An Education Exchange with Storm King Art Center
July 14, 2026
Tippet Rise has long valued a close relationship with friends and colleagues at the transformative Storm King Art Center. Visiting the outdoor sculpture park in New York’s Hudson Valley for the first time some 40-plus years ago left an indelible impression on Cathy and Peter Halstead, leading them to eventually found their own unique Western destination for outdoor art and music.
Over the past year, Tippet Rise and Storm King created an opportunity to collaborate on an artwork exchange project for local elementary students. Beginning in January, education teams from both art centers conducted a series of monthly in-person programs for K-5th graders at their respective regional schools – Mountain View Elementary in Red Lodge, MT and Horizons-on-the Hudson Elementary in Newburgh, NY. They eventually focused on one artwork each – Francis Kere’s Xylem at Tippet Rise and Sarah Sze’s Fallen Sky at Storm King. Students then created a collective physical project inspired by these artworks and motifs found in music and art.
With Xylem in mind, Mountain View students created repetitive round tree-cookie shapes in all colors, fitting them like tree rings. The students also recorded Xylem-inspired rhythms and sounds and wrote poems reflecting their designs. After displaying the artworks at their own school, the individual pieces were carefully connected into one large work, reminiscent of drapery or a blanket, and packaged and sent to Storm King. In exchange, students in New York created an interactive magnet and mirror-based work, based on Fallen Sky, which was sent to Tippet Rise. Students from Red Lodge were thrilled to have the opportunity to experience this new work during in-person field trips to Tippet Rise at the end of their school year.
Many thanks to Storm King and the teachers and students at both elementary schools for enthusiastically participating in an exchange of ideas that spanned from the rolling hills of Montana to those of upstate New York!
