Local radio station, various classrooms included in plans
By Jack Reaney SENIOR EDITOR
Step inside the building once home to Choppers Grub and Pub, and you’ll see a restaurant frozen in time since it closed more than two years ago. The barstools, booths and chairs have been left in place and flat-screen televisions hang from the walls; at the bar, colorful stickers shout unfiltered local sentiments from the restaurant’s 13 years of operation in a fast-changing community. In the basement, a loud whirring sound emanates from a tall cart full of television receivers that have siphoned electricity for an unknown duration. Tinted glass has kept the Choppers decal as locals wonder what’s next.
Many expected a rebirth of the restaurant—or any restaurant—once the building sold. Few had a nonprofit arts center on their bingo card.
The Arts Council of Big Sky closed today, Nov. 15, on the purchase of the building—which was listed above $6 million—with ambitious plans to conduct a “major remodel” into Big Sky’s public-access center for the arts with the goal of bringing light and vitality back to a space left dark.
“There’s so much creative energy in the community that’s ready to be tapped, and this creates the space for that,” said Katie Alvin, arts council development director, in an on-site interview with EBS on Nov. 11.
Plans include the addition of a second floor above the existing ground floor, plus a rooftop patio, transforming the current 7,700 square-foot restaurant into a four-story, 10,000 square foot arts hub. The basement storage area will be converted into a music practice and recording space reminiscent of a funky, eclectic speakeasy and being called “the sound garden.” The remodel will add various classroom and workshop spaces, plus a studio for Big Sky’s new local radio station. The arts council applied successfully in 2024 for a low-power FM radio permit, and will broadcast to a radius of three to five miles on 98.3 FM.
The Arts Council currently operates out of BASE, renting an office and a multipurpose art classroom. Alvin and Executive Director Brian Hurlbut emphasized their gratitude for BASE, but also spoke to the limitations of having only one classroom—the new building will have five—and lacking a dedicated venue space to host visiting artists and larger-scale programming.
“We could certainly stay in BASE, but our programs are going to plateau,” Hurlbut said. “… Having our own space and having creative control over it and what we can present there is probably the biggest game-changer, I think, for us as an arts organization.”
Alvin said the new building will extend and collaborate with the community’s existing resources—such as music and arts facilities at the Big Sky School District and the Warren Miller Performing Arts Center—as opposed to competing or overlapping. Hurlbut added that the arts center will be open to the wider community.
In the near future, the arts council will move its offices to 77 Lone Peak Drive and launch a capital campaign to fund the building’s renovation.
The arts council plans to illuminate the space with a color palate reminiscent of Big Sky’s natural hues, painting the interior with natural shades of green and blue. They’re intentionally avoiding what Alvin calls “the Big Sky brown” dominating local architecture especially in the Town Center area. She hopes to evoke the feeling of encountering a bright clearing in the forest, full of wildflowers.
“We had this view of walking through Big Sky, and suddenly you come across this art space,” Alvin said. “… There’s this inspiration from nature that I think we can really get in this space.”
Alvin said the arts center will add something new that could not be accomplished by a restaurant or bar.
“Without saying negative things about the fact that it was a bar, the fact that we can take a building that has been sitting empty for years, and dark, and kind of—it’s like this dying building, we’re taking it and breathing life into it,” Alvin said. “Literally, life and light.”
Philanthropy in action
The purchase was enabled by an “extraordinary” leading gift from Big Sky resident and longtime arts council supporter Don Grasso, according to an arts council press release. The release stated Grasso is a passionate philanthropist who believes in paying forward his good fortune by giving back to meaningful causes.
“I made this donation to honor my sister-in-law Patty Rhea and her husband Bob, who have inspired me to recognize the power of the arts,” Grasso stated in the release. “I hope this gift is transformational for the Big Sky community and inspires others to give generously too.”
The Rheas are Big Sky residents that have made significant contributions to the community for more than 20 years, according to the release. Patty Rhea is a former curator and past ACBS board member who has been a champion for public art in Big Sky for a decade, spearheading efforts such as the Deborah Butterfield horse sculpture “Winter” located in the Town Center Plaza, and the upcoming Brad Rude sculpture “To the Skyland” to be placed at Big Sky Community Park in 2025. Bob Rhea is current board chair of the Moonlight Community Foundation.
Hurlbut said the timing was serendipitous.
In July, Grasso was already working with the arts council to donate a piece of art to the community. Alvin said the arts council had been imagining an arts center in the former Chopper’s building—even discussing it with realtors—and Grasso immediately offered a large donation to help the arts council acquire it.
The arts council did its due diligence, contacting other potential donors, engaging an architecture firm and fundraising consultants, and receiving approval from its board before making an offer on Oct. 15.
Hurlbut has spent 23 years working with the arts council, an organization founded in 1988 that has always dreamed of having its own facility, he said.
“We’ve been really working toward this goal, but it’s been happening really organically, really slow. And I feel like this is the culmination of all that hard work that everybody put in.”
Getting ‘jazzed’ about radio, music facilities
Local musician Thad Beaty has been in the music industry for 30 years, and says he’s never felt the kind of support he feels in Big Sky. He works as the music and entertainment manager for Lone Mountain Land Company and recently created Big Sky’s songwriters workshop and launched a local live music calendar.
In Big Sky, Beaty has heard musicians say they wish they had a place to jam, rehearse, get together and share ideas.
“Having a place like this is just—it’s gonna be huge,” he told EBS in a phone call.
Beaty contrasts Big Sky with Nashville, the well-known music incubator full of resources and recording studios for artists. Musicians flock there with contagious creativity, and tourists follow. Big Sky won’t become “Music City” but Beaty said this arts center will be a big step in the right direction, serving as a creative hub and home base for musicians that isn’t a bar or performance venue.
“And that’s something we’ve talked about forever… it’s a space where you can go rehearse, and you can go create,” Beaty said. He added that LMLC had anticipated a similar facility in its remaining plans for Town Center, but the arts council’s sudden opportunity might allow LMLC to tackle other community priorities with the limited space available. Plus, this renovation will be completed much sooner.
Beaty also said he’s “just so jazzed” that Big Sky will have its own radio station.
“Finally, Brian is going to let me have a 3 a.m. time slot where I can go play all my favorite hair metal songs,” Beaty joked.
He compared local radio to minor league baseball, pointing out that semi-pro teams are often named for the medium-sized cities that host them, like the Tulsa Drillers in Oklahoma’s oil country, and those unique mascots represent local cultures and history. Local radio feels similar.
“For us to be able to let various niches of the community have a show. I’m thinking… you can have shows about cool recycling tips, I’m thinking about all the cool things NPR has done over the years. It’s not just music… So many things that can kind of broaden the interests of Big Sky,” Beaty said.
Hurlbut believes community radio can be an anchor for the place we live in.
“I love community radio stations,” Hurlbut said. “I was a DJ in college, like many of us. I love KGLT… It’s a way to bring a variety of different people together and really make it your own. It’s a way to engage the community.”
The arts council is imagining local students on air, local podcast storytelling, and even using 98.3 as a tool for emergency communication. Hurlbut wants the station to be a voice for the community.
For those without radio access, the station will be streamed online.
Organic growth
Julie Edwards is the arts council’s education director. She plans courses, recruits teachers for different mediums and different age levels, and teaches roughly two-thirds of the local classes herself. Currently, she’s teaching a pottery class with eight students ranging in age from 12 to 92, and said it’s a joy to offer programming that fits all ages and demographics.
She said the new facility will open doors for the community, allowing more people to find their niche in a peer group.
“It is going to be a true community space,” Edwards said. “Our entire community is going to be able to access that space for anything from taking a one-off art class to possibly having special events, to looping prospective DJs into the community.”
The arts council offers art classes on a contribute-what-you-can fee structure, and Edwards said the expansion of classroom space will only help that mission.
“I definitely plan on continuing our access for all,” she said.
Plus, art rooms will be specialized; it’s hard to share a pottery classroom with any other medium, so the new facility will enable more efficient teaching and learning, Edwards explained.
“We’re going from a five-pound bag of potatoes to a huge sack of potatoes, so I’m really excited for the possibilities.”
Alvin said this project is the culmination of slow, organic growth throughout the nonprofit’s three-plus decades.
“So when we hit our fourth decade, this is going to be a pretty huge landmark change, but it’s not something that’s coming suddenly, and it’s not happening all at once,” Alvin said.
She’s most excited about the thought of the building being alive with creative energy.
“Anybody is going to be able to walk into this space and find a creative outlet, I believe it.”
