Antarctica

September 15 - December 22, 2007

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Antarctica has been assembled to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Antarctic Artists and Writers Program and to participate in the global activities recognizing the 100th anniversary of the discovery and exploration of the Polar Regions.

For 50 years, the National Science Foundation has funded artists and writers to work side by side with scientists in Antarctica. Its purpose in doing so has been to enable the interpretation of the remote landscape and experience of the southern pole region through the eyes of the artist and the pen of the writer. Antarctica has been assembled to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Antarctic Artists and Writers Program and to participate in the global activities recognizing the 100th anniversary of the discovery and exploration of the Polar Regions. Antartica presents the work of seven artists, the earliest of which is photographer Herbert Ponting (British, 1870-1935), who accompanied Captain Robert Scott's expedition to the South Pole in 1911 1912. The first photographer to visit Antarctica under the NSF Antarctic Artists and Writers Program, Eliot Furness Porter (American, 1901-1990) is represented by works from the Art Museum's permanent collection. Four contemporary photographers and one sound artist, all of whom have worked in Antarctica over the last 20 years under the same NSF program and who complete the exhibition are Stuart Klipper, Neelon Crawford, Jody Forster, Joan Myers, and Douglas Quin.

Public Programs:

Monday, October 1 Gallery Walk with Joan Myers and Martin Stupich, 10 am Open Forum with Joan Myers, 2 pm Monday Night at the Museum Art Talk with Joan Myers, October 1, 7 pm Art Talk with Neil Humphrey, UW Professor of Geology & Geophysics, October 8, 7 pm Art Talk with writer Christopher Cokinos, co-sponsored by the UW Creative Writing Program and the Haub School and Ruckelshaus Institute of Environment and Natural Resources, October 22, 7 pm Art Talk with Guy Guthridge, former director of the National Science Foundation's Antarctic Artists and Writers Program, October 29, 7 pm Pre-Release Screening, Encounters at the End of the World, a film by Werner Herzog (Discovery Films), 9 pm

• Sponsored by an anonymous sponsor with additional funding from the FMC Corporation, ExxonMobile, the National Advisory Board of the UW Art Museum and the Wyoming Arts Council through the Wyoming State Legislature and the National Endowment for the Arts which believes a great nation deserves great art.

Images:

Left: Joan Myers, Elephant Island, South Shetland Islands, 2001, Cone Piezotone Museum Black Ink, 12 x 34 inches, courtesy of the artist

Center: Jody Forster, Socks Glacier, 1996, silver gelatin print, 23-1/2 x 16-5/8 inches, lent by the artist

Right: Eliot Furness Porter (American, 1901-1990), Green Iceberg, Livingston Island, Antarctica, 1976, dye transfer print, 8-5/16 x 8-1/8 inches, gift of Mr. and Mrs. Melvin Wolf, University of Wyoming Art Museum Collection, 1984.195.47