Interactive Artwork

Lost Critter Project
500 Critters Released in Apex as Part of the Lost Critter Project

500 critters were lurking around various locations in Downtown Apex, NC. These foam board critters were left on benches, curbs, on top of newspaper boxes, on brick wall and even tied to poles and street signs. The lost Critter Project was a collaborative public arts effort between the businesses of Downtown Apex, NC and Apex High School Art teacher, Ian Sands.

Participating business were assigned a custom lost and found box that was displayed inside their establishment. 50 foam board critters were created for each business. Each critter held a sign that read:

Help! I'm Lost! Thank goodness you found me! Please take me back to the (name-of-business). I miss my brothers and sisters!

To create the 500 critters, Ian Sands enlisted a team of art students. "We spent two weeks working on this project," Remarked Ian Sands. "The art room looked like a factory assembly line with students painting, others cutting and others gluing."

The Lost Critter Project bolsters Apex, NC's reputation as a town of cultural arts and exciting happenings. Ten businesses participated in the Apex Lost Critter Project.

The Making of the Lost Critter Project:

We met everyday this week and worked on the critters. There were plenty of jobs to go around... sketching, painting, outlining, cutting, gluing, labeling...

Supplies included installation foam baord, house paint and a glue gun.

There were ten differnt critters: The zonkey, yeti, cow, mouse, moose, squid, elephant, frog, cat and the raccoon which started out as a wolf but then we received a change request. However, 10 wolves we created before the raccoon change request was received. I believe this makes them collectors items.

Press: The Lost Critter project was spotlighted in several news articles including The Apex Herald and the Cary News.

This project latter morphed into the Critters on Zonkey Street. Hundreds of Critters have been created and left to be found around the world. See just where our Critters have gone by visiting our Facebook page Critters on Zonkey Streeet!

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The Critter Cubes

For 2011, and hopefully longer, the The Graham Johnson Cultural Arts Endowment (GJCAE)Community Present will be the Critter Cube Stories.

Teacher and creator, Ian Sands, is beginning to construct 30 Critter Cubes and Critter stories to be displayed in Wake Forest, N.C.

The Critter Cubes are cubes with colored graphics that can be turned over and with each turn a new story begins.

The project is intended to be interactive with the community and encourage verbal and written expression using the stories created by the arrangement of the cubes.




The Graham Johnson Cultural Arts Endowment has financed the first 4 Critter Cube Stories and in 2011 plans to encourage further development of the project throughout the surrounds of Wake Forest.





















In addition to the critter displays, the GJCAE will work with the community to provide coloring books so children can craft stories. Prizes will be awarded for the most original, creative, or best story lines improvising with the critters.