On
August 14, 2010, Kelly Dodge gave her first of five public presentations
to a capacity crowd about her AFC expedition to Galapagos. During
this lecture, Galapagos - Forty Days and Forty Nights -
An Artists Sojourn, Kelly shared about the wonders
and challenges of the many species she encountered during her
Artists for Conservation Flag Expedition.
Her talk takes audiences to
the heart of Galapagos where challenges common throughout the
world are magnified by this fragile ecosystem. Kelly's talk is
illustrated with slides taken during the expedition and includes
pages from her exclusive AFC flag sketch journal.
A highlight of the presentation are two short films produced
using expedition video footage taken by Kelly. The first film,
shows the unique creatures of Galapagos in action on the uninhabited
islands of the archipelago, by contrast the second film portrays
challenges currently being faced by the inhabited islands.
This first presentation took
place in August at the Buckhorn Fine Art Festival, the biggest
three day show of its kind in Canada and marked the 10th anniversary
of Kelly's career as a professional artist and her debut at the
BFAF. Also attending was AFC President, Jeff Whiting to talk
to visitors about AFC programs and promote the group's mission
of supporting the environment through nature-inspired art. Kelly
was then privileged to be the guest lecturer at the September
meeting of the Womens Art Association of Canada, Peterborough
Chapter and the Algonquin Park Visitors Centre. The Algonquin
event was hosted by Algonquin Provincial Parks, Friends
of Algonquin and was sponsored exclusively by Canadas
leading wilderness and wildlife art gallery, the Algonquin Art
Centre. Later, in October, following the highly anticipated opening
of Kellys AFC Galapagos Solo Exhibition and in conjunction
with the Lindsay Gallery, Fleming Colleges School of Environmental
and Natural Resource Sciences - one of Canadas leading
environmental education institutions also hosted Kellys
informative presentation.
Kelly continues to give scheduled
presentations most recently to the Learning in Leisure
group, which was started in 1985 by a group of retirees wishing
to provide a forum for their peers. It provides an opportunity
to learn from a variety of well known speakers.