ART ON THE EDGE OF THE BOREAL FOREST (GREAT RIVER CHAPTER)
by Kathleen Franzen
Beginning in 2010, a group of Minnesota botanical artists applied their skills and knowledge to create a visual archival record of Minnesota’s threatened boreal forest. This collection of original art is important because the ecology of the boreal forest is undergoing slow and silent but significant change due to disturbances caused by fire, invasive insects and stressful climate conditions.
The project started after a Great River Chapter art exhibit at the Ripple River Gallery near Aitkin. One of the owners, Bob Carls, requested an exhibit of trees at risk due to climate change from Minnesota’s boreal forest. After hearing a presentation by Lee Frelich, PhD, on climate change, the artists approached him to be their advisor. Frelich is director of The Center of Forest Ecology at the University and a respected environmental scientist. Frelich readily agreed and provided them with a list of 10 trees at risk.
Threatened birds of the boreal forest were identified by Gerald J. Niemi, PhD and Professor Emeritus in the Department of Biology, University of Minnesota-Duluth. Insects associated with the trees of the boreal forest were identified by Jana Albers, DNR Forest Health Specialist.
This original art was the centerpiece of a traveling exhibition at these Minnesota galleries: the Kaddatz Gallery in Fergus Falls, the Ripple River Gallery, the MacRostie Art Center in Grand Rapids, the Minnesota Historical Society's James J Hill House museum in St. Paul and, a limited curated selection during the summer of 2021, at the Bridgewater condominium in downtown Minneapolis.
The six-month exhibition at the James J Hill House opened in January 2020, but closed in March due to the COVID pandemic. As a consequence of the premature closure, the collection was chronicled in a book titled Art on the Edge of the Boreal Forest: Alternative Futures for the trees, birds and insects. The academic advisors contributed chapter material. The book highlights specific aspects of the 10 trees with related birds and insects in original works by Vicki Barth, Wendy Brockman, Marj Davis, Kathleen Franzen, Nancy Gehrig, Debra Greenblatt, Julie Martinez, Mary Anne O'Malley, Kathy Reeves, and Bruce Wilson.
Art on the Edge of the Boreal Forest is available online from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Target and BookBaby. Sales proceeds go to the Center of Forest Ecology and Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory in Duluth.