s Board of Directors adopted a bold, new strategic plan, entitled RTPI Rising. Inspired by its success, the Board extended the plan in 2024 and again in 2025.
In the latest version of the plan, we have simplified our mission to foster an appreciation for nature through exhibitions of Art that Matters to the Planet.
Vision
Our vision, however, remains fundamentally the same:
Through exhibitions and programs, the Roger Tory Peterson Institute will be an epicenter for harnessing the power of art to illuminate the beauty of nature, to raise awareness of the critical environmental challenges of our time, and to inspire preservation of the earth’s diversity of life.
Home to the largest collection of Roger Tory Peterson’s original artwork and related archival materials, RTPI will nurture the next generation of nature artists through exhibitions and artist residencies.
As a living embodiment of the Peterson Field Guide, RTPI will serve as a gateway to the best birding and natural areas throughout Western New York.
RTPI will be a leader for driving tourism to Jamestown and Chautauqua County. RTPI will provide enrichment, sanctuary, and most of all hope for all who visit.
RTPI will be a model of nonprofit sustainability.
Goals
Our goals for this year:
1. Build RTPI into a Nature Art Museum of Local, Regional and National Significance
2. Drive Tourism to Jamestown and Chautauqua County
3. Build the Operational and Financial Infrastructure to Sustain Strategic Plan Goals
Finally, a plan is only as good as its capacity to be measured. Building upon the documented success of the past five years, RTPI seeks to accomplish the following objectives this year:
1. Increase total museum attendance by at least 20%
2. Increase total memberships/ individual giving by at least 10%
3. Increase total earned income by at least 20%
4. Incorporate more nature into the museum experience
5. Raise awareness of RTPI locally, regionally and nationally
Our Family of Members is Growing
One of the surest signs our new strategic plan is working is our rapidly expanding family of members. In 2021, we relaunched our membership program and last year we gave it a major reboot. The results were fantastic – in just one year, we doubled the number of members. What this tells is that the art we exhibit matters not just to the planet, it matters to you!
Our goal this year is to increase the number of members by an additional 20%. To guide our efforts, we have hired a richly experienced new Development Director, Jeanne Fralick.
I have drawn, painted, and loved art for as long as I can remember. As a child I understood that art had a way of communicating where words failed. As a mom, I watch my own children as they grow, create, and express themselves through art. Their colorful paintings, including one where leaves and sticks were used as brushes, hang throughout our home. Having studied studio art, art history, and advertising I’ve grown to understand how truly powerful art can be. It brings people together. It teaches. It inspires us all to care a little more and sometimes it’s powerful message can drive change.
In my early career, I was the Project Manager for the first phase of the Savannah Children’s Museum housed on a National Historic Landmark site. I eventually moved back to the Jamestown area where I have spent the past 10 years writing and administering a combination of federal, state, and local grants for a non-profit in northwestern Pennsylvania.
As the Development Director I’m thrilled to be working in this unique, beautiful setting surrounded by Roger’s work, inspiring art exhibitions, working artists, and you! I look forward to growing our membership by connecting with a community of people inspired by our mission, “Art that matters to the planet.” Being a part of all we are doing at RTPI and working with you all to meet our goals is truly an honor.
Please feel free to call or email with any questions. Better yet – let’s meet for coffee!
Wood Thrush
• Unlimited free museum admission for one adult
• 15% museum store discount
• Discounts for programs and events
• Discounts at the bar for programs and events
• Unlimited free museum admission for two adults
• 15% museum store discount
• Discounts for programs & events
• Discounts at the bar for programs & events
• Unlimited free museum admission for two adults and all accompanying children under the age of 18
• 15% museum store discount
• Discounts for programs and events
• Discounts at the bar for programs and events
• Unlimited free museum admission for two adults and all accompanying children under the age of 18
• Four museum admission guest passes
• Two Art After 5 passes
• 15% museum store discount
• Discounts for programs and events
• Discounts at the bar for programs and events
Eastern Bluebird
$500*
• Unlimited free museum admission for two adults and all accompanying children under the age of 18
• Four museum admission guest passes
• Four Art After 5 passes
• Quarterly Guided Group Gallery Tour
• 10% off one facility rental**
• 15% museum store discount
• Discounts for programs and events
• Discounts at the bar for programs and events
Northern Flicker
$1,000*
• Unlimited free museum admission for two adults and all accompanying children under the age of 18
• Eight museum admission guest passes
• Four Art After 5 passes
• Four Roger’s Bird-Day Bash passes
• Annual Private Gallery/Behind-the-Scenes Tour
• 15% off one facility rental**
• 15% museum store discount
• Discounts for programs and events
• Discounts at the bar for programs and events
Snowy Owl
$2,500*
• Unlimited free museum admission for two adults and all accompanying children under the age of 18
• Eight museum admission guest passes
• Six Art After 5 passes
• Six Roger’s Bird-Day Bash passes
• Annual Private Gallery/Behind-the-Scenes Tour
• 15% off one facility rental**
• 15% museum store discount
• Discounts for programs and events
• Discounts at the bar for programs and events
Peregrine Falcon
$5,000*
• Unlimited free museum admission for two adults and all accompanying guests
• Eight Art After 5 passes
• Eight Roger’s Bird-Day Bash passes
• Annual Private Gallery/Behind-the-Scenes Tour
• Annual Continental Breakfast Event
• 20% off one facility rental**
• 15% museum store discount
• Discounts for programs and events
• Discounts at the bar for programs and events
Golden Eagle
$10,000*
• Unlimited free museum admission for two adults and all accompanying guests
• Ten Art After 5 passes
• Ten Roger’s Bird-Day Bash passes
• Listed as sponsor for one museum exhibition on in-museum signage
• Luncheon event with CEO and senior leadership
• Annual Private Gallery/Behind-the-Scenes Tour
• Annual Continental Breakfast Event
• 25% off one facility rental**
• 15% museum store discount
• Discounts for programs and events
• Discounts at the bar for programs and events
ALL MEMBERSHIPS ARE 100% TAX DEDUCTIBLE.
* Please note: 10% discounts for seniors, students and active military applies only to Wood Thrush, Scarlet Tanager and Northern Cardinal memberships.
** Facility rental is non-transferable. Facility rental excludes bar packages and bar pricing.
