This insightful piece is part of our special ‘Fine Arts & Exhibits’ series, exploring how creative expression can illuminate and inspire during challenging times.
Years ago, while navigating the grueling 1,100-mile Iditarod sled dog race across Alaska’s icy heart, Debbie Clarke Moderow experienced a profound realization that would change her path.
Debbie, having arrived in Alaska in 1979 with dreams of mountaineering, instead found love, built a family, and raised a pack of 20 huskies. She lived for the call of ‘Ready, let’s go!’ as her team pulled through endless snow. But after finally conquering the Iditarod in 2005 at 49, with chapped hands, freezing feet, and exhausted dogs, she realized a different calling awaited her.
As Debbie Clarke Moderow describes her ‘Threshold 32°F’ project, it’s a compelling, unbroken story of transformation.
During a remarkably warm August day in Fairbanks, Moderow reflected, ‘I always dreamed of being a writer, though I never anticipated the challenges.’
Now, decades after earning her master’s and publishing a successful memoir, she’s tackling an even greater challenge: addressing climate change through her writing, in an era where skepticism often overshadows scientific consensus. She joins forces with an artist and an ecologist in a powerful touring exhibition titled ‘Threshold 32°F’.
This exhibition, aptly named ‘Threshold 32°F’ for water’s freezing point, delves into the seasonal lives of Arctic flora and fauna. It features ten interconnected oil paintings, each complemented by original poetry and insightful scientific notes.
Touring the exhibition, currently at the Museum of the North in Fairbanks until November 16th, Moderow emphasized, ‘It’s a continuous narrative of change.’ The display powerfully blends evocative images of ice and forests with scientific insights into the potent impacts of methane and destructive bark beetles, aiming to both tell a story and educate.
This collaborative effort, spearheaded by Moderow, backcountry guide and painter Klara Maisch, and Amherst College environmental studies professor Rebecca Hewitt, is set to tour. Future stops include the Patricia Valian Reser Center for the Creative Arts at Oregon State University (Jan. 5 – Feb. 7) and Michigan State University’s (SCENE) Metrospace in fall 2026 (Nov. 5 – Dec. 13).
Rebecca Hewitt, an assistant professor of environmental studies at Amherst College, regularly conducts fieldwork in Alaska to deepen her research.
Across the globe, art is increasingly serving as a powerful medium to confront climate change, from depicting the devastating effects of wildfires in Los Angeles to Olafur Eliasson’s impactful iceberg installations that viscerally demonstrate global warming.
This exhibition aims to connect with audiences by illustrating how the thawing of permafrost in Alaska creates ripple effects that touch lives worldwide.
Visitors are invited to journey deep into Alaska’s vast boreal forest, which comprises a significant portion of the world’s forested land. Each artwork, accompanied by poetry and field notes, guides viewers through a chronological narrative (starting in autumn) to comprehend the profound effects of a warming climate.
The exhibition opens in a surprisingly warm September, focusing on the white-backed bumble bee. This vital pollinator of blueberries and willows relies on freezing temperatures for hibernation. Without it, not only the bees perish, but an entire ecosystem dependent on them faces collapse.
These artistic and scientific narratives explore deep time, the unseen underground, and the delicate balance of life sustained by sun, snow, and fire. The collaborators hope to convey a crucial message: the disturbances in Alaska’s ecosystems significantly influence weather patterns far beyond its borders, affecting the entire country.
“Regardless of what you call it, it is undeniably happening, and it impacts every one of us,” Moderow asserted, highlighting how Arctic changes are linked to increasingly frequent and severe storms and wildfires.
This initiative is brought to life by ‘In a Time of Change,’ an interdisciplinary program funded by the National Science Foundation, dedicated to exploring environmental shifts in Alaska through arts, humanities, and science collaboration.
Maisch, 36, a painter known for her treks to glaciers and weeks spent on shifting ice in winter, elaborated, “Each painting evokes emotions like hope, uncertainty, fear, or comfort. My goal is for visitors unfamiliar with the boreal forest to leave with a sense of wonder and curiosity.”
Moderow noted that while much poetry demands significant reader effort, their project aims for a more immediate and accessible experience.
Hewitt, 43, a specialist in plant-microbe interactions, added, “This project offers a fresh perspective for both us as creators and for our audience to observe and understand.”
The warming soil and thawing permafrost in Alaska are releasing millennia of stored carbon into the atmosphere, accelerating temperature increases not just locally, but globally.
“The forest is undeniably in transition,” Moderow observed, emphasizing how dramatically different it is from her first arrival in 1979.
One noticeable change is the reduced snowfall, which has even forced reroutes of the Iditarod. Less snow means less groundwater when it melts, making trees more vulnerable to destructive bark beetles, which hollow them out and create perfect kindling for raging wildfires.
Hewitt also pondered the potential impact of ancient microbes, currently locked in the permafrost, on these delicate ecological cycles once released by thawing.
A critical concern is the accelerating feedback loop: as permafrost thaws, methane — a greenhouse gas 25 times more potent than carbon — is released, further intensifying global warming.
Moderow expressed her hope that the exhibition would inspire a new perspective on the climate crisis, especially among audiences in the heartland.
‘Threshold 32°F’ took root in late 2021, born from a virtual meeting between Moderow and Maisch. They were part of a group of artists and researchers collaborating on stories about the boreal forest, under the umbrella of the ‘In a Time of Change’ program.
The ‘Threshold 32°F’ exhibition at the Museum of the North showcases field notes and artifacts that bring the project to life. Conceived by ‘In a Time of Change,’ this arts-humanities-science collaboration vividly portrays the seasonal lives of northern plants and animals, all centered around the critical freezing point of water.
Living in Alaska, Moderow and Maisch quickly formed a close bond, constantly exchanging ideas via phone and email. Moderow would weave forest narratives, and Maisch would respond with evocative sketches.
Their first in-person meeting was a memorable one: a serene March day spent skiing, tracing the delicate tracks of an ermine through the snow.
To enrich the project, they later invited Hewitt, who, despite residing in Massachusetts, conducts extensive fieldwork in Alaska, to contribute a scientific perspective. The concept was then presented to Mary Beth Leigh, a unique individual with a background as both a dancer and a microbiologist.
Mary Beth Leigh, an environmental microbiology professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, directs ‘In a Time of Change,’ a program she co-founded in 2007 to champion such interdisciplinary exhibitions.
However, government-backed climate initiatives face significant headwinds. Washington has rolled back over a hundred environmental regulations, federal agencies have challenged and withdrawn established scientific findings, and the National Science Foundation has seen its grants slashed by $1.4 billion (despite funding two ‘In a Time of Change’ programs totaling approximately $1.3 million).
Surrounded by papers and greenery in her office, Leigh, whose diverse background includes modern dance and playing cello with bands like the Flaming Lips, confessed, ‘The future is uncertain for these efforts.’
Mary Beth Leigh, a fascinating figure with a background in dance, is now a scientist teaching environmental microbiology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
With each artist receiving a modest $1,000 stipend and ‘Threshold’ securing roughly $10,000 for fabrication and travel, the project is clearly driven by passion and dedication.
Leigh hopes that evoking an emotional response from viewers will sustain the program and galvanize people to act.
At the museum, the team steadfastly believes that both their project’s narrative and the story of climate change are far from concluded. Moderow added, ‘Many of our scenes celebrate the triumph of species, so we also aim to highlight themes of resilience and hope.’
Maisch concluded, ‘It’s a celebration of this forest and its inhabitants. I consider it a privilege to gaze upon the birch trees and share my home with wildlife; we deeply cherish this place.’