Temecula Valley Museum Offers Relief from the Summer Heat with the Walking in Antarctica Exhibition

Cool off this summer by visiting the Walking in Antarctica exhibit. The immersive exhibit, created by artist Helen Glazer, combines photography, sculpture, and audio narrative to take the viewer on a journey through an extraordinary environment. The exhibition is organized as a series of 'walks' through remarkable Antarctic landscapes: over frozen lakes, around glaciers, into an ice cave, and through a lively colony of nesting Adélie penguins. Visitors with smartphones will be able to access an audio tour narrated by Glazer, documenting her experiences. Walking in Antarctica opens FRI,JUN 16, 2023 at the Temecula Valley Museum.

City of Temecula Mayor Zak Schwank states, "The Temecula Valley Museum offers engaging exhibits for our community to enjoy. We are proud to bring to our residents the Walking in Antarctica Exhibition, which will allow them the ability to 'visit' a place very few people ever explore."

In 2015, artist Helen Glazer traveled to Antarctica as a grantee of the National Science Foundation's Antarctic Artists and Writers Program, in order to photograph ice and geological formations for eventual production as photographic prints and sculpture. She worked out of remote Antarctic scientific field camps and had access to protected areas that can only be entered with government permits or in the company of a skilled mountaineer.

Through her artwork, Glazer strives to convey the wonder and complexity of the natural world to others, to motivate a desire to protect and preserve wild places. Her study of earth science over the past several years heightened her awareness of multiple factors shaping the land over time. In recognizing that complex patterns in nature express the physical forces at work, she became more attuned to the interplay between geology, climate, life forms, and human activity in each location.

In conjunction with Walking in Antarctica, on SAT, JUL 29, 2023, at 1:00 pm, the museum invites residents, and visitors of Temecula to attend a Gallery talk, Walking in Antarctica with Helen Glazer. Artist Helen Glazer will talk about photographing and 3D-scanning an extraordinary environment that few people ever visit - walking over towering glaciers, on top of frozen lakes, inside a magnificent ice cave, across fields of surreal boulders, and through a penguin colony, with plenty of opportunities for Q & A. Please call 951-679-6450 to RSVP.

This project is organized by Mid-America Arts Alliance and is an adaptation of the artist's solo exhibition of the same title held at the Rosenberg Gallery at Goucher College (Baltimore, MD) that was funded in part by grants from the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance and the Puffin Foundation. Creation of this work was made possible in part by a Rubys Artist Project Grant, a program of the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance conceived and initiated with funding from the Robert W. Deutsch Foundation, and by a Puffin Foundation Artist Grant.

About ExhibitsUSA

This exhibition is toured by ExhibitsUSA, a national program of Mid-America Arts Alliance. ExhibitsUSA sends more than twenty-five exhibitions on tour to over 100 small- and mid-sized communities every year. These exhibitions create access to an array of arts and humanities experiences, nurture the understanding of diverse cultures and art forms, and encourage the expanding depth and breadth of cultural life in local communities. For more about ExhibitsUSA, email [email protected] or visit eusa.org.

About Mid-America Arts Alliance

Mid-America Arts Alliance (M-AAA) strengthens and supports artists, cultural organizations, and communities throughout our region and beyond. We achieve this primarily through our national traveling exhibition programs, innovative leadership development, and strategic grant making. We are especially committed to enriching the cultural life of historically underserved communities by providing high-quality, meaningful, and accessible arts and culture programs and services. We believe in more art for more people. Additional information about M-AAA is available at maaa.org.

About the Artist

Helen Glazer's work has been exhibited nationally, including group exhibitions at the Delaware Museum of Art and the New York Hall of Science; as well as the American Ambassador's Residence in Lima, Peru, as part of the State Department's Art-in-Embassies Program. She is a past recipient of awards from the Maryland State Arts Council including an Individual Artist's Award in Photography and was a 2014-2015 artist-in-residence for the Baltimore Ecosystem Study, where she collaborated with scientists and made photographs and sculptures inspired by their research on urban ecology. She has also published articles about art-making and artists, in magazines and journals such as Artes, Artpapers, and Feminist Studies.

The Temecula Valley Museum is located in Sam Hicks Monument Park (28314 Mercedes Street, Temecula CA, 92590). For more information, please visit TemeculaValleyMuseum.org, or call (951) 694-6450.