VERO BEACH — The third lecture of the Vero Beach Museum of Art 2012 International Lecture Series is When Mountains Move presented by photographer, author, and environmentalist James Balog. The lecture takes place on Monday, March 5. This ILS presentation takes place in the Museum’s Leonhardt Auditorium, with two presentations – one at 4 p.m. and a second at 6 p.m.
A light wine reception with an opportunity to meet the speaker bridges the two presentations and takes place at 5 p.m., following the speaker’s first presentation. The reception will take place in the new Laura and Bill Buck Atrium in the Wahlstrom Sculpture Garden.
About the Lecture: Art meets science in this stunning look at our changing planet. Internationally acclaimed photographer, adventurer, author and scientist James Balog takes us on an inspiring quest to document and to reveal the many ways that our planet is being altered by climate change.
Balog’s firsthand accounts and photographic testimony celebrate the amazing beauty of the world we all share; at the same time he sounds the alarm about the tenuous relationship between humans and nature. This is a passionate story of devotion, commitment and creativity. But it goes even further: it alters our perception of what it means to be human at this historic moment of geologic time.
James Balog has been a leader in photographing, understanding and interpreting the natural environment for three decades. An avid mountaineer with a graduate degree in geography and geomorphology, James is equally at home on a Himalayan peak or a whitewater river, the African savannah or polar icecaps.
To reveal the impact of climate change, James founded the Extreme Ice Survey (EIS), the most wide-ranging, ground-based, photographic study of glaciers ever conducted. National Geographic showcased this work in June 2007 and June 2010 issues. The project is also featured in the 2009 NOVA documentary “Extreme Ice,” and in the feature-length documentary, “Chasing Ice,” premiering at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2012.
EIS has been recognized with the Heinz Award, the Missouri School of Journalism’s Honor Medal for Distinguished Service, the Aspen Institute’s Visual Arts & Design Award, and the Galen and Barbara Rowell Award for the Art of Adventure.
Balog has received the Leica Medal of Excellence, the International League of Conservation Photographers Award and the North American Nature Photography Association’s Outstanding Photographer of the Year award. He was named “Person of the Year” for 2011 by PhotoMedia magazine.
Balog is the author of seven books, including Extreme Ice Now: Vanishing Glaciers and Changing Climate: A Progress Report, published in 2009 by National Geographic Books. “ICE: Portraits of the World’s Vanishing Glaciers,” will be released in the fall of 2012. He lives in the Rocky Mountains above Boulder, Colorado, with his wife, Suzanne, and his daughters Simone and Emily.
Tickets for each lecture cost $65 for the general public; $55 for museum members.
Register in person at the Vero Beach Museum of Art, by phone at (772) 231-0707, or online at www.VeroBeachMuseum.org.
For further information about this series and many other offerings, from film and opera studies to chamber music and lunchtime learning, pick up the Museum’s 2012 Public Programs Guide/Art & Ideas at the Museum or download a copy at www.verobeachmuseum.org.
