Opening on April 3 and running until May 1, CWU’s Primate Awareness Network (PAN) club, in conjunction with Gallery One, is hosting an exhibit of artwork created for a contest that helped raise money for local Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest (CSNW). 

The art contest is a fundraiser created by PAN, an on-campus club that posts research on social media about different primate species and their conservation status. They also hold fundraisers supporting primate awareness among the public, students and university, and supports the local CSNW. 

Margaux Hingey, a PAN member and Primate Behavior and Ecology major, discussed PAN’s purpose and online presence.

“Generally, there are a lot of events that are meant to promote awareness about primates among the general public, or even the university, and then events to support CSNW,” Hingey said.

PAN has different committees within the club, with the fundraising committee being the orchestrator of the art contest and Gallery One partnership. Hingey is part of the fundraising committee along with Danna Boshak, a graduate student in the Primate Behavior and Ecology program. Boshak gave further insight into how the idea for the art contest and fundraiser came together. 

“The initial idea was just the art contest to create a T-shirt, but as soon as I heard Gallery One, I was like that means we’re doing a gallery exhibit right? I don’t know if that was part of the initial idea, it was my misunderstanding maybe, but I’m glad we did it,” Boshak said. “In addition to just engaging people in the contest. It gives a wonderful opportunity for outreach and for people in Ellensburg to really learn more about the sanctuary and the chimps that are there.”

Diana Goodrich and J.B. Mulachy are co-directors of CSNW with a connection to CWU. Both graduated from CWU, and Mulachy is now an adjunct professor in the Primate Behavior and Ecology program. Goodrich provided a short history of the chimpanzees and how they arrived at CSNW.

“There’s a group of seven chimps that came in 2008. Really, the sanctuary started with the very basics and we’ve been building it around the chips, adding more space and more habitats for them,” Goodrich said. “A few years ago we decided we were at a point where we could start thinking about bringing more chips to the sanctuary. … In 2019, we were able to rescue three more chimps, so there’s 10 now. We’re working very hard on an expansion so we can take in a group of six. It takes a lot to house chimps a lot of long term care with chimps living into their 50s.”

CSNW’s website has pictures, biographies and videos of the chimpanzees currently housed at CSNW and the six chimpanzees they are hoping to raise enough funding to bring to CSNW in the near future. Goodrich spoke of how appreciative she is for CWU’s PAN club and their work in putting together the art contest and gallery showing. 

“The student group has been really amazing, especially this year. [CSNW] haven’t done a ton of local outreach in the past,” Goodrich said. “This group of students this year has just been helping a lot with local outreach in Ellensburg and we’re really grateful for their work.”

The fundraising portion of the art contest allows for the purchases of products with the winning design.

“The merchandise is for sale in both Gallery One’s shop & CSNW’s website. Proceeds from those purchases do go to help support the chimps,” Boshak said. 

Students and the community can see the exhibit running at Gallery One, in Ellensburg at 408 North Pearl St. through May 1.