In two locations over two years Galaudet Gallery and partner Milewski Nature Fund curate  an inspiring art exhibit: There’s Only One: Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.  The astonishing art displayed in this exhibit is from a unique group of creatives:  sportsmen, conservationists, backpackers, artists, graphic designers and residents who  share their artworks which are influential in reshaping our thinking about this legendary land.

The disparate group of contributors to this exhibit elevated our understanding of how people see the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (the Refuge) and wilderness land in general.  All the art showed a mutual love of nature and wild places but the foundation for that love comes from different perspectives and beliefs.  Activist artists showed work alongside politically conservative hunters—both capturing the Refuge in its beauty and savage wildness while disagreeing about the management and future of the land. 

Visitors were excited and motivated by these unique views which created art everyone agreed was stunning, interesting, beautiful and unique.  Over 1000 people came to see this exhibit and 4 events helped educate people about the Refuge and work being done to manage it.

Each of the four gallery rooms was dedicated to different ways artists see The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and one room looked at special places in Wisconsin that are currently being saved as wilderness refuge but not as part of the National Refuge System.

The Tower Room:  Refuge from Afar

Named for its curved tower, The Tower Room shows the Refuge from Afar with aerial photographs and dreaming about the refuge.

Florian Schulz’s amazing aerial photography of life on the Refuge’s coastal plain showed caribou who have been migrating to the coastal plain for thousands of years.  The immensity of mountains and sky in his photographs show the caribou as one part of a large and complete ecosystem.  

Vicki Milewski’s dreams of the Refuge with her Warholian flowers and rivers running into her heart show the refuge from a physical distance of miles since Milewski has never visited and a more metaphysical distance since in her dreaming she sees it protected and whole.  "When I sleep under the stars I know they are shining on the Refuge as well as me."

Sebastião Salgado’s spiritual vision of the Brooks Mountain Range—the southern spine of the refuge and creator of the Refuge’s many rivers inspired many people to view the refuge as the Gwich'in  people do--as a sacred place 

These three visionary artists transported each visitor as if "I just fell like a drop of rain from the sky" into the sights, sounds and tastes of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as a Wisconsin hunter said upon viewing the Tower Room's art..

The Bay Room:  Refuge Birds

The Bay Room named for its wonderful bay window with geometric leaded glass held the Refuge Birds with a wide assortment of art showing the birds of the Refuge.  Many birds enjoyed in Wisconsin migrate north to places like the Refuge to have their young and raise them until they are able to fly back south.

A sound installation by Vicki Milewski can be heard in the Bay Room also.  Milewski mixes the music of birds singing in the refuge as captured by Martyn Stewart  with birds singing on her farm in Wisconsin and trance music composed by Milewski.  The gentle wash of sounds is energized by a loud bird or rush of wind or synthesizer before returning to the dawn songs of birds and human.

Photos by Subanker Banerjee, who lived in the Refuge for a complete year to capture all four seasons, are in the Refuge Birds section of the exhibit. There were also photos by Steven Kazlowski and Hugh Rose who have made careers out of taking extraordinary avian photographs.

The Studio Room:  Refuge Concordances

The Studio Room named for its present-day use as an artist studio shows the Refuge Concordances showing environmentalist artist alongside sportsmen artists with art from famed Japanese-American photographer Michio Hoshino and sportsmen depicting wildlife like salmon, polar bears, caribou and wolves.  This is also where the watercolor prints of sportsman Bob Hines show fish and polar bears as he saw them in the 1920’s and 30’s on the land that 40 years later became the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Galaudet Gallery co-owner Vicki Milewski adds, “We are also honoring the 70th year of the distribution of Frank Dufreshne’s book Alaska’s Animals and Fishes copyrighted in 1946 and distributed in 1947 which showed a vibrant ecosystem and abundant life in the area now known as the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.  This book was circulating before Alaska became a state (1959) and encouraged the conservation of this ecosystem since it was able to support a robust economy of furs, meat and fish, an economy valued at 68 million in 1934 (worth 1.2 billion today). 

The first chapter is called “The Last Wilderness” which luckily we can still call the Refuge because of the tremendous efforts of the artists in There’s Only One:  Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the many others who now believe the last part of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, its coastal plain, should be conserved for sportsmen and environmentalists.”

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Please contact Galaudet Gallery for more information about prints and original works that may still be available from this exhibit.

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galaudetgallery@gmail.com

715-513-9994

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