Virtual Resources
At-Home Art Activity
Surrounded Islands was realized in May 1983, with 6.5 million square feet of floating woven polypropylene fabric to create striking pink margins around 11 islands along the length of Biscayne Bay. The installation remained in place for two weeks, though its realization took over three years and cost more than $3 million. The project was paid entirely by the artists through the sale of original works by Christo such as those included in this donation. The idea for the work originally started in 1980, when the artists were invited to create an artwork for the 1982 New World Festival of the Arts. Over the next three years they made proposals and obtained permits from agencies including: the Governor of Florida and the Cabinet; the Dade County Commission; the Department of Environmental Regulation; the City of Miami Commission; the City of North Miami; the Village of Miami Shores; the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; the Dade County Department of Environmental Resources management, and they gained the cooperation of the many environmental activists and residents, working to ensure the protection of the marine wildlife that inhabited the islands’ shores.
Materials
- Construction Paper
- Drawing materials
- Foam Stickers
Art Vocabulary
- Contour – The outline of a figure or surface; shape
- Art Installation – A large-scale, three-dimensional artwork designed to transform a space or environment.
- Site-Specific – Created for a particular place and designed to exist only there.
- Environmental Art – Art that uses or responds to the natural landscape.
- Archipelago – A group or chain of islands.
- Biscayne Bay – A costal lagoon near Miami, Florida, where the project took place in 1983.
- Polypropylene fabric – A lightweight, synthetic material used for the pink floating fabric.
Virtual Resources
Inspiration for your Imagination
Installation image of Christo and Jeanne-Claude Surrounded Islands Documentation Exhibition, 2025. Courtesy of NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale.
Art Activity
Instructions
Step 1
Your materials are: construction paper, drawing materials, and foam stickers.
Step 2
First, choose 1 or 2 stickers and stick them somewhere on your paper.
Step 3
Draw surrounding contour lines around the foam shape, repeat your lines outward from the shape.
Step 4
Here is your finished Contour Islands inspired by Jeanne-Claude and Christo’s Surrounded Islands.
Art Activity
Notes
Thank you for joining us, dont forget to snap a photo of you and your artwork!
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*If you have any questions about these art activities please contact NSU Art Museum at [email protected] or call 954-262-5500*













