Canada’s Arctic is an area visited by few, but visitors to the Canadian Museum of Nature will soon get a better look at one of the world’s most remote regions.
Local photographer Michelle Valberg’s photo exhibit Arctic Kaleidoscope: The People, Wildlife and Ever-Changing Landscape will run from March 11 to May 29 at the McLeod Street museum.
The exhibit features 84 images chosen from more than 60,000 photos she has snapped during her many trips to Canada’s North.
“I wanted to bring the North to the South and introduce southern Canadians to what we have in the North,” she says.
The exhibition has been in the works for over two years and coincides with the Ends of the Earth polar science exhibit that runs until April 10. Valberg says it’s hard to believe the exhibit will open so soon.
“It still seems so surreal, but I’m sure that will change once I see (the photos) mounted and ready for hanging.”
Jonathan Ferrabee, senior exhibit designer at the museum, helped plan the Valberg exhibition. He says Valberg’s photos are a great complement to the museum’s collection on the northern environment.
“The Arctic theme is a very important one to the museum,” he says. “It’s a part of Canada that very few people can experience and we’d like to, as much as possible, offer that to the public.”
The exhibition showcases a variety of subjects, including portraits of people who live in the region, as well landscapes and images of animals and plants that thrive in Canada’s North.
She hopes to show visitors that the region is “not just flat, white and cold,” she says.
Leslie Coates, a friend of the photographer, is also the co-chair of Valberg’s charity, Project North.
The organization aims to improve the lives of Inuit children by promoting literacy and offering fitness and recreation opportunities in remote communities.
Coates has visited the Arctic with Valberg and was on the selection committee that chose the images to be featured at the museum.
“I’m over the moon that the public is going to be able to see these images blown up into large size,” she says.
“They have such an impact when they are small but, when they are that big, she’s really going to be able to reflect the majesty of the landscape.”
Coates says the photography exhibit is a way to bring the public’s attention to the beauty of the North.
Valberg says her whole life changed after her first trip to the Arctic. She has returned 15 times since then.
“When you’re standing on the (ice) waiting for polar bears and whales and they’re so close to you,” she says, “it’s hard to believe that it’s our Canada.”
Valberg’s passion for the North was love at first sight.
“You step off the plane and fall in love,” she says. “You find your soul in the North.”
Proceeds from sales of prints featured in the exhibition, and from her new book The Land & Life of the Inuit . . . Through the Generations, will benefit Project North.