Avondale's Insect Asylum celebrates historic cicada season with public art project: 'For us, it's spiritual'

More cicadas are set to join the millions expected to emerge from years underground this spring in Illinois, and while they won’t make a sound they’ll add to the buzz of this natural phenomenon that hasn’t been seen in centuries.

A local museum and Chicago artists will adorn the city with giant decorative versions of the bugs, thanks to a public art project called the “Cicada Parade-a” run by the Avondale-based Insect Asylum and Baltimore artist Michael Bowman.

The decorative cicadas will be on display across the city starting in May and running through the summer. Artists or residents can “adopt” a cicada to participate in the community-building part of the project. Artists can adopt a cicada for free in exchange for decorating it and displaying it publicly. Others can purchase the cicadas for $75.

Two broods — or breeding groups — of cicadas that emerge every 13 and 17 years, respectively, will coincide for the first time since 1803. To Bowman and the Insect Asylum staff, that’s cause for celebration and reflection.

“For us, it’s spiritual,” said Nina Salem, founder of the Insect Asylum.

The phenomenon has sparked the interest of scientists and nature lovers across the country. The 17-year cicadas will mainly cover the northern half of the state while the 13-year cicadas are centered mostly in the southern part, and the two are set to converge near Springfield.

Mary Norkol/Sun-Times

The art project, which Bowman launched in Baltimore when 17-year cicadas emerged there in 2021, involves creating hundreds of giant plaster cicadas for artists and the public to paint and display.

Bowman and the Insect Asylum staff and volunteers create the cicadas by pouring plaster into molds and letting them dry with thick copper wires serving as the bug’s legs.

Mary Norkol / Sun-Times

Artists who participate in the project are also able to write a short essay about their personal changes over the last 17 years to accompany the interactive map.

The project has already gotten more than 850 submissions through the website from people interested in adopting a cicada, Salem said, and they started molding the plaster cicadas this week.

The locations of the insects are documented in an interactive map so people can find them, learn more about the artist and perhaps create a goal of seeing all the cicadas across the area.

Salem said the hope is to inspire interest in the natural world and get people outside.

“We want to get people outside; we want people to go for walks,” Salem said, adding that parks and other outdoor areas are important to the project’s success.

Mary Norkol / Sun-Times

During the project’s first iteration in 2021, Baltimore and the rest of the country were still following certain COVID-19 restrictions and social distancing was recommended. Bowman said the project was a unique way to get people outside and give them something new to do.

But the project is more than just finding the art and observing it. Because the periodical cicadas, which differ from the annual cicadas that buzz in the Midwest every year, only emerge in the area every 17 years, there’s a chance to reflect, Bowman said.

Mary Norkol / Sun-Times

“This bug is as old as this kid who’s about to go off to college,” he said. “It’s pretty rare that we get a chance to look back 17 years. A lot changes.”

Salem added: “Measuring your life in bugs is so freaking cool.”

Mary Norkol/Sun-Times

By bringing art and science together through the project, Bowman said it attracts people with different interests. Musicians, for example, have found the event fascinating because of the sounds made by the cicadas. Some artists even sample the buzzing for musical tracks.

“I don’t want any other person to feel like they’re alone in their interest in the natural world,” Salem said.

To participate, visit the Cicada Parade-a website, which has more information on displaying and decorating a bug, sponsoring the project and the cicada emergence as a whole.