Threshold 32ºF
THRESHOLD 32°F
A Collaborative Storytelling Exhibit Featuring Paintings, Poetry, and Environmental Science
When: January 5 - February 14, 2026
Where: Arts Corridor
Viewing Hours:
- Monday - Friday, 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.
- Saturday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- Closed Sundays
- During scheduled events at PRAx
Parking: Don't have a campus parking pass but want to visit visual arts exhibitions at PRAx? Ask the Box Office for a pay code upon arrival, on us!
Currents represents the inaugural and annual arts-science-humanities visual arts takeover in PRAx. See other related exhibitions:
- Stirek Gallery: Currents: Experiments in Art-Science Collaboration│January 22 - March 5, 2026
- Ray Theater: September: Orange│January 5-24, 2026
- Lightboxes: Wandering Trees│January 5-24, 2026
- Join us for the Opening Celebration of Currents: Experiments in Art-Science Collaboration at PRAx on January 22, 2025.
On a warm September morning, an artist, a writer, and an ecologist wander through the boreal forest.
As they move among spruce trees, they look to the forest floor, its weave of berries and mosses, fungi, and lichens, so well-adapted to long dark months of cold. The three friends are winter people. The musky scent of fall lifts their spirits, but signs of warming are clear.
Extended summers and temperature swings above 32°F (0°C) in winter have amplified change in Interior Alaska. The artist pauses to sketch a tree trunk spilling sap from boreholes left by bark beetles. The ecologist touches a branch of browned needles and describes the tree's connection to mushrooms in the understory. The writer scans the forest for signs of young spruce.
In the company of fear unspoken, the three forage on an earthen threshold where science meets story, where recipes for resilience might reside. Where 32°F, the tipping point between ice and water, draws them deeper into a storyline of what is at stake when temperatures rise in a land shaped by cold.
Threshold 32ºF is from partnership with In A Time of Change and Bonanza Creek Long-Term Ecological Research.
About the Collaborators
Klara Maisch | Visual Artist
Klara's place-based paintings highlight climate change throughout Alaska. Her work examines processes of wildfire, permafrost thaw, glacier melt, and shifts in vegetation and treeline. As a lifelong Alaskan, Klara has developed a creative practice rooted in deep connection with the land. The Rasmuson Foundation, The Puffin Foundation, the Connie Boochever Fellowship, and the Alaska Wilderness League have supported Klara's work.
Fairbanks, Alaska
BFA, University of Alaska Fairbanks (2012
Debbie Clarke Moderow | Writer
Debbie writes creative nonfiction and poetry, exploring her lifelong relationship to wild landscapes in the context of change, both personal and global. Debbie has collaborated with scientists, visual artists, and writers since 2015. Her debut memoir, Fast Into the Night: A Woman, Her Dogs, and Their Journey North on the Iditarod Trail (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 2016, Red Hen Press 2018) won the 2016 National Outdoor Book Award in Creative Nonfiction.
Anchorage and Denali, Alaska
MFA, Pacific Lutheran University (2013)
B.A., Princeton University (1977)
Rebecca E. Hewitt | Ecologist
Rebecca studies how plant-microbe interactions influence plant function, ecosystem resilience, and biogeochemical cycling in tundra, boreal, and temperate rainforest ecosystems. Her research has been published in Nature, Science, and New Phytologist, with support from the National Science Foundation, the National Park Service, the Society for the Protection of Underground Networks, and Save the Redwoods League. She uses field-based, experiential learning to build scientific literacy and prepare students to tackle environmental challenges.
Amherst, Massachusetts
Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies, Amherst College
Ph.D., University of Alaska Fairbanks (2014)
B.A., Middlebury College (2005)