The Hockaday Museum of Art in Kalispell, Montana, is currently showing “The Last Glacier: Images of Our Changing Landscape,” a new exhibition highlighting the collaborative documentary project, The Last Glacier, led by visual artists Todd Anderson, Bruce Crownover and Ian van Coller.
This arts and science initiative, begun in 2009, documents the effects of climate change and unites visual artists, scientists, and writers who create convergent research on specific wilderness environments that are experiencing tangible and dramatic ecological changes.
Van Coller, who is based in Bozeman, describes the project this way: “Climate change is categorical, yet beauty, however temporal, still remains. As real time passes, The Last Glacier transforms into multi-generational artifacts that share stories of mortality and resiliency in the face of a changing planet.”
The presentation at the Hockaday will consist of 35 original artworks including: colorful woodcut prints of glaciers using traditional Japanese style printmaking techniques by South Carolina artist Todd Anderson, woodcut prints and watercolors by artist and master printer Bruce Crownover who lives and works in Wisconsin, and color photographs of glaciers taken around the world and in Glacier National Park by Montana artist Ian van Coller.
A full-color 648 page publication and exhibition guide containing essays, artwork, poetry, photography and other contributions by artists and scientists from across the globe will accompany the exhibition and is available for sale for $15 in the museum gift shop with 100% of the proceeds donated by the artists to support the Hockaday.
Part of the Hockaday’s mission is preserving the artistic legacy of Glacier National Park. While the beauty and grandeur of the Park has inspired artists for generations, it is a complex and changing landscape.
Of the 150 glaciers van Coller, Anderson and Crownover first started documenting in 2009, only 25 remain.
Hockaday Curator Pat Roath notes in her curatorial statement, “Glaciers, like the clean water they produce and the ecosystems they support, cannot be replaced. The Last Glacier Project brings our attention to this critical ecosystem and the challenges it is facing, using the creative process to evaluate climate change’s visual impact on the landscape and its emotional impact on us.”
Visit www.thelastglacier.com for more information on the ongoing project.
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