I spent two hours this morning reading Tammy Christel’s Jackson Hole Art Blog and 12 days of posts on Tammy’s Facebook page about the fall arts festival. Wonderful blog post about David Brookover’s photo techniques and the methods he uses to visualize the Tetons and valley wildlife. Great detail about the various papers he uses. I learned so much about silver prints and platinums and photogravures.
Tammy FB-tracked the busy 12 days in Jackson with the
fall arts festival. An arts extravaganza for what may be the most beautiful
month in The Hole. Funny to note the clothing choices of artists painting en
plein air. At the Quick Draw, artist Jason Borbet, clad in sweat shirt and bright-red
mittens, paints the Tetons/Snake River vista made famous by Ansel Adams. Emily
Boespflug decked out for a run down the slopes with gloves, three layers of
jackets, a red scarf and wool cap. She’s putting the finishing touches on a
painting while onlookers in stocking caps observe her progress. Fall in Jackson
– winter one day, summer the next.
Tammy kept track of the many events and also logged in
some of the accompanying fun things – Sunday Brunch Gallery Walk with gigantic
Bloody Marys topped off with onion rings and the many studio open houses, including
Laurie Thal’s cool glass-blowing workplace in Wilson. Tammy also logs in some of
the prices paid for artwork. For the casual arts buyer, the prices are
astounding. Someone paid $1.2 million for Howard Terpning’s “Vanishing Pony
Tracks” oil (writes Tammy: “Wowza!”) and $65,000 for Gary Lynn Roberts Quick
Draw painting of a winter day at the Wort Hotel in days gone by.
Impressive numbers. But not unusual for a noted arts town
such as Jackson. It was ranked the number one small community on the list of
The Most Vibrant Arts Communities in America 2020. That’s from the National
Center for Arts Research at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.
The top five were all in the Mountain West. Along with
Jackson (which includes Wilson and Teton Village, Wyo., and Victor and Driggs,
Idaho just over Teton Pass) were Steamboat Springs, Colo.; Heber, Utah; Hailey,
Idaho; and Glenwood Springs, Colo. All of these places are within a day’s drive
from my house. At 677 miles, Hailey would be a bit of a stretch, although Chris
and I have logged one-day drives of 995 miles from our son’s place in Tucson. Long-distance driving skills are a necessity in our part of the
world. It’s also good to note that three of the arts towns on the list of
medium-sized communities are Boulder, Colo. (100 miles), Santa Fe, N.M.. (492
miles) and Bozeman, Mont. (595 miles). Note that Steamboat, Glenwood and Boulder
are closer to me than Jackson, a mere 432 miles away, about the same distance
as Heber City and Santa Fe.
As you can see, I
live in the orbit of some of our country’s artsiest towns. Cheyenne is not in
the SMU top ten. That’s OK – our arts scene is growing and we are very close to
Denver and other pretty darn good arts town along the Front Range. Fort Collins
has a multitude of outdoor music events promoted by the zillion craft brewers
in town. I also like to browse the CSU Arts Center in the Old Fort Collins H.S.
(Go Lambkins!). During the warmer months, you can find me outside perusing CSU
Ag’s beautiful test garden and its large Xeriscape garden. Loveland is
sculpture town. Visit and of the city parks to find an array of sculpture, from
the representational to the avant-garde. I like the Chapungu African Sculpture
Park east of the sprawling Centerra Center at I-25 and Hwy. 34. It features 82
hard-carved stone sculptures in a park with 600 trees of 20 species along with natïve
shrubs and grasses. Wild Wonderful Weekend takes place there this weekend with
a Saturday evening concert by American Authors who are actually American
rockers.
As is true for
many Cheyennites, we spend a lot of time at Colorado venues. We also support
local arts. You can do both.
The top-five small arts communities mentioned above are all destination resorts for summer and winter sports. The rich have gravitated to these places so they can brag about swapping tall tales with real local cowboys at the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar. They also like the views or viewsheds as realtors call them. It’s easy to be snarky about the scene and the outrageous prices paid for some art. Local writers have had some fun poking fun at the migratory riche, nouveau or otherwise (I’m looking at you Tim Sandlin).
But I always loved traveling to Jackson for arts events and
get there as often as I can. At all other times, I depend on Tammy’s blog and
Facebook posts to transport me to its arts happenings.
