Note: this entry was first posted December 28. Thanks to the nefarious meddling of holiday hackers, it was lost, reposted, and lost again. Now a week into the new year, we feel secure enough in our security to repost with a look at several firsts in 2012.

With 2012 in its final days, we offer our perspective on several firsts and other highlights of the year at Whatcom Museum, starting off with the utterly modern and thoroughly poetic interpretation of Lesley Dill's remarkable Shimmer installation by Kuntz & Company. The first time we've had dancers in the gallery, it was a precedent we're thrilled to set and build on in the coming years. During that same exhibition, a rare-for-Bellingham show that featured a New York artist's exceptional and often spiritual brand of language-inspired art, we collaborated with Whatcom Poetry Series for a meaningful program of poetry writing that blew the creative caps off our participants' pens. We thank Humanities Washington for making it all come true.

Other firsts include our first animated video, all about ice and art and taking part. We also held our first Art Auction, a benefit for the museum, artists and collectors. Designed as a chance to take home one of a kind artwork and support the museum at the same time, we aim to make this event better each year in our effort to make the Whatcom Museum a place you're proud to call your hometown hub of history and art.

And while we're on the subject of home, it's impossible not to mention our first experience as a participant in Project Homeless Connect – a marvelous event that has a distinctly unmarvelous reason for being. Museum educators were on hand at Bellingham High School with quick-portrait painting sittings (aligning with the museum's Population exhibition featuring portraits of community members by artist Ray Turner) as well as hands-on art projects for kids and adults. The day was fun and rewarding and necessary to fulfilling our belief that everyone deserves art. Rose Paquet, who blogs about museums and inclusivity wrote about it here.

Meanwhile the first no-condiment burger to be served at the Lightcatcher was followed by several more, along with a seemingly endless supply of fine-tasting dishes paired with equally fine beer. Cheese Meat(s) Beer was a welcome addition to the Museum in 2012.

We gave our 500 famous birds a rare public appearance over the summer, opening the Syre Education Center to all and offering a variety of bird-inspired programs, from nature walks to drawing workshops. July was most definitely for the birds — watch for another public appearance in 2013.

Back in the Lightcatcher, Lookout Landing, formerly known as the lounge area outside the second-floor gallery, became a place for participation during the Population exhibition. It's an ongoing experiment in what's called the "participatory museum," dubbed so by Nina Simon, a museum director and author intent on making the museum experience relevant to audiences who are ever-more flooded by choices of what to do in their ever-shrinking moments of free time. Check out the results here and let us know what you think on our Facebook page.

We had our first Porsche in the Museum, compliments of Roger Jobs, who rented the facility for a special customer event. We also hosted private events for birthdays, baby showers, lectures, concerts, staff gatherings, proms, and weddings – 30 in all between Old City Hall and the Lightcatcher.

In other numbers, our American Quilts exhibition wins the prize for the most docent tours in 2012: Eight docents provided 66 tours to serve over 400 museum visitors. Should you need a review of why docent tours are the savvy museum-goers way to play – check it out the top 5 reasons to take a tour this winter here!

Until then, a very happy new year to you. And don't forget, we have new hours starting January 2 that include another first – evening hours every Thursday. See you soon!

Good news! After three months of surveying our audience we're happy to announce new hours at the Lightcatcher in 2013. More than 350 people responded to surveys conducted at the museum, on our website, at the Farmer's Market and through the Bellingham Public Library regarding the Museum's open hours. In looking at the data, two points became clear. First, given how hard it can be to fit in a visit on busy weekends, many people who work Monday through Friday would like to see some week night hours at the Whatcom Museum. And second, families with both younger and school-age children would like to see more morning hours, especially at the Family Interactive Gallery.

Therefore, as of January 2, 2013, the Lightcatcher's fine art galleries and Museum Store will now be open until 8 PM on Thursdays and open at 10 AM on Saturday, while the Family Interactive Gallery (FIG), also located in the Lightcatcher building, will be open Wednesday-Saturday from 10 AM to 5 PM and noon-5 PM on Sundays.

Note that the Lightcatcher is now closed on Tuesdays. We are doing our best to meet visitor needs in a way that works within our budget. Unfortunately that means being closed two days a week rather than just one, but the good news is, we end up extending our hours slightly overall.

Please note that our new hours pertain to galleries at the Lightcatcher only; hours at the Old City Hall remain the same (Thursday-Sunday noon-5) and visits to the Syre Education Center are by appointment. Photo Archives Wednesday - Friday 1 - 4:45 PM.

What better way to launch the Whatcom Museum's blog than to feature a fabulous artwork featured in our upcoming exhibition, Vanishing Ice: Alpine and Polar Landscapes in Art, by an artist currently in the national limelight?

Alexis Rockman, who painted Adelies, was commissioned by film director Ang Lee to contribute imagery for Life of Pi. The artist's sketches for the newly-released movie inspired a dream sequence experienced by the hero and his tiger companion during a spiritual voyage of discovery. See the New York Times Magazine article here.

Rockman's fantasy-like paintings are based on actual expeditions. His portrait of Adelies penguins emerged from a 12-day trip Antarctic adventure on board a Lindblad Expedition Cruise ship.The artist explored the landscape and got up close and personal with wildlife in kayaks and zodiacs. Enchanted by the ice that glowed “luminous like jewelry,” Rockman creates a towering blue ice cube, the feeding platform for the penguins featured in Adelies.They appear to drift in isolation without sight of the mainland.

The idea for the painting was based, in the artist’s words, on ideas of “fragmentation and scarcity.” * Although not intentionally referenced, the painting calls to mind the massive ice shelves that have dramatically broken off from the continent due to warming oceans. Recognizing that these unique creatures are threatened by climate change, the artist devises an unusual composition to suggest their precarious status.* (The Adelies population surrounding nearby Anvers Island has declined by 85% in the last 35 years and could face regional extinction within the next decade. Warming oceans have shrunk the population of krill upon which the penguins and other life depend. "

Born and raised in New York City, Rockman frequented the American Museum of Natural History where he studied the renowned painted diorama displays. He was also attracted to the Hudson River School landscape painters at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which nurtured his sense of the sublime. Although engaged in field observations and drawings, he does not consider his work “scientific.” Instead, he aims to make “art about the history of science.”

— Barbara Matilsky, Curator of Art

* (All quotes from an interview with the artist in September 2012.)

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