BY KAREN BOSSICK
Some of those taking in part in this weekend’s Sawtooth Salmon Festival’s fish spawning tours emitted audible gasps as they watched salmon up to two feet long lay on their sides and scour out a redd to spawn in the rivers and creeks of the Salmon Basin.
The gasps have been no less enthusiastic during the past few weeks as people have taken in The Salmon School at Gail Severn Gallery in Ketchum.
There, some 400 mirrored glass forms hang from the ceiling suspended as if a school of fish.
Sun Valley is privileged to be able to showcase this school that has been traveling the globe since its creation in the Pacific Northwest and its inaugural exhibition at the Bellevue Arts Museum in 2019.
Artist/fisherman Joseph Rossano’s Salmon Project was part of a keynote presentation at the United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Glasgow, Scotland, in November 2021. And gallery owner Gail Severn, an avid fisher herself, is quick to point out that the country of Scotland removed one of Scotland’s biggest dams on the River Dee following the conference.
The removal opened up the river to Atlantic salmon for the first time in more than a hundred years allowing the salmon to access 12 miles of precious spawning habitat. This followed the country’s cleanup of the River Clyde in Glasgow, which had been poisoned for more than a century by industry.
Following its appearance at the United Nations Climate Change Summit, it was taken to Balmoral Castle before going to St. Margret’s Church in Braemar, Scotland. It then returned to the Pacific Northwest as an ambassador for the United Nations Decade of the Ocean and International Year of Glass.
The exhibition, which will run at Gail Severn Gallery through Oct. 3, can be seen during the Wagon Days Gallery Walk from 5 to 7:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 29.
It is made of handblown recycled and batched glass.
A synthesis of art and science, The Salmon School was designed to foster environmental awareness and bring communities together in the pursuit of cold, clean water and a restored ecosystem. The exhibit ranges from 400 to a thousand mirrored glass forms growing in number and scale as it generates awareness.
It was informed by tribal elders from the Upper Skagit tribe who have seen wild salmon and steelhead populations plummet due to climate change.
It's designed to inspire community engagement art/science initiatives, such as programs for school children to visit riversides to observe the salmon’s world, collect environmental DNA from the waters and make art about salmon from materials found on the shores.
The Salmon School itself has planted trees along the River Tweed to improve conditions for juvenile salmon there.
The project involves a collaboration between the Museum of Glass-Tacoma, as well as Trout Unlimited, the Bellevue Arts Museum, Hilltop Artists, Schack Art Center, The Glacier Peak Institute and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. It has grown to include such organizations as the Missing Salmon Alliance, the Atlantic Salmon Trust Atlantic Salmon Federation, Wild Salmon Center, Salmon Nation, the World Salmon Forum and others around the globe.