The February 16 session of the 2017 Royal Tyrrell Museum’s Speaker Series is a presentation by Dr. Duane Froese from the University of Alberta, entitled “Holocene Survival and the Final Extinction of Mainland and Island Mammoth Populations in Northwestern Canada and Alaska.”

The extinction of mammoths is the most prominent of Late Pleistocene extinctions that wiped out nearly 70% of large mammals (megafauna) from western Europe through South America about 10,000 years ago.

However, on small islands off the coast of Alaska and Siberia, populations of mammoths persisted for many thousands of years after mainland populations disappeared.

In his talk, Dr. Froese will present new research on the extinction of mammoths and other megafauna from Arctic North America and the causes of the final extinction of a population on St. Paul Island, Alaska, about 6000 years ago.

The Royal Tyrrell Museum’s Speaker Series talks are free and open to the public. They are held every Thursday until April 27 at 11:00 a.m. in the Museum auditorium. Speaker Series talks are also available on the Museum’s YouTube channel: youtube.com/user/RoyalTyrrellMuseum.

Cutline: Dr. Duane Froese from the University of Alberta,will deliver his presentation entitled “Holocene Survival and the Final Extinction of Mainland and Island Mammoth Populations in Northwestern Canada and Alaska” at this week’s Speaker Series.

Members of the Badlands Artists Association will have their work seen by thousands throughout the province as it goes on tour next spring.
    Xanthe Isbister, Alberta Travelling Exhibitions (TREX) manager/curator was at the Badlands Artist Association gallery on Friday afternoon, February 10 to select works by the local artists to be used in the travelling exhibition. She explains it has been some time since the artists have been part of TREX.
    “Seven years ago the Badlands Artists Association had an exhibition with the Alberta Foundation for the Arts Travelling Exhibition Program, which is celebrating its 30th year,” she explains.
    She said the Badlands Artists Association reached out about a year and half ago about the possibility of doing another exhibition They met about a year ago and discussed rather than just coming in and selecting works off the wall, they should work towards a theme.
    “What I do as curator, with my curatorial process with a group exhibition, I pose a theme to that group,” she explains. “Seven years ago the name of the exhibition was “Out of the Badlands.”
    She said this time, rather than opting for the more common landscapes Badlands style work, they agreed to work more on the personal.
    “Let’s call the show “Into the Badlands.” What they did over the year was create works in response to that theme,” she said. “A challenging thing, because they all have their practices and what their interests and subject matter is, so it is challenging artists to go beyond that, and go out of their comfort zone to create work that is new to them, so they rose to the challenge.”
    In total, she selected 21 works from members including Jim Carlson, Bob Hamilton, Ellen Nobel, Carrie Mashon, Lindsey Stead, Janice Russell and Dianne Faulter.
    “When there is a theme there is a tying thread that gives unity to the works, but at the same time it is not a solo exhibition,” she said.
    Mashon is vice president of the Badlands Artists Association and is excited to have their work in the exhibition.
    “It is a big opportunity for us, up to 50,000 people could see this show,” said Mashon.
    The works will be on the road for two and half years and be displayed in non-traditional galleries in rural Alberta.
    The mandate is to get contemporary Alberta made art into rural communities that wouldn’t necessarily get the opportunity to see contemporary art shows,” Isbister said.
    The exhibition will begin to tour in September of 2017, and wrap up in February 2020. The exhibition will come home to Drumheller in March 2018 at the Western GM Gallery. There will be a reception.