THE BAY ON EXHIBIT
After returning from a photo and video expedition to Antarctica, award-winning image makers Christine Eckstrom and Frans Lanting take a moment to appreciate how Lanting's images fill the Solari Gallery at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History. Lanting and Eckstrom's Bay of Life exhibition brings land and sea together for a unified view of Monterey Bay and its natural abundance. Based in Bonny Doon, the couple has documented the “crown jewels” of the earth's natural heritage for National Geographic for more than three decades, and they consider Monterey Bay to be one of those jewels. Sponsored by Bay Photo and Jeff and Marieke Rothschild, with additional support from The Humanities Institute at UC Santa Cruz, Fred and Jo Lynn Jones, Andrea London, Kristen Marinovic and David Morrell, Bay of Life (https://bayoflife.net/) celebrates a remarkable recovery, which shows that damaged ecosystems can be restored when people care and take action together. That may offer a model for other places at a time when we need such stories of hope as we face new challenges of resource stewardship, habitat connectivity, and impacts from climate change. The exhibit at the MAH runs through April 30. The Bay of Life Project also includes a coffee table book produced by Lanting and Eckstrom, an educational curriculum created in collaboration with the Santa Cruz County Office of Education, a charitable fund and a bus campaign. A number of Santa Cruz METRO buses are being wrapped with images from Bay of Life to raise money for local environmental nonprofits. Several are already in service, with more coming in the course of 2023. The Bay of Life Fund, which Lanting and Eckstrom established with the Community Foundation Santa Cruz County, will distribute funds to local nonprofits for their educational and conservation programs.