BY KAREN BOSSICK

Learn how light pollution impacts humans, wildlife and climate, and hear from an artist who has taken evocative images of the night sky tonight at the Sun Valley Center for the Arts.

The Center will offer a free tour of its visual arts exhibition, “Night Watch,” at 5:30 p.m. tonight—Thursday, July 13—at The Center at Fifth and Washington streets in Ketchum.

Sip a glass of wine as Bay-area artist Vanessa Marsh talks about the beautiful images of the night sky that she crafts through a three-part process involving drawing, painting and darkroom techniques.

“Vanessa delineates pictorial space by layering two-dimensional planes to create views of the universe that hover between reality and fantasy,” said Kristin Poole, artistic director at The Center. “Her interest in the intersections between the manmade, the earthbound and the cosmos prompts viewers to contemplate their place in the universe and consider just what is real in our contemporary experience.”

Idaho Conservation League staff member Betsy Mizell will follow up Marsh’s talk by discussing the excessive use of artificial light, known as light pollution. She will also provide an update on efforts to create a Central Idaho Dark Sky Reserve in the Wood River Valley and Stanley Basin.

Eighty percent of the world’s residents can’t see the Milky Way, thanks to light pollution. But Sun Valley-area residents are nightly amazed by the splash of stars across the sky, thanks to efforts by Sun Valley astronomy enthusiast Steve Pauley, the City of Ketchum and others to employ non-polluting lights and other measures to keep the view razor sharp.

There are only 12 such reserves in the world—ours would be the first in the United States, says Dani Mazzotta of the ICL.