PORT ANGELES, Wash – On Friday, July 7th, Olympic National Park in partnership with the Port Angeles Fine Arts Center, Washington’s National Park Fund, and Discover Your Northwest, will kick off the summer of “Terminus: A Glacier Memorial Project” with the opening exhibit reception at the Fine Arts Center from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.  

The glaciers of the Olympic Mountains are vanishing due to climate change. In collaboration with gifted and thoughtful volunteer artists, the park’s Artist-In-Parks program is acknowledging the painful impacts of climate change and exploring our power to come together to care for the natural world. The “Terminus Project” is a shared space where we can mourn and honor what we are losing to climate change and provides an opportunity to transcend “apocalypse fatigue” through art.  

“We may only save these glaciers in the form of a song or painting,” said Artist-In-Residence Program Manager, Eliza Goode, “but we can still work together to care for the world and save what we have left.” 

Forty-three volunteer artists have created poems, paintings, quilts, animations, music, dance, and more to memorialize the 40 major or named glaciers in Olympic National Park. While the art will be “housed” virtually on the park’s website (www.nps.gov/olym/terminus.htm), for one time only most of the art will be exhibited at the Port Angeles Fine Arts Center.  

Visitors can view the exhibition in person at the Port Angeles Fine Arts Center located at 1203 E. Lauridsen Blvd. Port Angeles, WA 98362 during regular gallery hours, Thursdays-Sundays, 11AM to 5PM, from July 7th - September 3rd, 2023. 

Other events connected to the “Terminus Project” include: 

• Artist-In-Residence programs, August 21 – 25: Thirteen of the artists will be providing public programs throughout the park to discuss the impact of climate change, the concept of parks as places of inspiration, and their art process.  
• Closing reception, August 25th at Port Angeles Peninsula College: Terminus artist Kristin McArdle will provide a dance in honor of the Elwha Snowfinger. Award-winning poet and writer Rena Priest, an enrolled member of the Lhaq’temish (Lummi) Nation, and former Washington State poet laureate, will provide keynote remarks. 

For more details about the project and events visit the Terminus page at TERMINUS - Olympic National Park (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov)

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