EXHIBITION AT THE CENTER, KETCHUM

Whose Nature? What's Nature?

Oct 27, 2006 – Jan 5, 2007

Each of the photographers in this exhibition actively challenges traditional perceptions of landscape. Some make pictures of actual places; others create their own landscapes. David Maisel 's and Emmet Gowin 's aerial images are at first glance formal abstractions—that is, studies of line and color—but with closer viewing, they speak to man's manipulation and marking of the land. Anthony Hernandez 's images of the Los Angeles River are startling illustrations of urbanites' interface with nature. Edward Burtynsky 's gorgeous shots of industrial landscapes confront our notions of the sublime and the beautiful while simultaneously drawing attention to our insatiable appetite as consumers. Kim Keever and Noriko Furunishi create their own landscapes, posing the question of to whom the land belongs.

In the Project Room, Kim Abeles combines sculpture, video and digital imagery to create an installation inspired by the issues surrounding the Sun Valley landscape. Using the metaphor of a child's nursery, Abeles explores the ways we indoctrinate our children into specific relationships with and approaches to nature.

Opening Night Celebration & 35th Anniversary Party

Fri, Oct 27, 5:30–8pm

6pm Walk-through with Kim Abeles

Join us for a very special evening event celebrating 35 years of innovative, provocative and excellent programming by the Sun Valley Center for the Arts.

It's the First Place to Be!

Fri, Nov 24 & Thurs, Dec 28, 5:30–6:30pm

Join us for wine and hors d'oeuvres

Open for Gallery Walk until 8pm

Docent tours every Tues at 2pm

EXHIBITION AT THE CENTER, HAILEY

Herd, But Not Seen

Nov 3, 2006–Jan 12, 2007

Moved by a friend's story of witnessing a wild horse roundup, photographer Elissa Kline began to search out these horses and document them. Over a period of 2½ years, she photographed more than 100 horses on 126,000 acres of BLM land near Challis, Idaho. She watched foals grow into strong young horses and witnessed old stallions pushed away from their herd. Her hope is to illuminate the struggle for survival and the strong family bonds of these beautiful, illusive symbols of freedom.

Elissa Kline was born in New York City and raised in Los Angeles. She recently moved to the Wood River Valley with her family after living for 17 years on a ranch near Stanley, Idaho.

DANCE PERFORMANCE & RESIDENCY

Founded in 1964 by Shirley Ririe and Joan Woodbury, the Salt Lake City-based Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company is at the forefront of contemporary dance in the western United States. A gift from a local dance patron will allow the company to be in residence in the Wood River Valley for a week this November. The dancers will be presenting workshops in the schools, working with individual students and teachers and teaching master classes.

Unlocking the Mysteries of Modern Dance with Charlotte Boye-Christensen

Thu, Nov 9, 7pm

Charlotte Boye-Christensen, Artistic Director of Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company, will present an overview and introduction to the field of modern dance, focusing on its origins, historical development and cultural characteristics across the many styles and schools. You'll develop an appreciation and understanding of modern dance as an art form through lively conversation, demonstrations and visual images.

Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company World Premiere Performance

Sat, Nov 11, 7:30 pm

Community Campus Auditorium, Hailey

$15 members / $20 nonmembers / $5 children 12 and under

Ririe-Woodbury brought the audience to its feet applauding. Its jazzy, bouncy rhythms were exuberantly performed—they have one direction—FORWARD.

— Dance Magazine

Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company fuses the power of theater and dance with its vivid and demanding style performed by prodigiously talented dancers. Stunning technical skill and complex artistry are the hallmarks of this maverick dance company. This evening's program will include the world premiere of a multimedia environmental piece commissioned by the Sun Valley Center for the Arts specifically for Whose Nature? What's Nature? Local dancers will join company members for this very special occasion.

Support for the Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company residency and performance is made possible in part through the Charles J. and Henrietta McDonald Winton Fund, the Idaho Commission on the Arts and the Western States Arts Federation and the National Endowment for the Arts.

READINGS & LECTURES

Reading and Discussion with Terry Tempest Williams

Thu, Nov 16, 7pm

Presbyterian Church of the Big Wood

Free for members and Blaine County teachers / $10 non-members

Terry Tempest Williams is a passionate advocate for public lands and a fierce voice for freedom of speech. She is best known for her book Refuge , in which she chronicles the rise of the Great Salt Lake along with her mother's diagnosis with cancer. She was named by Utne Reader as one of its “Utne 100 Visionaries,” and Newsweek called her a “person most likely to have a social and political impact on the American West.” She has testified twice before Congress regarding environmental links with cancer and is a strong proponent for America 's wilderness. She is not only an extraordinary writer but also a crucial voice for social change and ecological consciousness.

Garbage Land with Elizabeth Royte

Thu, Nov 30, 7pm - Free at The Center, Ketchum

Elizabeth Royte's meticulously researched and sometimes hilarious memoir, Garbage Land, follows the path of trash after it leaves our homes (and thoughts). Royte braids her experiences of interacting with sanitation workers, kayaking around a landfill and trying to navigate her way through the reality of recycling with the scientific facts about the production and treatment of trash in this compelling and sometimes disgusting story of a growing portion of the American landscape. Royte has written for the New York Times, Harper's, National Geographic, The New Yorker, Outside, and Smithsonian, as well as other national publications and several anthologies.

From the Sublime to the Industrial: The Evolution of the Photographic Landscape

Slide lecture by Joel Snyder

Thu, Dec 7, 7pm - Free at The Center, Ketchum

This slide lecture will survey shifts in the way we conceive of and represent the landscape through the medium of photography, from 19th-century notions of the picturesque and the sublime to the documentary tradition in the 20 th century to the contemporary industrial and manipulated landscapes presented in Whose Nature? What's Nature? A renowned photography expert, Joel Snyder is Professor of Art History at the University of Chicago. He has written and lectured extensively on the history of photography and film and is co-editor of the journal Critical Inquiry.

ALBUM: Shifting Native Stories

A multidisciplinary Project

Aug 4–Oct 20, 2006

What does it means to be a Native American artist immersed in tradition yet also part of a larger artistic community? Through visual arts exhibitions, a musical performance, and readings by national and regional authors, this project will consider the interwoven issues of assimilation, identity, influence and innovation.

ALBUM: Shifting Native Stories

Center Gallery, Ketchum

The exhibition includes traditional Alaskan Aleut and Tlingit baskets and work by contemporary Native American artists Marie Watt and Anne Appleby. Dlicate, finely stitched baskets will challenge popularly held assumptions about Native American aesthetic as they reflect early European influences. Contemporary pieces by Northwest multimedia artist Marie Watt explore a range of themes, only some of which touch directly on her Native background. References to trade blankets and totems are specific to her own Native tradition while holding universal meaning. Watt holds an MFA in painting from Yale and has had work included in solo projects at the Eiteljorg Museum in Indianapolis, IN; the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, NM; and the Tamarind Institute in Albuquerque, NM. Anne Appleby's quiet, meditative canvases evoke numerous references – current as well as historic. These monochromatic, luminous canvases are linked to the tradition of minimalism but also to nature. It is as if, through color, she attempts to capture the spirit or essence of the thing seen. Appleby has an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute and has exhibited widely in group and solo exhibitions throughout the Northwest and West. She has been the recipient of numerous awards and has work in many museum collections.

This exhibition is generously sponsored by the Paul G. Allen Charitable Foundation and Jeri L. Waxenberg.

Opening Celebration & Walk Through with Marie Watt

Fri, Aug 4, 5:30–8pm

It's the First Place to Be!

Fri, Sept 1 & Fri, Oct 13, 5:30–6:30pm

Murals in the Round, Lecture by Natalie Linn

Thu, Oct 5, 7pm

Baskets of the Pacific Northwest were made during the renaissance of basket making between about 1860 and 1930. This lecture and slide show will focus on the history, knowledge and beauty of this American Indian art form with a close look at the Aleut and Tlingit works included in Album . Natalie Linn has written and lectured extensively on Native baskets and has served as a consultant to institutions and individuals for more than 30 years. Her expertise has earned her stints on Antiques Roadshow and clients including the Chicago Art Institute and the Field Museum of Natural History. 

Artist's Talk with Marie Watt

Wed, Oct 18, 7pm

Marie Watt's ability to subtly merge contemporary art practices with personal and political history is attracting national attention. Her private art making often spills out into the work she does on a community scale, in which she brings together disparate people, with different histories, to produce art together.

EXHIBITION AT THE CENTER, HAILEY

Keet H'it, Killer Whale House

Aug 9–Oct 27

Sun Valley Center for the Arts, Hailey

Boise State University photography professor Larry McNeil presents a series of multimedia images that explore his own family's experience as Native citizens. With wit and humor, McNeil combines family memorabilia, photographs and his own artwork in narrative sheets that collectively reveal the complications of place, identity and heritage.

Artist's Talk with Larry McNeil

Thu, Oct 25, 7pm

The Center, Hailey

McNeil, a member of the Tlingit and Nisga'a Nations, will talk about the evolution and craft of his work and how his Native identity has shaped his aesthetic.

AUTHOR VISITS

Louise Erdrich

Wed, Oct 11, 7pm

NexStage Theater, Ketchum

$10 non-members/free for members

Louise Erdrich is one of the most gifted, prolific and challenging contemporary Native American novelists. Born in 1954, she grew up mostly in Wahpeton, North Dakota . Her fiction reflects aspects of her mixed heritage: German through her father, and French and Ojibwe through her mother. She is the author of the best-selling novels Love Medicine, The Beet Queen, Tracks and The Bingo Palace, as well as two collections of poetry, Jacklight and Baptism of Desire, and many other distinguished works of fiction and nonfiction for adults and children. She lives in Minnesota with her children, who help her run a small independent bookstore called BirchBark Books.

Native Voices Panel: Writing as Survival

Wed, Oct 13, 7pm

Community Library, Ketchum

Louise Erdrich and Joy Harjo will talk about “Writing as Survival.” Each of the writers will do a public reading and address the issue of contemporary storytelling. They will also work with area schoolchildren through The Center's after school program.

PERFORMANCE

Pura Fe

Sat, Sept 16, 7pm

Liberty Theater, Hailey

$15 adults, $5 children 12 and under

“With her voice soaring, foot stomping, this beautiful songbird transcends time and brings the message of our Ancestors who have sown this beautiful seed, that makes powerful music.”  --Taj Mahal

Founding member of the internationally renowned Native women's a capella trio, Ulali, Pura Fe is recognized for bringing contemporary Native voices to the forefront of mainstream music. A member of the Tuscarora Nation, she has performed with such musical luminaries as Neil Young, the Indigo Girls, Jackson Brown and Bonnie Raitt,. With her soulful voice and acoustic lap steel guitar, Pura Fe resurrects and elegantly restates the indigenous beginnings of the blues.

CLASSES

A Children's Northwest Indian Experience: Button Blankets with Sarah Lyle

Sat, Aug 5, 2–5pm

Ages 6–9

$35 members/$60 non-members

Registration deadline: Fri, July 21

This workshop introduces children to life in a Northwest Coast Indian village. Students will explore customs of Alaskan natives through stories and by locating Alaska and the Northwest Coast on a map. Kids will design and create a “button blanket,” a ceremonial robe used by the Northwest Indians during potlatches and other significant times, and attach a crest of an animal that's important to them.

Contemporary Cloth

Teen Workshop with Marie Watt

Thu, Oct 19, 10am–1pm, Hailey

Contemporary artist Marie Watt, whose work will be featured in The Center's exhibition, Album: Shifting Native Stories , will work with teens to create a group project exploring textiles, storytelling and collaboration.

Cedar Basket Making

with Lisa Telford

Fri & Sat, Oct 13 & 14, 10am–4pm

$135 members/$185 non-members

Supply fee: $40

Registration deadline: Thu, Sept 28

Lisa Telford is a Haida weaver originally from Ketchikan , Alaska , who has received numerous awards for her contemporary and traditional cedar baskets and garments. In this workshop, she will show students how to make a basket out of red cedar bark using plaiting, two and three strand twining and a two strand out ending. No experience is necessary—the instructor will adjust the project to your level, whether beginner or advanced.

Family Day

Sun, Oct 15, 3-5pm

This special family day will feature Haida weaver Lisa Telford. Lisa will demonstrate basket weaving and teach a simple weave using yarn and Dixie cups that families can use to create a strawberry or cockle shell design.

The Chair, Reconsidered

June 14–July 29

The Center Gallery, Ketchum – Free

As a design object, the chair offers nearly endless possibilities for artists to experiment with material, structure, form, and functionality. This exhibition features work by artists who are more concerned with the idea of a chair than with crafting a piece of furniture. What makes a chair a chair? What happens if you break a chair down into its components—legs, seat and back—and rearrange them into a new sculptural form?

The artists in this exhibition encourage us to reconsider this everyday object and to shift our assumptions about use, ritual and design. Jean Blackburn frequently takes apart household objects and rebuilds them with different configurations as objects to be seen, but not used. Courtney Smith cuts apart Brazilian antiques and reassembles them into blocks that have no fixed order, emphasizing European design precedents as well as bringing attention to the wood's color and grain. B. Wurtz has also disassembled a chair and “re-presents” it as both a painting and a piece of sculpture. Allan Wexler has made a 30-year career out of blurring the boundaries between art, architecture and design, constantly exploring how common objects can be experienced in new ways. Challis based furniture maker Don King examines the anthropomorphic characteristics of chairs in his “dysfunctional series.“ And the video installations of Richard Bloes address the interface between technology and art, sculpture and function, perspective and scale.

It's the First Place to Be!

Fri, July 7, 5:30–6:30pm

The Chair in Public

June 28 – July 28

Opening celebration: Fri, June 30, 5:30 – 7pm

The Center Gallery, Hailey

An exhibition of proposed outdoor seating projects by local artists, architects, and citizens that complements The Chair, Reconsidered exhibition in Ketchum. Gallery hours in Hailey are noon to 6pm Wed –Fri.

Family Day

Sun, July 30, 3 – 5pm

Center classroom, Ketchum

Come and explore the concept of a chair. Enjoy the exhibition, see how the artists have used the chair as inspiration for their work and create your own chair inspired artwork. Families will make a perspective drawing of a chair to collage into an environment you create.

THE ART OF TIBET

Mar 31–May 29

Nestled in the mountains of the Himalayas and presently under Chinese occupation, Tibet is one of the most idealized and romanticized areas in the world. The Sun Valley Center for the Arts' upcoming multidisciplinary project, The Art of Tibet, asks why the beauty of this remote landscape, the spirit of its people and the mystery of its religion have captured the hearts, minds and imaginations of individuals worldwide.

The project includes an exhibition of historic Tibetan art alongside thematically related work by three contemporary artists, scholarly discussions by two leading Tibetan art and culture experts and a residency by Tibetan monks who will lecture, perform and create a sand mandala at The Center, Ketchum.

“The goal of our unique multidisciplinary projects is to examine an idea in depth, and Tibet is the kind of incredibly rich topic that lends itself well to this approach,” says Kristin Poole, The Center's Artistic Director. “You can grapple with the question of the West's fascination with Tibet , as Orville Schell will, or discuss Tibetan art and culture from an artistic and religious point of view, as Robert Thurman will. The musical performance of the Drepung Loseling monks is extraordinary, and we expect their sand mandala to pull the community together much the same way that the Dalai Lama's visit did last year.”

Poole notes that The Center developed its Tibet project before the Dalai Lama decided to visit the Wood River Valley , but added speakers as a result of the community's enthusiastic response to the Dalai Lama's visit.

All events are free and open to the public unless otherwise noted.

VISUAL ARTS EXHIBITIONS

At The Center, Ketchum

Mar 31–May 29

Tibetan art is one of the last great artistic traditions to become known in the West. Most of the artwork in this exhibition is inspired by Buddhism, a religion based on the teachings of Buddha Shakyamuni, who was born about 2,500 years ago in what is now Nepal . Buddhism was officially introduced into Tibet in the seventh century after it had already expanded to include many schools of teaching. The objects exhibited in the gallery—all dating from the nineteenth century or earlier—include small figurative works in bronze, silver and bone; ceremonial and everyday objects; a group of beautifully patterned saddle blankets; and thankas (cloth paintings) and mandalas (circular paintings used as aids in meditation).

Ten of the objects on display are on loan from the Pacific Asia Museum but were once in the collection of part-time Sun Valley resident Nancy King, a mountain climber and explorer who fell in love with Tibetan culture and collected art on her travels. After she died, her husband donated the collection to the Pacific Asia Museum . Ketchum-based Davies Reid Gallery is also lending a number of objects to the exhibition.

The work of three contemporary artists will be exhibited alongside these historic artifacts. Linda Connor's luminous photographs contemplate the poetry and mystery of sacred sites in Tibet and India . Kirsten Bahrs Janssen's piece Connecting You and Me, and Everything consists of a gold line of spools that will pulse when participants pull a thread from one end of the sculpture. Arlene Shechet's installation, Thin Air , is inspired by the form and meaning of the stupa—a Buddhist shrine that traditionally houses relics or commemorates a holy person or event. Balanced crystal forms are blown by mouth, with each piece retaining an imprint of the breath.

At The Center, Hailey - The Art of Tibet: Through Local Eyes

Apr 9–June 2

A juried exhibition of local photographers' images of Tibet complements the work on display in Ketchum. The exhibition will be held in The Center's Hailey location at 314 Second Ave. S. After an opening reception Sun, Apr 9 from 2 to 4pm, regular gallery hours will be Wed–Fri, noon to 6pm.

LECTURES AND RELATED EVENTS

Virtual Tibet , a Lecture by Orville Schell

Mon, Apr 3, 7pm

Community Library, Ketchum

Orville Schell is the dean of the School of Journalism at UC-Berkeley as well as one of the country's most thoughtful observers of China. Schell has served on the board of Human Rights Watch, has been a frequent contributor for everything from 60 Minutes to Frontline and has published fourteen books. His book Virtual Tibet tracks the West's fascination with and visions of Tibet from Shangri-La to Brad Pitt.

The Gift of the Tibetans, with Robert Thurman

Thu, Apr 6, 7pm

Our Lady of the Snows Catholic Church, Sun Valley

Free for members/ $10 non-members

MEMBERS, please reserve your tickets in ADVANCE!

Robert A. F. Thurman is not only a scholar but also the most visible and lucid advocate for Tibetan Buddhism in America. Ordained by the Dalai Lama as the West's first Buddhist monk in 1965, Thurman is a prolific author and the Jey Tsong Khapa Professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies at Columbia University. As the co-founder and president of Tibet House, Thurman has worked closely with His Holiness the Dalai Lama to make Tibetan Buddhism accessible to Americans and to educate the West about Tibet 's political struggles. Although members are admitted free, they will need to stop by or call The Center beforehand to reserve a ticket.

Tibet : Cry of the Snow Lion

Thu, Apr 20, 6pm

Community Library, 415 Spruce Ave. N. , Ketchum

Ten years in the making, Tibet: Cry of the Snow Lion was filmed during nine journeys throughout Tibet , India and Nepal. The film chronicles Tibet 's recent past through riveting personal stories, interviews and undercover and archival images. Sponsored by the College of Southern Idaho.

Art of Tibet Family Day

Sun, Apr 23, 3–5pm

The Center, Ketchum

Families will tour the show, talk about the art and create their own Tibet inspired projects.

EVENTS WITH THE DREPUNG LOSELING MONKS

Sand Mandala Creation

The Center, Ketchum

Fri, May 26 - Sun, May 28

Of all the artistic traditions of tantric Buddhism, that of painting with colored sands ranks as one of the most exquisite. Tibetan monks from the Drepung Loseling Monastery will create a sand mandala depicting Avalokiteshvara, the Buddha of Compassion. Special events in connection with the sand mandala include an Opening Ceremony Fri, May 26, 12:15 pm; construction of a community sand mandala Sat, May 27, 12–3pm and Sun 12–3pm; open late for Gallery Walk Sat, May 27 till 8pm; and Closing Ceremony Mon, May 29, 3 pm.

Sacred Music Sacred Dance performance

Thu, May 25, 7pm

Limelight Room, Sun Valley Inn

VIP tickets $50 / Members $15 / non-members $20 / children 12

and under free

Robed in magnificent costumes and playing traditional Tibetan instruments, the Drepung Loseling monks perform ancient temple music and dances for world healing.

Guided Meditation at Community Prayer Wheel

Fri, May 26, 5:30–6:30pm

Sawtooth Botanical Garden, Ketchum

Lecture: Opening the Heart: Arousing the Mind of Universal Kindness

Sun, May 28, 2pm

Limelight Room, Sun Valley Inn

Held in conjunction with the Sun Valley Mountain Wellness Festival.

Acknowledgments

The Center is grateful to Robert and Paula King, The Pacific Asia Museum, the Amarillo Museum of Art and Davies Reid Gallery for the generous loan of historic Tibetan art and artifacts. We are honored to have the participation and partnership of many organizations in this project. We are grateful to the Community Library, Sawtooth Botanical Garden , CSI and the Sun Valley Mountain Wellness Festival for hosting and or sponsoring associated events.

Biodiversity: Order, Consumption & Man

Jan 27-Mar 25, 2006

Conflicts between humanity and nature run throughout time. This multidisciplinary project explores natural history and ecology with an emphasis on man's influence upon the world's ever-dwindling biological diversity.

In the Gallery

The incredibly detailed and researched species paintings by Isabella Kirkland , the dramatic and often unsettling photographs of natural history museums by Richard Barnes and the politically satirical, Audubon inspired paintings and prints of Walton Ford each explore how science, ecology and politics can inform art making and how art can contribute to both political and scientific dialogs.

This thought provoking project brings together for the first time all six of Isabella Kirkland's TAXA paintings. The highly detailed series is the result of years of research and study at natural history museums around the world. Almost every plant and animal is measured, photographed, drawn and observed first hand, either live or from preserved materials. Resembling Flemish memento mori paintings, they depict nearly 400 species whose existence has been compromised in some way through man's influence. Each animal or plant has been subjected to political, commercial or biological forces ranging from trade, re-settlement and dams, to deforestation, trophy hunting, and the introduction of non-native species.

Richard Barnes' Animal Logic series touches on the relationships we have with nature and history and the ways we collect and catalogue it. His highly detailed photographs of animal skeletons and taxidermy taken after hours at natural history museums in France and the United States are shot in color and are often large scale. By examining and documenting these subjects within the confines of replicated natural sites, Barnes poses questions about the relationship between natural environments and those created by man.

Walton Ford's paintings and prints appear to be large-scale descendents of the eighteenth and nineteenth-century tradition of natural history painting and engraving. However, his life sized birds and animals often serve as metaphorical stand-ins for different cultures in allegorical narratives. Social and political commentary is cloaked in the guise of natural history. Ford's meticulous paintings satirize the history of colonialism and the continuing impact of political oppression on today's social and environmental landscape. Extinction, cultural misconnections, world politics, natural history, and the grotesque are all repeating elements in Ford's work.

Lectures and Related Events

Local Biodiversity with Trish Klahr

Thu, Feb 9, 7pm

The Center, Ketchum

Klahr has been the Director of Science for The Nature Conservancy of Idaho since 1995. In this capacity, she is responsible for providing scientific leadership and support for the conservation programs of the Idaho Chapter. She oversees the identification of new priority conservation areas where the Conservancy can focus efforts at protecting native plants, animals and natural communities. Trish will discuss issues of biodiversity and conservation specific to our region.

An evening with artist Isabella Kirkland

Thu, Feb 16, 7pm

The Center, Ketchum

Isabella Kirkland will speak about her paintings and how they came about, by way of the 17 th C. Dutch still-life tradition, current biodiversity research, and her explorations in material longevity. Her current cycle of work, TAXA, explores how this old art form can simultaneously document, educate, and advocate. After studying and painting nearly 400 species of plants and animals in the last 6 years, Kirkland portrays individual creatures' stories of amazing adaptations to life. Some highlight man's attempt to control nature, while others show the heroic efforts of individuals in trying to save a bird or plant. Most of the stories behind the species in the pictures illustrate the profound complexity of life.

The Future of Life with Pulitzer Prize winner Dr. Edward O. Wilson

Thu, Feb 23, 7pm

Presbyterian Church of the Big Wood, Ketchum

$10 members/$15 non-members

Dr. Wilson is one of America 's most prominent scientists and the author of two Pulitzer Prize winning books, On Human Nature and The Ants , as well as other groundbreaking books such as Naturalist , Sociobiology and Consilience. A professor of biology at Harvard from 1955 until 1997, Wilson has received many of the world's leading prizes in science and conservation. His work in sociobiology forms the foundation of current evolutionary psychology study. His research on insect societies has informed the work of contemporary complexity theorists who are examining complex natural systems. In his most recent book, The Future of Life , Wilson focuses on the state of the natural environment, analyzing the threat to our biosphere and offering a set of recommendations for the protection of life on Earth.

It's the First Place to Be!

Begin your gallery walk at the Center Gallery

Fri, Feb 17, wine tasting 5:30 – 6:30

Open ‘til 8pm

Painter Isabella Kirkland will be in attendance and give a casual talk about her work at 6:15pm.

Fri, Mar 10

Artists in the Schools

Isabella Kirkland will visit local art and science students and share how she became intimately involved with cataloging compromised species. Kirkland , who was once the only female taxidermist in New York , has traveled around the world to study the exotic and lost species she paints. She will share slides of her work and stories of her adventures.