Before there was science there was
ART.
See the changes in a new way
Sunrise Paddle on Bow Lake, featuring Bow Glacier by Kat Wright.
MELTDOWN: A Photographic Exhibition by Jim Elzinga and Roger Vernon
MELTDOWN is an upcoming photographic exhibition by Guardians of the Ice. Using high resolution cameras, Jim Elzinga and Roger Vernon are immersing viewers in Canada’s mountainscapes to promote action and engagement with the regeneration of the planet. The photographs are both a celebration of the fragile beauty that is being lost and a call to meaningful action.
MELTDOWN will officially launch the UN International Year of Glaciers’ Preservation in Canada, premiering at the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies in Banff in January 2025.
Learn more here.
LOSING BLUE: Directed by Leanne Allison and Written by J.B. Mackinnon
Produced by the National Film Board of Canada
What does it mean to lose a colour? Losing Blue is a cinematic poem about losing the otherworldly blues of ancient mountain lakes, now fading due to climate change. With stunning cinematography, this short doc immerses the viewer in the magnificence of these rare lakes, pulling us in to stand on their rocky shores, witness their power and understand what their loss would mean—both for ourselves and for the Earth.
This film is best enjoyed on a big screen. Contact communityscreenings@nfb.ca to plan a screening today!
Transitions: An interdisciplinary water, climate science and art collaboration
Global Water Futures’ (GWF) Artist in Residence, Gennadiy Ivanov, developed an art-science project on the impacts of climate change impacts in the circumpolar north. The project aimed to represent that challenge, stimulating awareness amongst new audiences, via a range of techniques, styles, performance and media.
Artwork from the Transitions project have been featured major international conferences including both COP27 and COP28. Gennadiy, in collaboration with the Climatic Research Unit CRU (Tim Osborn and Michael Taylor), was commissioned to produce a climate change mural for Norwich City Council, and his artwork has been influential in the development of the UN IYGP.
See more here.
Fortress Mountain research weather station in Kananaskis, AB by Gennadiy Ivanov.
Rockies Repeat: Directed by Caroline Hedin, Fieldlab Films
Rockies Repeat is a short documentary that grapples with the cultural impacts of climate change in the Canadian Rockies and the importance of sustaining traditions on ancestral lands. The film follows a team of Indigenous and settler artists as they trek into the mountains to reinterpret the work of early Banff painter Catharine Robb Whyte to see familiar places from new perspectives a century later.
Watch the full film here.
Climate Stories: An Upcoming Album by Digital Hobo
Digital Hobo is a musical persona of singer/songwriter Scott Diehl. He entertains audiences in the Roots/Americana, Reggae, Pop and Folk genres. Scott’s thoughtful, “out of the box” writing engages listeners in a journey to positive social change.
Digital Hobo’s third album, “Climate Stories” is currently in production and is being written in partnership with the Glacier Year. The songs examine how climate change is already affecting many people across Canada and throughout the World. It explores perspectives of Indigenous people, climate refugees, working families, climate activists, people of all ethnicities, genders and political stripes.
Check out DigiHobo on Facebook, Instagram, Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube, and Bandcamp.
Ice Water Life: Digital Hobo’s song/video captures the spiritual and environmental importance of Glaciers. Ice and Water preserve Life on our fragile planet.
Contemplating Glaciers: A Dialogue
An upcoming solo exhibition by Jan Kabatoff, curated by Jessica Turner
In light of the accelerated melting of glaciers, a phenomenon threatening ecosystems, sea levels, agriculture, and countless species, Kabatoff's work takes on profound significance. Kabatoff began traversing the icy slopes of glaciers nearly two decades ago, through North America, South America, and Asia, delving into the essence of glaciers—their resounding echoes, intricate details, and awe-inspiring grandeur. Through this multi-sensory exhibition, Kabatoff offers a poignant reflection, urging audiences to reconnect with nature and engage in the vital dialogue of climate change.
Exhibition Dates: August 2 – August 31, 2024.
Location: Tett Gallery in the Tett Centre for Creativity and Learning, 370 King St W, Kingston, ON K7L 2X4
Follow along on Instagram
Ephemerality: Ice and Us, by Amy Snider
Amy’s art practice is an extension of her commitment to climate change. She creates sculptural works and installations using clay she digs up where she lives, in Regina, Saskatchewan. Her artwork and writing convey the beauty and fragility of our natural environment. Recent work includes a series of ephemeral cups, bowls, and plates that convey melting glaciers, drought, and eco-anxiety as they dissolve, crumble, and blow away.
Amy, a mother, artist, environmental activist, cares deeply about our environment and enjoys spending time in nature with her family.
Find Amy on Instagram or at https://amysnider.ca/.
Desirée Patterson
Desirée Patterson is a Canadian photographic artist based in Vancouver, BC, on the ancestral lands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. A multifaceted artist, her creative practice spans photography, installation, sculpture, performance, and public art.
Patterson’s rigorous and exploratory process incorporates extensive research, often blending scientific findings with artistic expression to create a unique fusion of aesthetics and empirical knowledge. Her work explores themes of sustainability, environmental stewardship, and social justice, critically examining humanity’s relationship with the natural world.
Her compelling narratives have been showcased in ten solo exhibitions and over forty group exhibitions globally. They are prominently featured in monumental public art installations and held in private and corporate collections across North America, Europe, the UK, and Hong Kong.
As an activist and environmental leader, Patterson has trained under former Vice President Al Gore and served as a mentor in the Futures/forward program. Through her diverse artistic mediums, she bridges communities, sparks curiosity, and fosters transformative dialogue to inspire meaningful change.
Learn more here.
Athabasca: An Album of Eco-Songs by Sam Baardman
Sam Baardman is a singer-songwriter and photographer based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He is a co-founder of the artist collective “River on the Run.” Working in collaboration with biologists and climate scientists, the collective explores the increasingly fragile relationship between humans and their habitats. Environmentalism has been a recurring theme in both Baardman’s music and visual art. Learn more about his work here.
Baardman’s newest project, developed in partnership with the International Year of Glaciers’ Preservation (IYGP), is Icefields on the Edge: A Chronicle of Ice and Fire—a multidisciplinary artistic study examining the relationship between wildfires and glacial melting.
The song Athabasca is a meditation on Baardman’s experience accompanying Dr. John Pomeroy and his team as they monitored equipment on the Athabasca Glacier. Part of the Columbia Icefield, the glacier began forming a quarter of a million years ago but is now expected to disappear within 50 years. Athabasca serves as both a warning about the environmental consequences of glacial loss and a lament for vanishing natural beauty.
This song is the title track of an album of eco-songs written in 2022, inspired by Baardman’s two-week residency with Global Water Futures in the Canadian Rockies. Check out the entire “Athabasca” album here.
Julia’s art practice is focused on communicating empathy, environmental awareness, and personal growth through Fine Art objects. With a focus on psychology and ecology, she combines art and science for a fresh take on different issues. The more we explore the realm of the psyche, the better we understand ourselves as individuals. The more we learn about nature, the more likely we are to care for its survival.
Julia believes the process of healing begins on the individual level. As we grow an awareness of ourselves and our reactions to the external world, we unpack the reasons behind our own behaviours and how we relate to the world around us. She hopes to captivate viewers on the complexity of the subjects and their interconnection in the web of life, finding balance between representing them accurately and incorporating a sense of mysticism. The paintings introduce a vantage point depicting elements from a non-ordinary perspective. Using colour and surrealism, Julia presents visionary art qualities showing the more-than-human in a new light. Both the perspective and the surreal approach challenge how we perceive the world around us and help us question our inherent assumptions.
The work offers a shift in focus relying on each person’s own sense-abilities. Creating multiple perspectives in any subject matter helps us open our minds to other ways of being.
@juliasnewperspectives
Monuments: Crystal Ice Sculptures by Alva Gallagher
Aimed at raising awareness of the vital role glaciers, snow, and ice play in our climate system and water cycle, Monuments presents foreboding effigies of these great pillars of ice within the modern urban environment. Cast in solid crystal and created from molds taken directly from the shrinking ice within the Arctic Circle and glaciers in Banff National Park—chiefly the Athabasca Glacier and the Saskatchewan Glacier within the Columbia Icefield, the largest icefield south of the Arctic—Monuments will flash-freeze and immortalize these retreating giants.
Monuments is a tribute to the melting icebergs, a mourning of their loss, and a call to action. It is a visual elegy that speaks of beauty, memory, and the urgent need for change.
Learn more about Alva’s work on Instagram