The Last Glacier collective began in 2010 as a response to the rapidly retreating glaciers of Glacier National Park in Montana, USA. Over the course of four years artists Todd Anderson, Bruce Crownover and Ian van Coller hiked through valleys, up streams and over mountains to visit the last glaciers in the “crown jewel of the continent,” Glacier National Park. Their work resulted in artworks and a limited edition artist book that shares the wonder of the park's glaciers while simultaneously serving as a historical document of climate change in Glacier National Park.
The experiences of hiking, seeing and touching were transformative to the artists. Glaciers, one of the mightiest forces of the natural world, revealed themselves as fragile and more responsive to human impacts than ever imagined. The Last Glacier has since expanded by working with scientific collaborators on convergent research projects in differing parts of the planet including Iceland (Fissure) and Tanzania (Mount Kilimanjaro) and Colorado (ROMO: The Last Glacier). Forthcoming projects already underway focus on the Canadian Arctic, deserts of Utah, Rwenzori Mountains of Uganda, and ice coring in Antarctica. Stay tuned!
The Last Glacier artworks and artist books can be seen at a variety of locations such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, US Library of Congress, Yale University, Stanford University, the Davis Museum of Art at Wellesley College, the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation Collection, Clemson University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.