By Michael Somerby EBS STAFF
BIG SKY – For the everyday citizen, it’s easy to understand
when the significance of its presence slips the mind—but make no mistake:
public art serves an essential function in any healthy community.
Simply, public art serves to inspire, to illustrate that creativity is alive and encouraged within the boundaries of a township.
So whether it’s a hulking metal statue or a utility box
wrap, each piece adorns the town with a sense of culture that can have a
rippling effect, building a populous not just hungry for access to quality art
but expectant of it.
On the heels of its unveiling two new statues in Big Sky Town Center—Robert Winslow’s “Continuity,” the town’s first-ever public abstract piece, and Jim Dolan’s “Ram,” which has found a new home on the north side of Montana Supply—the Arts Council of Big Sky proudly presents a new offering, a detailed and robust public arts map.
Complete with 44 individual pieces laid on a map connecting
every item between Ousel Falls Trailhead and Big Sky’s Meadow Village, Big Sky
art junkies or fledgling aficionados can now navigate the town’s public art
offerings with direction as never before.
According to ACBS Education and Outreach Director Megan
Buecking, the inspiration for the map came from similar items offered in cities
and towns around the country.
“A lot of places you go, like a city or culturally rich
town, there will be a lot of public art and a really great way to find and
understand it is through a map,” Buecking said. “One primary example we drew from
was the Olympic Sculpture Park in Seattle. … We’ve also been inspired by
Bozeman’s Gallatin Art Crossing.”
Don’t let this valuable and novel resource go to waste—get out there and get to know the visible art and artists that form the backbone of Big Sky’s public offerings.
- Kelsey Dzintars
- Heather Hickman
- Amber Blazina
- Claire Kleese
- Darla Myers
- Dave Pecunies
- Robert Schlenker
- Crail Ranch Homestead Museum
- Mike McCulley, Crail Ranch Homestead Museum
- Livingston Elementary
- Megan Buecking
- Dasha Bough, Kira Fercho
- Allison McGree
- Shannon Westblade, Tom Wernikowski
- Marci Suratt, Tom Thornton
- Katelee McTaggart
- Mike Ryan
- Michael Blessing
- Robert Schlenker
- Crail Ranch Homestead Museum
- Crail Ranch Homestead Museum
- Crail Ranch Homestead Museum
- Crail Ranch Homestead Museum
- Michael Blessing and Mimi Matsuda
- Annie Burd
- Heather Rapp
- K. Potter, Laurel Hatch, Amber Blazina, and Georgia Baker
- Ryan Turner
- Deborah Butterfield
- Jensen Howard
- Whitney Michelle Hall
- LeeAnn Ramey
- Mimi Matsuda, Kara Tripp and Heather Rapp
- Jim Dolan
- Wendy Marquis
- Heather Hickman
- Kirsten Kainz
- Terry Cooke
- Sara Angst
- Brett Seng
- James Weikert
- Gianna Andrews
- Kelsey Dzintars
- Jim Dolan