Book Your Kayak Adventures – Enjoy a guided and interpretive Eco-Art Kayak Adventure, paddling to places of natural significance on Galveston Bay. Three and four hour adventures include a plein-air watercolor art experience. Two hour adventures do not include art.

 Youth Eco-Art Programs – Eco-Art Workshops, Adventures, Residencies and Summer Camps combine the arts and sciences for exploration and appreciation of coastal habitats. Restoration Adventures are free service-learning opportunities at our Coastal Heritage Preserve. Students steward the land by removing invasive species, maintaining and planting native prairie grasses, and learning how to identify native flora and fauna. Artist Boat Eco-Art Educators guide students through these tasks while educating them on the importance of conservation areas like the Coastal Heritage Preserve. Students learn the primary functions of wetlands and coastal upland prairies, the major threats facing coastal habitats, and how they help protect these ecosystems and the wildlife they support.

FREE Blue Carbon Workshop – The Blue Carbon Workshop addresses the relationships between ecosystem services provided by salt marshes and sea level rise in Galveston Bay. The program is designed to increase knowledge, vocabulary, and skills of middle school students and empower them to learn about, understand, and share knowledge about difficult concepts (sea level rise, carbon sequestration, blue carbon, carbon cycle, ecosystem services, and climate change).

Coastal Heritage Preserve – The Artist Boat Coastal Heritage Preserve currently encompasses a 898 acre conservation area on West Galveston Island. Artist Boat’s goal is to preserve and restore 1,400 contiguous acres from bay to beach. The Preserve is adjacent to West Bay, part of the Galveston Bay system – an estuary of national significance. The conservation area is one of the largest unfragmented, single-owner, undeveloped properties of its kind on Galveston Island. The Preserve is located approximately midway along the 32-mile barrier island. Public Access – The Coastal Heritage Preserve will allow for public access to view and appreciate the barrier island habitats. Ultimately, the project will serve as a regional amenity, a much-needed opportunity for the public and students to connect with Galveston Bay and its ecosystems.

Artist Boat Mission – Artist Boat is a 501(c)(3) whose mission is to promote awareness and preservation of coastal margins and the marine environment through the disciplines of the sciences and the arts.

Artist Boat’s Vision –  Everyone who experiences our Gulf Coast values and protects its natural beauty.

Artist Boat’s Goals –  Connect people to Gulf Coast environments through mind-opening experiences Expand engagement in existing programming to inform and inspire more people of all ages to appreciate and protect the Texas Gulf Coast
Educate and inspire people to action to preserve and protect coastal and marine habitats Preserve and restore 1,400 contiguous acres from bay to beach with the Coastal Heritage Preserve on West Galveston Island
Establish the first nationally significant environmental education center on the Gulf Coast. Programs to include kayaking and hiking adventures, science and art labs, overnight camping, service learning and high-level engagement.

Photos Courtesy of Artist Boat