APRIL 2025
Boreal Echoes | In a Time of Change (ITOC) collaborative arts-humanities-science exhibit
Boreal Echoes is a touring exhibit produced by the Alaska-based collaborative environmental arts-humanities-science program known as "In a Time of Change (ITOC)". Boreal Echoes is the result of three years of learning, conversation, and experimentation by a cohort of artists who were inspired and informed by the boreal forest, the scientists who study it, and each other. Artists built relationships to the boreal biome and one another through outdoor field trips, scientific presentations, artist craft talks, and monthly group activities. The cohort then created original artworks sharing their collaborative and individual investigations, inspirations, and care about the boreal biome. Boreal Echoes is directed by Mary Beth Leigh and includes artwork by Susan Campbell, Alyssa Enriquez, Nancy Hausle-Johnson, Mary Bee Kaufman, Margo Klass, Jennifer Moss, Ree Nancarrow, Oralee Nudson, Teresa Shannon, Todd Sherman, Marianne Stolz, Connie Stricks, and Sara Tabbert.
The "Boreal Echoes" exhibition was produced by the "In a Time of Change" program with support from the National Science Foundation through the Bonanza Creek Long-Term Ecological Research Program, the USDA Forest Service, the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and the Rasmuson Foundation through the Harper Arts Touring Fund administered by the Alaska State Council on the Arts State Council on the Arts, with in-kind support from IGCA and other partners.
Founded in 2007 by the Bonanza Creek Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) in Fairbanks, Alaska, the In a Time of Change (ITOC) program facilitates and produces collaborative arts-humanities-science exhibits and events focused on ecological themes important to Alaska. ITOC recognizes that cross-disciplinary interactions between artists, humanities scholars, and scientists can foster community engagement with the natural world and build collaborative capacity, helping society to address complex environmental problems. ITOC emerged within the Bonanza Creek Long-Term Ecological Research program in Interior Alaska and is funded by the National Science Foundation, the USDA Forest Service, and private contributors, with in-kind support from the University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks Arts Association, and other partners. UAF professor Mary Beth Leigh directs ITOC in collaboration with ITOC researcher and evaluator Lissy Goralnik (Michigan State University). ITOC is part of a growing network of place-based, environmental arts-humanities-science programs across the U.S. and around the world.
Photographs by Hans Hallinen