Smithsonian’s National Zoo Mural
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THE GOOD OF THE HIVE®

A global art project generating radical curiosity, connection, and change…
one pollinator at a time. 

“Bees never forget that they are part of something bigger than themselves… their hive is a part of them. What if we embodied this idea? What if we got curious about the world and each other again instead of intimidated by it? This is why I turn walls into windows – to remember that we are all connected… that separation is an illusion.”

-Artist, Matt Willey

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Matt Willey is hand painting 50,000 honey bees—the number in a healthy hive—in murals and installations around the world.

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Coming - 2025

The Good of the Hive The Film

Filming in Progress

Recently Completed - Fall 2024

The US Embassy

Beijing, China

Completed April 2023

The Red Wolf Mural Project

Columbia, NC

Current Project - To be continued

Scout Bee

St. James Parish, Louisiana

Recently Completed

Glenn and Carol Arthur Planetarium

Earth to Sky Park - Burnsville, NC

Recent Installation
Nov 2021- April 2022

Art for the People- Earth

The American Embassy - Beijing, China

A note from the artist.

Creating The Good of the Hive has been the most challenging and rewarding experience of my life. I have endured 10-hour painting days in 100-degree heat, financial hardship, growing pains, creative angst, burnout, disappointment and overwhelm. But I have simultaneously experienced profound levels of beauty, spirituality, genuine human connection, laughter, purpose, and faith throughout. This is life. A bee does not set out to ‘undo’ harm when she forages. She sets out looking for the nectar… the good stuff. She sparks life along the way through pollination by following something inside her that fuels the search.

There are two things that a honey bee symbolizes that every human craves - a sense of purpose about our existence, and the hive, the connectedness to each other. I am no exception. Nine years and nearly 11,000 bees into this, I realize I have been painting bees in search of these things for myself. 

Every wall I paint is a lesson and a reminder of this truth. Each bee is an echo or ripple effect of the experience I had with one tiny bee in 2008.

I do not know exactly where this is all going. This art project is a vehicle and container to explore. Art is not planned, it unfolds. But I have learned that I am not alone in this experience. Any feeling of separation is an illusion. Like a magic trick, the connectedness often hides in plain sight, but when I look closely enough, it is always there.

Thank you to every person that has supported me in this wild idea to paint bees around the world. It means more than you know. You are helping to shape this piece of art into its perfect form. 

Matt Willey's signature.

Photo Credit: Dani Case

Featured Murals

  • Smithsonian's National Zoo

    Smithsonian's National Zoo

    The Great Ape house. 14 Weeks, 351 giant bees and over 250,000 people engaged in the process.

  • Burt's Bees Global HQ

    Burt's Bees Global HQ

    Over 400 people helped paint flowers on this mural in the historic American Tobacco Campus in Durham, NC.

  • Piper's Corner School, UK

    Piper's Corner School, UK

    A 15-year-old named Madeleine brought me across an ocean to paint a mural at her school, taking The Good of the Hive international.

“I imagine a world filled with people that see the beauty and connectedness of all things, and act accordingly. A bee woke me up to that truth. I am painting what she showed me.”

— Matt Willey, Artist and Founder

As Featured In

  • Tedx Logo in Black
  • Today Show Logo
  • Buzzfeed logo
  • Reuters Logo in Black

 Explore the Hive

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