Back in action!

The Burke Blog took a brief hiatus to prepare for the grand opening of The Last Polar Bear: Facing the Truth of a Warming World. This is a great new exhibit up now at the Burke Museum and doesn't close until December 31, 2008. Excerpts from the show are here:

All photos by Seattle photographer Steven Kazlowski.

Wildlife photography: Is it art?

Posted by: Julia Swan

The Burke loves wildlife photographers. We love them so much, in fact, that we frequently dedicate our temporary exhibit spaces to their work. In the past few years we’ve shown the work of Subhankar Banerjee, Florian Schulz, Keith Lazelle and the Wildlife Photographers of the Year. Next week, we premiere an exhibit featuring the work of Steven Kazlowski, who photographs polar bears in the Arctic. Later this year, we open Arctic Wings and Irreplaceable, which both use wildlife photography to look at the critical issue of climate change.

Photography is a form of art. It is traditionally displayed in museums as artwork, and is often celebrated for its aesthetic qualities. However, photography is a rich medium and has the power to deliver not only aesthetic satisfaction, but content. Photography captures real moments in time and preserves them. When photographs are placed in a museum, they have the ability to transport a visitor to a different time or place.

The Burke Museum is not an art museum, yet we constantly display works of art. From cultural artifacts to stunning wildlife photography, we take art work and place it in an entirely different context. Our exhibits are typically driven by content and message, and place less emphasis on pure aestheticism, yet I really believe that much of the work we bring into this museum of natural history and culture is just as beautiful and aesthetically engaging as the classic Impressionist paintings currently on view at the Seattle Art Museum.

So I urge visitors to the Burke Museum to take in the messages of conservation and environmental awareness that we promote through exhibits like The Last Polar Bear, but to also consider the brilliant, vibrant wildlife photographs that adorn our gallery walls as objects of art, worthy of recognition as much for their artistry as for their powerful message.

- Julia

Photo left: An artistic shot of a beech tree by Luca Fantoni & Danilo Porta. Featured in Wildlife Photographer of the Year at the Burke in 2006.

Photo right: Two visitors enjoy the beautiful photography of Florian Schulz in Yellowstone to Yukon in 2007.

Steven Kazlowski shares polar bear tales on KUOW

Posted by: Julia Swan

KUOW aired a fantastic interview with Seattle wildlife photographer Steven Kazlowski on today's Sound Focus.

In it, Steven shares some interesting and captivating stories about his very real encounters with the largest land carnivore on earth--the polar bear. He has been in much closer proximity to a wild polar bear than most people ever (hopefully) will and his accounts are fascinating.

Steven also has a very unique perspective on the politics of climate change and how the polar bear has recently become the face of this global issue, which he discusses with Sound Focus's Dave Beck.

If you missed the show, never fear, for KUOW is quick to put a podcast version of the interview online. You can find the podcast of "People and Polar Bears" here.

Meet Steven in person Saturday, June 28 at the Burke Museum's opening of The Last Polar Bear: Facing the Truth of a Warming World. Steven will be giving guided tours of the exhibit at 10:30 am and 12:30 pm.

- Julia

A Whale of a Tale!

We have a great new video podcast out- check it out. In it, Burke Curator of Mammals, Jim Kenagy, narrates the sinking of a deceased fin whale and subsequent underwater exploration to the same site.

For more about the story, click here.

Dr. David Duggins, a Friday Harbor Labs research scientist, winching up the fin whale cranium.
Photo by Robert C. Williams

The Burke hits the road!

Posted by: Julia Swan

Sometimes it’s good to get out of the city. Now the Burke Museum is sending some of its best former exhibits on the road. For those of you planning summer road trips, keep these dates and places in mind:

• Bainbridge Island, WA: Kennewick Man on Trial is at the Bainbridge Island Historical Museum from July 1-August 3.


• Westport, WA: The Big One: Earthquakes in the Pacific Northwest is at the Westport Maritime Museum from June 28-August 3.


• Edmonds, WA: Fast Moving Water: The Hoh River Story is at the Edmonds Historical Society from July 1-July 27.
  

Soak in the smaller town experience and enjoy a little of the Burke Museum while you’re at it!

245 million-year-old fossils found in Antarctica

Posted by: Steven Zhang

Here’s an amazing discovery in the field of paleontology: for the first time paleontologists have found 245 million-year-old fossilized burrows of tetrapods (four-legged land vertebrates) in Antarctica. The Burke Museum’s curator of vertebrae paleontology, Christian Sidor, is the lead author of a paper describing this new discovery.

So, what’s a burrow? It’s a series of holes underground created by mammals as their habitat.

"We've got good evidence that these burrows were made by
land-dwelling animals rather than crayfish," said Sidor.

Evidence shows that the fossils were formed when fine sand from an overflowing river poured into the animal’s burrows and hardened. The largest piece found was 14 inches long, 6 inches wide and 3 inches deep. This was a rare discovery considering the icy conditions of Antarctica and suggests that mammals were living in Antarctica far earlier than previously thought!

-Steven

Photo by Cara Fritz / Oregon State University

In the Land of the Head Hunters

Don't forget to buy your ticket to see In the Land of the Head Hunters at the Moore Theater, Tuesday June 10.

More about the event found here.