Summer is underway at Tippet Rise!
July 3, 2024
Summer is off to a wonderful start at Tippet Rise! Visitors have joined from as far away as Germany, and as close as just down Nye Road. It is a joy to see so many children taking full advantage of the art center’s acreage while school, and the sun, are out. Families will oftentimes request a “hiker-assist” shuttle up the Meridian Trail, so they can more easily traverse the Ecliptic Trail and view Mark di Suvero’s works, including Beethoven’s Quartet – a work beloved by adults and children alike.
Bird watchers have been happy to spot curlews, kestrels, western tanagers, mountain bluebirds, meadowlarks, and even two bald eagles – who appear to enjoy flying together near Stephen Talasnik’s Satellite #5: Pioneer. A few bears have been sighted roaming the land this year, as well as several varieties of snakes. While we ask all our guests to be aware of their surroundings, our knowledgeable team of Interpretive Rangers are skilled at alerting visitors to wildlife, and continually monitor the land to help and inform hikers and bikers.
Photo by Kevin Kinzley
Tippet Rise Education in the News
For the third year in a row, our Art Education and Visitor Center Manager, Beth Korth, hosted a Teaching Artists Program for a group of 15 – 20 women currently incarcerated at the Montana Women’s Prison as part of an ongoing program with the Yellowstone Art Museum (YAM). Over the span of two sessions, each two-and-a-half hours long, Beth led the women in a workshop exploring wet felting – when raw wool fibers are layered together, and later scratched and washed, to create individual different designs and patterns. The pieces were then fastened together into a collective tapestry. The group discussed concepts related to art and identity, and how to tell their personal stories through their artwork. The women experimented with portraiture, but also iconography related to their backgrounds, families, and faiths.
The tapestry is now on display at the Billings Library, and the project was recently featured on KTVQ. The Tippet Rise Fund is proud to support this program and we are so appreciative to the YAM for their leadership, and to the participants from the Montana Women’s Prison for their willingness to express themselves through art.
Photo by Beth Korth
Hardin School Students Create a Temporary Installation
Visitors to Tippet Rise this summer may notice a new installation, just off the Gnomon Trail and past the bridge by Daydreams. Titled, Does Temporary Have a Name?, the work was created by a group of fourteen students from the Hardin Middle School, led by artist Ben Pease, as part of an ongoing collaboration between the school, the Yellowstone Art Museum, and Tippet Rise.
During the student’s visit to Tippet Rise this past May, Ben Pease led the group in a meditative art workshop out on the land, where they discussed the concept of a temporary artwork. He invited the students to gather soil to create a circular mound, in the center of which he placed a buffalo skull that he had brought with him. Each student was then tasked with finding a natural item to add to the circle. Students dispersed to select rocks, sticks and branches, plants and flowers, and animal bones, which they then brought back to the circle mound to be placed around the skull.
The Hardin students hope that visitors to Tippet Rise this summer can see and experience this temporary work, and they look forward to seeing how the work changes and fades with time.
Photo by Beth Korth