This episode features “The Good of the Hive” mural on the back wall of the Hands On Children’s Museum located at 318 N. Main St. The best view of the mural is from the parking lot adjacent to 3rd Ave East & King St in the rear of the building. The painting is one of over 50 such murals that have been painted by Matt Willey, a very talented artist and muralist. Matt has been on a mission for the past few years to paint 50,000 bees in murals all over the world to draw attention to these amazing pollinators and the environmental threat they are facing.

But his goal is broader than just trying to protect them. He is exploring what we can learn from the way they behave in the hive. He is sharing what he has learned from their social system and the connectedness they exhibit to one another. Making the analogy that “The bees are to the hive what we are to the planet,” Matt hopes to spread something that the bees instinctively understand—that what is good for the hive is good for each bee.

His work on these murals has garnered worldwide attention to the importance of bees and other pollinators for the earth’s ecosystem and the important lessons we can learn from them.

When Matt painted his first mural in La Belle, FL, he had no idea that it would lead to scores of requests from around the world to create similar murals. Hendersonville was one of the first cities to ask for a bee mural in their community. Kim Bailey, a local farmer and owner of Milkweed Meadow Farm, which focuses on growing pollinator-friendly plants like milkweed, found out about Matt and the FL mural while volunteering for Bee City, USA. She got in touch to ask him to come to Hville and then led the effort to raise the funds to finance the project. While Hville was one of the first to seek out Matt for a bee mural, the process would not be as easy as Kim first thought.

Matt relates that story and then all the details of the mural including the images he chose and their symbolism.