📆 Friday, February 14th – Sunday, April 27th
📍 Royal BC Museum: 675 Belleville Street, Victoria, BC
🕒 Daily: 10 am – 5 pm
💰 Tickets: $0 – $18 CAD
Below the tranquil surface of an alpine lake on Vancouver Island lies an algae-tinged underwater kingdom. Sunlight streams down through the murk, illuminating a grove of lily pad stalks, twisting tendrils of low-lying grass and what appears to be swarms upon swarms of swimming minute galaxies. It’s an ethereal, almost alien-like scene. But these black, iridescent-specked swimmers are actually very real (and threatened) western toad tadpoles. Titled “The Swarm of Life,” and captured by Canadian marine conservation journalist Shane Goss, the photo is the Adult Grand Title winner of the 2024 Wildlife Photographer of the Year (aka the overall judge’s pick).
Beginning in 1965, this global showcase of professional and amateur nature photography had humble beginnings as a magazine competition with only 361 entries. This year, London’s Natural History Museum received nearly 60,000 entries from 117 countries. And an exhibition of the overall winners will be coming to Royal BC Museum on February 14th for all us PNW folk. What better way to celebrate love than with an exhibition that’s essentially a love letter to the planet?
Plus, it’s also a nice reminder that humans aren’t the center of the universe.
💁 Pro tips:
📽️ Wild Stories: Ethics in Documentary Filmmaking talk on Feb 14th
🌳 Roots and Reverie: Nature Narratives talk on Apr 3rd
🎟️ Skip the lines and buy your tickets in advance.
🍿 Itching for a movie? Royal BC Museum offers combo tickets for museum and IMAX admission
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