Place-Creation: An Invitation to Imagine the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

The “Voices of the Wilderness” program connects artists of all different media and styles to federally managed Wilderness areas in wildlife refuges, national parks and national forests in Alaska, with the hope that the artists help give voice to what might otherwise seem like remote, unknowable places. In return for the trip of a lifetime, artists provide to the refuge a work of art based on the residency and that is what you will experience at this presentation.

With her spoken word and visual images, Tyra Olstad will invite you to envision the Arctic Refuge, to actively immerse yourself in what she has experienced, and to imagine the Arctic from different perspectives and at different scales. (Think like a tussock!) It’s intended for audiences who know little about Alaska or the Arctic, much less the Refuge, to experienced Arctic travelers who will be encouraged to consider the place with fresh eyes. An Arctic Refuge staffer described her presentation as “goose-bumpy good”. Come let her help you imagine the Arctic.

Voices of the Wilderness artists are paired with staff and/or scientific parties to assist with stewardship and/or research projects and learn about the Alaskan wilderness. Tyra Olstad joined two research teams: a group of botanists, collecting data in the central Brooks Range as part of a long-term, global project tracking changes to alpine vegetation; and a team of hydrologists and permafrost experts, embarking on a multi-year study of relationships between permafrost, small drainages, and tundra ecosystems on the edge of the Coastal Plain. The piece that emerged from these experiences is an illustrated, creative, non-fiction audio-essay about the Arctic Refuge.