The resilience and beauty of the migrating Brant Geese is being celebrated in a new digital art exhibition at the McMillan Arts Centre (MAC) in Parksville.
The Brant Wildlife Festival Visual Feast is a digital media exhibit presenting a series of images by area photographers, with support information, compiled by producer Andrew Collins.
Viewers will see great shots of local wildlife, including the Brant. Collins added in a few of his own photos, arranged a five-screen display and even wrote a score that plays in the background.
“When I first got involved, I have to admit, I didn’t know anything about Brant Geese,” he said. “I mean, I’d seen them on the beach and that sort of thing, but I knew absolutely nothing. When I started to do some research, I was quite amazed.”
Collins said he was amazed to learn the geese mate for life and can live as long as 40 years, completing an impressive migration from Mexico to their Arctic mating grounds. The Parksville Qualicum Beach area provides a place to rest and recuperate, feeding on eel grass before completing the second leg of their journey.
“I can’t imagine taking off on a journey and walking for thousands of miles and not stopping for food or anything, I mean it’s remarkable,” he said. “The Brant Geese are quite extraordinary. Mother Nature is unbelievable when you start to look so closely.”
The different screens show photos of the geese on the beach and in flight, as well as another which focuses on other birds like the Great Blue Heron.
The Brant which pass through Parksville are the Pacific sub-population and there is another population that migrates up the eastern coast of North America. The Pacific population declined significantly between the 1960s and the 1990s and appear to be below historic populations today.
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The MAC’s executive director, Jennifer Bate, asked Collins to compile the exhibit using photos put together on the Parksville Qualicum Beach Tourism Association website by executive director Blain Sepos.
Collins has quite a bit of experience putting together digital exhibitions. When the pandemic severely limited the number of people who could visit the gallery’s exhibitions, they created a program called “Artist Backstory” to create and post videos of artists speaking about their work, so people could see virtually what was in the exhibit.
He created approximately 40 of these videos, with many still on the OCAC website. Collins found the videos worked as an archive for the gallery and so he’s continued on making them.
“People can look back and see what other artists had done. The dimension of the gallery is extraordinary,” he said. “You’ve got local artists, local art associations and then you’ve got the Federation of Canadian Artists (FCA) group.”
The MAC’s visual feast lasts until April 10.
Photos were contributed by DCMC Photos, C. Turzak,Mindful Feather Winklepixx, BC Bird Trail, Lisa Adler, Rainforest Nature Hikes, Birding VI, Oomsangie, Steve Owst, Strange Bird Studio, The Nature Trust BC, Truekey Resorts, City of Parksville, Jubilent SkyeWalker, Wolf in the Tideline, Karen Massier Photo, Derek Kayaker, Nicole Beaulac, Tom Bowes, Pause Press Photos, Sunrise Ridge Resort, Harbour Living, VIU Rectour, Dr. Kathie M Black, Kayla Dawn Photo and Collins.