By Peter Woodburn
For Vashon Heritage Museum
The Vashon Heritage Museum (VHM) will open a major exhibit, “Natural Wonder: An Island Shaped by Water,” created in partnership with the Vashon Nature Center (VNC), on Saturday, Nov. 6.
The exhibit has been in the planning and development stage for more than two years, but was delayed for more than a year due to the COVID shutdown, making the long-awaited opening a thrilling experience, said Vashon Heritage Museum’s executive director, Elsa Croonquist.
Moreover, she said, the exhibit will have been worth the wait for the museum and islanders.
“It has been an exciting and extremely rewarding experience working with Vashon Nature Center and so many island partners to create what we believe will be another award-winning exhibit,” said Croonquist.
The interactive and collaborative exhibit shares the beauty and wonder of Vashon Island’s natural history and explores how all life is intrinsically connected to the waters around the island.
To help celebrate the opening of the exhibit, VHM and VNC have planned a now sold-out special informative evening on Friday, Nov. 5, featuring small group tours of the exhibit with naturalists and scientists available to answer questions. Many of these experts also helped in the creation of the exhibit.
Tickets to the event, called “Wonder Passes,” sold out within days of going on offer, but as the exhibit continues its run, the museum and Vashon Nature Center hope to recreate similar events so that more people can see the exhibit in an intimate setting, joined by local experts who can answer any questions that might arise.
Natural Wonder is the product of much community interaction and support from a number of groups on Vashon and beyond.
The Vashon Union of Geologists installed the exhibit’s Ancient Rock Garden, Vashon Audubon and Garden Green installed the native plant garden, wood artist Hans Nelsen contributed the central cedar tree, and the Puyallup Tribal Cultural Center and Puyallup language program provided feedback and translations.
According to Vashon Nature Center director Bianca Perla, many other Vashon and Salish Sea-based individuals and organizations also stepped up to help create the scope of the exhibit.
“Creating this exhibit has given me an appreciation for the talents and generosity of people in our island community and the surrounding community of the Salish Sea,” Perla said. “This whole exhibit is a labor of love. Working on it shored up my faith in the human race and our potential as a species. There are a lot of amazing people in this spot of earth and we can create beautiful things together.”
Some aspects of “Natural Wonder” began earlier in the year with the installation of The Natural History Museum’s pop-up exhibit, “Whale People: Protectors of the Sea.”
The full exhibit is scheduled to run through June 2023, and the Vashon Heritage Museum and Vashon Nature Center are working on providing educational programming and content to further enrich the exhibit.
The exhibit challenges patrons to look at their own impact upon the environment — a task of utmost importance as extreme weather events, such as this past summer’s drought, become more common due to climate change.
“Humanity is at a threshold in terms of global environmental sustainability,” said Perla. “Earth will go on regardless, but people are at a crucial crossroads where we must decide soon how we want to live on this earth and what kind of role our species will take into the future. In this exhibit, we provide local stories that allow us to develop a stronger appreciation of our island home while re-imagining our connection with the larger earth system.”
Natural Wonder is open to everyone, for free, during the Vashon Heritage Museum’s business hours of 1 to 4 p.m., Wednesday through Sunday. In accordance with King County Public Health guidelines, all guests aged 12 and older to the museum must present official proof of vaccination against COVID-19 or a negative PCR test taken within the past 72 hours.
For more information, visit vashonheritagemuseum.org.
