On May 19th, Ana Stolle will walk around the Mercedez-Benz Superdome stage during the Unified Commencement Ceremony, with the support of her mother, Esther Solondz. Esther will also be in the New Orleans area to discuss her sculpture, “The Bee Palace,” at Audubon Zoo.

“The sculpture primarily functions as a nesting site for bees,” said Solondz, noting that the piece was produced in collaboration with Tulane entomologist Claudia Riegel and the New Orleans Mosquito Board. Important to pollination, wild solitary bees are non-aggressive and do not live in colonies, make honey or have queens like honeybees do. The piece was created over two months last spring at A Studio in the Woods, Tulane’s artist in residence program located in a bucolic forest on the Mississippi River. The buzzing boarding house is constructed of tubing with plant reeds, where bees can deposit their eggs and provide pollen for their larvae to eat. “Entomologist Zack Lemann has been monitoring the piece over the course of the year. He told me that approximately half of the structure is occupied, which is great for the first year,” she said. Click here to read the full article.