Join us at this month’s meeting to learn about Artist Boat, their programs and current initiatives from their Executive Director, Karla Klay. Since inception, over 40,000 participants have engaged in Artist Boat's unique Eco-Art Programs that promotes awareness and preservation of the Texas coast and the marine environment through sciences and the arts. Recently Artist Boat began acquiring land on the barrier island of Galveston for the creation of a wilderness preserve.
Karla Klay is the founding director of Artist Boat and has over 19 years of experience in arts and environmental education. She earned a Bachelor's of Fine Arts from Southern Methodist University and a Bachelor's of Science from Texas A&M University in Marine Biology. Karla was raised in the Florida Keys by parents who developed the technology to keep sharks alive in captivity and shipped live sharks all over the world to large educational aquariums. Their neighbors were the dolphins of the Dolphin Research Center. This unique childhood with sharks in the backyard (the Gulf of Mexico) and dolphins as childhood playmates shaped an individual that has an extreme love of coastal margins, the marine environment, and the Gulf of Mexico. She is deeply concerned with preserving coastal ecosystems that will create a more resilient coastal environment for citizens and wildlife.