Anam Cara
Eco-Art Space
Ocean Awareness
Art Climate
Ocean Environmental Art Education on Lake Michigan's Western Shore
Anam Cara (Celtic soul friend) Eco-Art Space occupies one acre on the western shore of Lake Michigan, nestled between the Chi-waukee Prairie, dunes, wetlands (National Land Landmark and State Natural Area) and the lake's edge. Midway between Chicago and Milwaukee along a major bird flyway. The property includes a solar-powered cottage, a garage for indoor exhibits, lawn, pine grove, lighthouse, shed, and an outdoor sculpture garden celebrating the interconnectivity of human, plant, and animal life and our Midwest connection to the ocean.
Two dedicated structures anchor the educational program: an octagonal Lighthouse, hand-built from three milled pine trees felled on the property, standing at the lake's edge, and a rectangular shed overlooking the lawn and garden. Together, they form a two-part environmental learning environment that is both scientifically grounded, artistic, and deeply experiential.
This space offers ecological awareness through art and science exhibitions that illuminate how everyday Midwest behavior connects directly to our global ocean and climate health.
The Lighthouse How Are We Connected to the Ocean?
In TheLighthouse, articipants explore how Lake Michigan ties directly to the world's oceans through weather, hydrology, and climate cycles. Heavier rains driven by a warming ocean raise lake levels, filter through wetland soils, and reshape Midwest farmland. Interactive measurement instruments — tracking rainfall, wind speed, and temperature — root these connections in real, observable data.
Displays drawing from the Ocean Literacy Third Principle illustrate how ocean current flow and atmospheric vapor cycles intersect with the increasingly volatile weather patterns of the Great Lakes region.
The Shed How Does Our Behavior Affect the Ocean?
Participants trace the pathways by which Midwest activity is intricately connected to the sea: plastic pollution flowing into the ocean through the Mississippi River and St. Lawrence Seaway; carbon emissions generating greenhouse warming that bleaches coral reefs and disrupts marine ecosystems; agricultural runoff compromises watershed and coastal water quality.
Art installations within the shed make these invisible pathways palpable and personal, encouraging participants to move from awareness to agency.
Partnerships and Community Outreach
Anam Cara Eco-Art Space in partnership with Yale Blue Green, alumni interested in the environment and sustainability. The space links with two UNESCO Ocean Decade Programmes: OASIS weather data observation and an Irish weather data collection program.
In June 2026, Yale Blue Green-Chicago hosted the Ode to the Wild Prairie event to tour the Garage, Lighthouse, Shed, and Sculpture Garden before seeding a lakefront prairie with local seeds.
The Garage
The Lighthouse
The Shed
July 2026
In July, 1) Off Campus Writers Workshop-6 tour Anam Cara and give readings of people’s connection with nature 2) local canvasing organizers. In August, Llewella’s Writers gather to explore the campus and meet in-person after years of Zoom calls.
About Margot McMahon
For four decades, lifelong environmentalist and internationally awarded artist Margot McMahon has sculpted, written, and painted human, plant, and animal forms to express, through making, her hope that decisions be made in support of life and social justice. With degrees in Environmental Journalism and Art and an MFA from Yale University, her practice bridges scientific inquiry and artistic vision with equal rigor.
UNESCO endorses Margot’s Ring of Fire social media campaign for National Ocean Month since 2023. Her eco-sculptures are collected by the Smithsonian Institution, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, and private and public collections internationally. She has received the National Sculpture Society's Maurice B. Hexter Award and the International Soka Gakkai Cultural and Contemporary Art Excellence Award. Her book If Trees Could Talk received an NFPW National Book Award. McMahon taught at Yale University as a Fellow of Timothy Dwight College, and at Yale Norfolk, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and DePaul University as well as others.
Margot McMahon’s Certifications:
UNESCO Ocean Expert
2026 Contemporary Art Excellence Award
Chicago Openlands Treekeeper
Vegetable Gardens in Schools
