UW News blog

December 10, 2014

Art exhibit on polar field research opens Friday

Marine mammal expert Kristin Laidre, a polar scientist at the UW Applied Physics Laboratory and in the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, studies Arctic mammals in their native habitat. She focuses on polar bears and narwhals, an Arctic whale with a distinctive spiral tusk.

In spring 2013 she invited Seattle watercolor artist Maria Coryell-Martin to join an expedition to West Greenland and share an artist’s perspective on what it’s like to do research in the far north. (Coryell-Martin is no stranger to science – her father Seelye Martin, a UW professor of oceanography, studies sea-ice growth and melt.)

 

 

Now for the first time they will present the work created during that trip — a collection of field art and stories about scientific research in the Arctic environment.

“Imaging the Arctic” will be exhibited at the Nordic Heritage Museum from Dec. 12 to Feb. 22, 2015. The opening reception will take place Thursday, Dec. 11, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.

To complement the watercolors of field camps and scientists, the exhibit also includes Finnish photographer Tiina Itkonen‘s photos of Greenland’s landscape and Arctic communities. Laidre said it will also include some drawings by Owen Curtsinger, a UW alumnus and graphic artist.

“I am excited to see three different kinds of artists come together and exhibit their incredible work around a theme that includes science,” Laidre said. “I am also excited to see this collaboration inform and inspire people about the Arctic ecosystem – and the humans and animals that live there.”

Related events in 2015:

• Imaging the Arctic lecture: Tuesday, Feb. 3, 7 p.m., by Laidre and Coryell-Martin at the Nordic Heritage Museum
• Virtual expedition to Greenland (for young students and families): Saturday, Feb. 7, 10-11 a.m. at the Nordic Heritage Museum. Explore the Arctic through a simulated multimedia helicopter journey, while practicing field-sketching techniques along the way.
• Imaging the Arctic lecture: Sunday, Feb. 8, 3 p.m., by Laidre and Coryell-Martin at the Port Townsend Marine Science Center.
• Field sketching: Arctic animals: Saturday, Feb. 21, 10 a.m. – 3 p.m., at the UW’s Burke Museum. Learn fundamental sketching techniques from Coryell-Martin using specimens from the museum as inspiration.

The Nordic Heritage Museum is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, and from noon to 4 p.m. Sunday. Admission is $8 for adults, $7 for students and seniors. Entry is free the first Thursday of the month.