For its third exhibition, ArteYUNQUE installed artworks on the Science and Conservation Trail in El Portal de El Yunque. Courtesy ArteYUNQUE | Photo: Adriana Vázquez Avacedo

Bringing art into a protected national rainforest—the largest in the U.S. Forest Service system—requires not only intense, multilateral curatorial thinking but also empathy that extends beyond the human to nature itself. It demands stepping outside the dominant anthropocentric paradigm that has historically shaped much of Western art and instead collaborating with nature to create symbiotically rather than in opposition. It is a practice of reattunement to natural rhythms and cycles—a form of listening as much as shaping. “It’s a continuous learning, from nature and from the artist,” Georgie Vega, director and curator of ArteYUNQUE, told Observer. The founder of theartwalkpr, Vega, who has overseen the initiative since its launch, is a well-established figure in the Puerto Rican art community, with over 20 years of experience conceiving and promoting exhibitions across the island’s museums.

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Now in its third edition, ArteYUNQUE brings art into deep dialogue with the half-kilometer Science and Conservation Trail at El Portal de El Yunque, the main visitor center of El Yunque National Forest in Puerto Rico.

The project originated with the U.S. Forest Service, a federal agency within the U.S. Department of Agriculture, as part of an agency-wide initiative to increase public access to nature. In 2017, Hurricane Maria brought Puerto Rico to its knees, claimed lives and left the island in a prolonged state of emergency, and El Yunque was nearly obliterated. The proposal emerged as part of a government-backed renovation campaign to restore the forest’s infrastructure and reopen it to visitors. “I came here a few months after, and it was like a bomb had been here. There was nothing left,” Laura Rivera Ayala, who recently returned to Puerto Rico after several years in New York and now works full-time with Vega on the project, explained.

What the Forest Service initially envisioned was a far more modest artistic presence—largely decorative and mostly confined to the El Portal visitor center. Once Vega was approached by the Friends of El Yunque Foundation to lead the project in partnership with the U.S. Forest Service, she immediately advocated for a more ambitious and meaningful integration. The result was an unprecedented program of site-specific commissions unfolding along the trail and embedded in the living fabric of the rainforest.

This did not come without resistance or challenge. Ecologists overseeing the site were initially skeptical and deeply concerned about the potential environmental impact of introducing artworks into such a fragile ecosystem. The early stages were marked by caution, confrontation and bureaucratic delay. “We had to earn their trust,” Vega recalled. Even after installation began, new challenges emerged. Working in the forest means working with nature—accepting its rhythms, reactions and unpredictability rather than attempting to control them. For this reason, ArteYUNQUE structures its calendar around hurricane season: the annual outdoor commissions are installed in October and remain on view until July.

The first edition launched in 2023, gathering eight artists’ works under the title “NATURA” with very minimal resources, primarily raised through grassroots fundraising efforts on the island. “It was extremely experimental,” Vega said. By the second edition, the project had secured more stable support, including a three-year grant from the Mellon Foundation and backing from Bloomberg Philanthropies. All works are now accompanied by QR codes offering additional information and contextual materials via Bloomberg Connects.

Since then, ArteYUNQUE has not only helped restore life and energy to the forest but also drawn Puerto Ricans back to reconnect with this sacred........

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