Florida State University art students recently partnered with the Jacksonville Zoo and Botanical Gardens to design and deliver interactive enrichment toys for animals. The initiative was part of the Interspecies Sculpture Studio course in FSU’s College of Fine Arts, led by Associate Professor Rob Duarte.
The interdisciplinary course encourages students from various majors to explore connections between art and zoology, focusing on creative problem-solving. “Projects like this show how creative thinking and hands-on learning can connect people and institutions in ways that make a real difference,” Duarte said. “It’s about building bridges — between art and science, students and professionals, and the university and the broader community.”
The Toys for Animals project began at Handshouse Studio in Norwell, Massachusetts, with an emphasis on animal enrichment. Students worked alongside veterinarians, zookeepers, and zoo staff to understand animal behaviors before developing toys for giraffes, Komodo dragons, and birds.
“Involving art students provides a whole other kind of perspective, a whole other set of skills,” Duarte said. “They are really used to thinking carefully about the details.”
Senior studio art student Samuel Phrasavath described the collaborative experience as valuable: “I really take any opportunity in which I get to work with my classmates as a very valuable experience, because I feel like where I learn the most is from working with others — everyone has their own experiences to share.”
Students applied research into animal behavior at FSU’s Innovation Hub using design thinking methods to create prototypes based on expert feedback. Kate Casey, a senior studying both studio art and theatre who worked on a toy for giraffes, said: “It’s very, very rare that our clients are ten-foot-tall animals. We designed a barrel with a bunch of holes around it in a giraffe pattern with two layers that forces the giraffes to stretch their tongue and exercise their mouth muscles more than they usually would in captivity.”
After completing their designs, students traveled to Jacksonville to present the toys directly to animals under zoo staff supervision. Danielle Minkus, senior Bird Keeper at Jacksonville Zoo and Botanical Gardens noted: “The creativity behind the design for these items and the quality of the products they were able to produce was far above my expectations. These students being able to come in, bring a fresh set of eyes, the time and the tools to create all of these things is really awesome.”
Applied Animal Wellbeing Officer Alexis Hart emphasized collaboration: “We always want to be communicating that we are providing the best quality of care for our animals… Having others interested in helping us improve the well-being of our animals is really invaluable. At the end of the day everyone’s goal is for these animals to live their best life and having the university help with that is just incredible.”
Leanne White, director of learning and conservation engagement at Jacksonville Zoo stated: “Community partnerships are very valuable to us — they extend what we do on a day-to-day basis and help us hit our mission of saving animals and wild places even further.”
FSU senior Audrey Lendvay reflected on her involvement creating bird enrichment toys: “I feel especially empowered to pursue my own interests… I feel very supported by all of the faculty and peers here who have sort of led me to opportunities… like Toys for Animals.” Casey added: “I think this class honestly taught me about career paths that I didn’t even know existed… There’s so much research to be done in animal enrichment… how that can relate to art and design.”
Rob Duarte received FSU’s 2024-2025 University Teaching Award for Outstanding Teaching in the Major last spring. He commented on student enthusiasm: “The best part about these extraordinary courses that come up is students get really excited… There are some students who are really excited about totally new possibilities for what they might do in the future.”
Funding came through an FSU Spark fundraiser by FSU’s College of Fine Arts along with support from Professor Emeritus George Blakely.
Plans are underway between Florida State University’s Department of Art art.fsu.edu and the Jacksonville Zoo and Botanical Gardens to continue developing this partnership.
