Summer updates and the 2025 concert season begins
August 13, 2025
It’s hard to believe we’re halfway through the 2025 visiting season! Aside from one surprise snow shower, it’s been a spectacular blue-sky summer—perfect for guests exploring the land.
We often tell visitors to expect wildlife sightings. Along with our familiar sheep and cows, around 30 elk and their calves have been spotted, plus mule deer and the occasional black bear.
Another familiar face on the trails is Jenny Van Ooyen, visitor experience manager for Tippet Rise. Reflecting on the season thus far, she shared, “The lupine bloom was especially stunning this year along the Upper Gnomon trail to Satellite #5: Pioneer – painting the hillsides in purple all through June and into July. The sheep herd made their annual appearance, only causing the occasional ‘Montana traffic jam.’ Our cattle have also been making their rounds, sometimes curiously following a few hikers and bikers. They add both perspective and scale to the sculptures, as if they, too, are drawn to the art as much as the rest of us.”
Alongside neighbors and guests who have joined us from across the country, we’ve been honored to welcome poets Nithy Kasa and Jake Skeets and students from Colby College, as well as several regional organizations including Montana InSite Theatre, Yellowstone Bighorn Research Association, the Billings Plein Air Society, and a group of young riders from Dirt Dogz—part of the National Interscholastic Cycling Academy, who had a blast biking out to the Beartooth Portal and through Murphy Canyon.
The 2025 Concert Season
Over the next five weeks, more than 50 musicians will join us for our concert season. This includes a group of 13 performing together for the first time this upcoming weekend in programs that celebrate chamber music from 18th century Venice and 19th century Vienna to 21st-century New Zealand — all curated by artistic advisor and pianist Pedja Mužijević.
Concerts will take place indoors at the Olivier Music Barn and outdoors at the Domo, the Geode, and at artworks within the Cottonwood Campus. Performances include four world premieres, a Tippet Rise commission, and four co-commissions.
Tickets for this season’s performances were available through a randomized drawing this past spring. Any tickets returned to the box office are available on a first come, first served basis, and will be placed for sale on our website.
Hiking and Biking
Although sculpture van tours have ended for the summer, hiking and biking will continue through Sunday, October 5. Reservations are required and can be made here, with new spots added weekly. Tippet Rise’s team of Interpretive Rangers will also continue operating the “hiker-assist shuttle” for the rest of the season, offering hiker transportation to trails in the art center’s southwest region. This shuttle is available upon request at the Visitor Center on a first come, first served basis.
Immensity – a film series by Hamid Shams
Volume II – Structures of Landscape, the second of a three-part film series about Ensamble Studio, is available to stream starting today on the Tippet Rise website and on YouTube. Created and directed by filmmaker Hamid Shams, the film covers the second decade of Ensamble’s work, featuring two of their international commissions—Telcel Theatre in Mexico City and their works at Tippet Rise.
