World Premiere - MELT: the memory of ice by Betsey Biggs

Center-sponsored project MELT: the memory of ice was premiered at The Denver Museum of Nature and Science on Saturday, September 14, 2024 in the Infinity Theater.

This exploration of our changing planet through the lens of artist Betsey Biggs was followed by a discussion with Richard Nunn, Assistant Curator and database manager of the National Ice Core Laboratory (NICL), on the significance of this work and the invaluable insights that ice can reveal.

MELT: the memory of ice is a visually mesmerizing cinematic song cycle, a powerful and contemplative invitation to sit bedside in communion with our earth’s body melting and spilling through climate change. Created during a summer the composer/director spent in Greenland with her mother and 5-year-old daughter, the film slowly explores a spectacular river of icebergs, increasingly interrupted by flashes of memory. An immersive soundtrack rich with glimmers of sound — calving ice, reindeer bells, sled dogs — surrounds the spellbinding vocal ensemble Moving Star and a solo child reciting an unfathomable list of winter’s loss — flurries, ice skates, snow angels. The ice melts on.