2024 & 2025 Annual Report
Founded in 2009, Green Box provides exemplary visual and performing arts experiences, anchored by our annual summer arts festival, artist-in-residence program, and James Turrell’s Green Mountain Falls Skyspace. Events and activities happen every single day of the year.
Wren
The wren is seen as a symbol of resourcefulness, creativity, and cleverness.
Communication X9 by Yaacov Agam
WELCOME
THE YEARS 2024 AND 2025 marked a period of extraordinary growth for Green Box. From exciting capital projects to enhanced programming throughout the year, our thriving arts mecca is now considered a cultural anchor for the entire Pikes Peak region and for artists from around the world.
Green Box provides multiple doors of entry to arts and culture lovers, both across our beautiful campus in Green Mountain Falls and wherever our trips and affiliated artists take us, from our most-attended Green Box Arts Festival yet to our robust artist residencies, from the breadth of our art installations to comprehensive arts education programming, and from community events we host throughout the year to Adventures Outside the Box.
Green Box is a continual work in progress, and our values guide the choices we make:
Access: We offer artists and artistic experiences that can be enjoyed by all.
Amplification: We value the arts in all its forms and strive to embrace our natural environment through our work.
Community: We create, present, and support artistic experiences which engage with our place and the people in it.
Excellence: We provide artistic installations, performances, and educational opportunities that promote the best contemporary artists and artistic trends.
Welcoming: We are approachable, encouraging, open-minded, and welcoming to all.
Whether you engage with Green Box as a festival-goer, traveler, artist, student, teacher, community member, volunteer, and/or philanthropic partner, you are equally important to the success and vibrancy of Green Box. As we look forward, we are excited to create the next year’s events and art happenings, which we hope will inspire you to visit our campus in Green Mountain Falls. We invite you to join us and continue to support the work of Green Box now and well into the future.
SCOTT RC LEVY Executive Director
CHRISTIAN K. KEESEE Board President & Co-founder
GREEN BOX GOES VIRAL
AS THE SUMMER OF 2025 BEGAN, Green Box installed one of our largest temporary installations to date: Off the Beaten Path by Patrick Shearn of Poetic Kinetics spanned six thousand square feet along and across Gazebo Lake in the center of Green Mountain Falls. The work featured more than thirty-five thousand pieces of kite-fabric streamer, which undulated with the wind and created ribbons and rainbows of color, in all variety of weather.
Almost immediately, images, posts, and discussion of the work became ubiquitous. From local residents proclaiming wonder at the new “neighbor” in town to various formal news stories and informal social media posts and videos, the work was seen digitally by more than fifteen million people. Many visitors came to Green Mountain Falls for the first time to see the exhibit for themselves. Our estimates show that more than one hundred thousand people visited Green Box to experience this one-of-akind kinetic artwork and, in turn, ventured out to see other Green Box installations and take part in our events.
At the height of the summer season apart from the annual festival, thousands of visitors stopped by daily, seeing Off the Beaten Path along with the fourteen other works of art on display. Created in Colorado by Colorado Springs native Patrick Shearn, the hanging sculpture surpassed all expectations. This trend of “Instagrammable” moments at Green
More than fifteen million people saw the installation digitally, and more than one hundred thousand people viewed the exhibit in person.
Box started in the summer of 2024, with James Tapscott’s Arc ZERO: Nimbus.
In the past two years, visitors also enjoyed other temporary works, including indoor installations created through our artist-in-residency program by Thu Kim Vu, CoCo Ree Lemery, and Yasuaki Onishi & Minako Yoshida. Our Lake Street Display featured the work of photographer Kristina Barker in 2024 and painter Sarah Wright in 2025.
Green Box’s collection of temporary and permanent installations will continue to grow in the coming seasons, as we continue to center the power of the arts in nature.
Off the Beaten Path
by Patrick Shearn of Poetic Kinetics
Executive Director Scott RC Levy talks to donors at the 2025 seasonal celebration.
A PREMIER COMMUNITY SPACE
Proof of Green Box’s steadily rising community engagement arrived after the renovated Sallie Bush Community Center began hosting events: Audiences gave standing ovations—to the performance space itself—and have continually filled the room for a full suite of programs, no matter the weather.
OVER THE COURSE OF THE PAST two years, Green Box—in partnership with the Historic Green Mountain Falls Foundation—has converted the Sallie Bush Community Center, a historic and beloved community resource, into a state-of-the-art, 180-seat, flexible performance, studio, and gathering space. Now dubbed the Green Box Studio, the facility has become the premier indoor performance and studio space in Green Box’s portfolio.
This massive undertaking has included creating dedicated backstage and dressing room space for visiting artists; a new and
complete lighting, sound, and projection system; new seats and risers for the audience; and a complete overhaul of the heating and air-conditioning systems in the building, along with other aesthetic improvements.
Beyond increasing the ability to use the space during our annual festival, this rehabilitation has allowed Green Box to award artist residencies to performing artists in the cooler seasons in Green Mountain Falls. Additionally, Green Box remains committed to offering the space for rentals to other community groups and events.
Lily Henley in performance at the Green Box Arts Festival
STATE OF MIND
OUR SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH
annual Green Box Arts Festivals encompassed close to three hundred events. Approximately fifteen thousand people participated in at least one festival event. Highlights of recent festivals include:
Dance
Under the guidance of choreographer Larry Keigwin, co-founder of Green Box, dance anchors Green Box’s performing arts program. In 2024, we crafted an evening featuring five disparate styles in A World of Dance: A Variety of Rhythm, featuring tap from Michela Marino Lerman and Russell Hall, flamenco from Jesús Muñoz Flamenco, kathak from Barkha Patel, hip-hop from Ephrat Asherie, and modern from GALLIM. In 2025, Green Box welcomed Colorado Ballet for multiple weeks as it built a new work choreographed by Yoshi Arai based on the
life of composer Sergei Rachmaninoff. Colorado Ballet included in-progress performances of this work in combination with classical and modern dance as part of its public program.
Music
From bluegrass to string quartets, opera to brass bands, the sounds of melody filled the Green Box Arts Festival through astounding concerts: Children of all ages danced at performances by Grammy Award winners 123 Andrés and the Okee Dokee Brothers. Classical music enthusiasts were delighted by the Dali Quartet, Manitou Springs Chamber Orchestra, Colorado Springs Youth Symphony, An Afternoon at the Opera with Amy Maples and friends, and father-son piano duo Ryan & Ryan, including their unforgettable performance of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue . Folk/Americana performances from Samuel James, Stillhouse Junkies, and Lily Henley filled our valley with warm tones. Meanwhile, Hot Toddies Jazz Band,
Colorado Ballet
Larry Keigwin moderates an ArtDesk Conversation.
Detail of Stone on Boundary
by Yasuaki Onishi & Minako Yoshida
Badda Boom Brass Band, and singers from Icons brought the party.
Other Performing Arts Theater, film, and a hybrid of the two have become popular veins in our programming. Prime examples have included the Moth Project, Two Gents by Theatreworks, and The Adventures of Peter Rabbit by Theatre Without Borders. From outdoor film screenings to silent disco parties, the festival comes alive with the creative energy of performers.
ArtDesk Conversations
Green Box’s partnership with ArtDesk magazine
continued with a series of extraordinary conversations with artists from the festival, nationally renowned thought leaders, and the annual Mayor’s Forum, featuring Green Mountain Falls Mayor Todd Dixon. Highlights included conversations with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Emily Nussbaum and novelist Andrew Krivak.
The Rest of the Fest
Ikebana floral arranging, critical art review writing, plein air painting, pie contests, and the annual water lantern launch were just some of the community-based activities, classes, and events that filled out the daily festival schedule.
LEVELING UP
EACH SUMMER DURING THE WEEKS LEADING up to the festival, Green Box holds day camps, which served almost two hundred first- through eighth-graders from the region over the past two years.
The two-week integrated Green Box Arts Camp focuses on site-specific visual and performing artworks. The teaching artists keyed into themes connected to the work of featured installation artists. Every camper participated in multiple classes, all designed to help children’s growth in skills and abilities ranging from critical thinking to creativity, adaptability to initiative, and social competency to responsibility.
Additional Arts Education
Green Box’s summer day camps are the foundation of our arts education, but this programming actually continues year-round. Our artists in residence have provided master classes and studiobased learning opportunities to K-12 and college populations throughout the Pikes Peak region. Field trips to Green Box occur year-round. Other highlights include multiple-day writing and photography workshops at Ute Pass Elementary School, dance master classes open to the entire community, open studio opportunities, hands-on workshops with students at Colorado College and the Colorado Springs campus of the University of Colorado, and film screenings with Q&As in partnership with the Rocky Mountain Women’s Film Festival.
“After being in our camp, the students now light up, run over to say hello, and we all feel good knowing each other in our community. I am truly honored to be a teacher at Green Box Arts Camp!”
— MARY RIPPER BAKER, Dance Teaching Artist, Green Box Arts Camp
Thu Kim Vu teaching Green Box Arts campers
MIXED MEDIA
SINCE 2019, GREEN BOX HAS PROVIDED time and space to artists from throughout the world, working in any artistic discipline. While in residence, artists reside in the Shed, our dedicated artist-in-residency lodging, which features three private apartments. Appropriate studio space is provided to each artist. The extraordinary and diverse 2024 and 2025 cohorts were chosen from approximately six hundred applicants:
Neena Pathak: Pulitzer Prize-winning writer, editor, and audio producer.
GAEYA: Swedish singer/songwriter, whose music invokes a desire to return to nature.
Thu Kim Vu: Vietnamese-based installation artist. Work featured during the 2024 festival;
served as teaching artist for Green Box Arts Camps.
Kristina Barker: Photographer and nature lover in rural communities. Featured 2024 Lake Street Display artist.
Janani Balasubramanian & Sultana Isham: Opera-composition residents for Rogue Objects, a work performed in domes using Hubble Telescope data mapped into music.
Mk Smith Despres: Children’s book author and educator who spent their residency writing a young adult novel.
Lynn Tomlinson: Animator who researched and created film for planetarium-style screens using her technique of painting clay on glass.
GAEYA
Camry Ivory
Whispering Roots by CoCo Ree Lemery
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CoCo Ree Lemery: Chicago-based lighting and installation artist. Featured during the 2025 festival with her work Whispering Roots inside Lakeview Terrace.
Yasuaki Onishi & Minako Yoshida: Japanesebased installation team with the 2025 featured festival installation, Stone on Boundary GMF.
Parker Yamasaki: Green Box’s first journalistin-residence, who led workshops and discussions and wrote articles for the 2025 festival newspaper, The Daily Gaggle.
Nandita Shenoy: New York City-based playwright who developed The Belonging Project and partnered with UCCS students to hear her script out loud for the first time.
Camry Ivory: Kansas City-based visual musician who developed work using her invented Coloratura instrument and offered workshops and a live performance.
FLOCK: Pacific Northwest-based dance company that created a new work with a company of four dancers.
Helanius J. Wilkins: Choreographer and performance artist who created a dance specifically for Green Mountain Falls.
Blake Pfeil: Multidisciplinary artist who explored transforming one of his award-winning podcast episodes into a live performance.
Additionally, in 2025, two previous resident artists returned to continue their work. The artist brooke smiley, who lowercases her name, gathered Southern Ute Indian Tribe members and residents of Green Mountain Falls for a ceremony blessing her EARTH.SPEAKS outdoor installation. The musical group Stillhouse Junkies returned for a four-day technical residency, using the Green Box Studio at the Sallie Bush Community Center to test the transformation of their newest album into a staged experience.
FLOCK
Lynn Tomlinson
Thu Kim Vu
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WELLROUNDED
Adventures Outside the Box
In the spring, a group of Green Box patrons continued their annual trip to New York City to see plays and musicals and take part in other cultural offerings. In October 2025, another group visited Oklahoma City for Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center’s Friends & Family Weekend. In December 2025, we returned to Art Basel Miami—in partnership with Oklahoma Contemporary, KEIGWIN + COMPANY, and ArtDesk magazine— with more than thirty guests.
Markets
Green Box’s Farm & Art Market occurs on the first Saturday of autumn every year. In 2024 and 2025, we added a new partnership with Auric Gallery, based in Colorado Springs, to offer live art demonstrations and works of art for sale from the best Pikes Peak-area artists. In 2025, this popular one-day festival resulted in over $20,000 in sales. Additionally, throughout summer 2025, Green Box welcomed Auric Gallery to install a gallery of Sarah Wright’s artwork for sale, resulting in dozens of sales to people from across the country.
On the first Saturday of December, Green Box participates in Yule Days, a community-wide celebration, in conjunction with the town of Green Mountain Falls, the Church in the Wildwood, and other community organizations.
New York, 2025
OUTDOOR MUSEUM
MORE THAN A DOZEN WORKS OF art are on display throughout the Green Box campus in Green Mountain Falls and are available to the public every day of the year. Beyond self-exploration, Green Box also offers a free audio walking tour, created by 2022 resident artist Jessica Kahkoska. The audio tour has been accessed more than five thousand times since it launched. In 2025, we expanded our guided art walks and partnered with Air Force Academy professor José Antonio Arellano to provide weekly walks outside of the festival through September.
Work Introduced in 2024 & 2025
Arc ZERO: Nimbus by James Tapscott
Sunset at Gazebo Lake by Sarah Wright
It Looks Like There Is a Party Up There by Thu Kim Vu
Whispering Roots by CoCo Ree Lemery
Stone on Boundary GMF by Yasuaki Onishi & Minako Yoshida
Off the Beaten Path by Patrick Shearn of Poetic Kinetics
There Did They All Go by Kristina Barker
Arc ZERO: Nimbus by James Tapscott
Skye by Brian Wall
Sunset at Gazebo Lake by Sarah Wright
Green Mountain Falls Skyspace by James Turrell
Communication X9 by Yaacov Agam
The Managers by Molly Rideout
226.5° ARC x 4 by Bernar Venet
Keith Haring Fitness Court
Faime Walking by Julian Opie
Loveletter by Pard Morrison
Four Orbits by Charles O. Perry
EARTH.SPEAKS by brooke smiley
TOM KIMMELL
TOM KIMMELL
WHAT’S NEXT
GREEN BOX’S 2026 ARTS FESTIVAL will celebrate America’s semiquicentennial and the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, through programming that includes a Fourth of July parade and performances that speak to the past, present, and future possibilities for America. The festival will occur July 4–19. We are expanding arts camp offerings in 2026 by adding a one-week camp, in which children will design, build, and perform with their own large-scale puppets in the parade.
Our artist-in-residency program continues to attract a wide range of diverse artists working across all artistic mediums from throughout the world, and we continue to engage our community and other organizations across the region. We are excited to discover which
artists and projects will come our way.
With the opening of the Historic Green Mountain Falls Foundation’s Horse Wellness Meadow in summer 2025, we are thinking of ways to increase public access and arts programming at this beautiful new site.
With the expansion of participants in our programs throughout the year, we are looking into the possibility of a year-round indoor gallery space.
As we continue to diversify our contributed income streams, we are thankful for the hundreds of individuals, businesses, government entities, and private foundations that support our work financially.
And we are already looking forward to summer 2028, when we will celebrate twenty years of the Green Box Arts Festival.
BUFFALO MEDIA GROUP
Green Mountain Falls
GREEN BOX BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Christian Keesee, President and Co-founder
Larry Keigwin, Co-founder
Carol Blackwood, Vice President
Elizabeth Eickman, Treasurer
Elizabeth Mee Payne, Secretary
Pard Morrison
David Siegel
Jocelyn Wall
Kelley Barnes, Adviser
Julie Maguire, Adviser
GREEN BOX STAFF
Scott RC Levy, Executive Director
Jesse Stroope, Director of Production & Operations
Anna Faye Hunter, Director of Engagement & Communications
Anne Stewart, Management Associate
Sean Ives, Operations Manager
Sara Selah Border, Skyspace Operations Assistant
Kyle Blasi, Bryce Keigwin, Kyle Morris, Bradyn Dowling, Festival Production Assistants
Jonathan Spencer, Festival Lighting Designer
Caden Pazo, Sallie Bush Stage Manager
Daniel Buckley / Blue Line Sound, Festival Audio Engineer
Ava Sperber, Intern
GREEN BOX 2025 ARTS CAMPS STAFF
Joye Cook-Levy, Arts Camps Coordinator
Jazmine Strader, Assistant Coordinator
Teaching Artists: Mary Ripper Baker, Adam Hureau, Christopher Keller, Michael Lee, Amy-Jane Mooney, Leslie O’Carroll, Lairden Rogge, Wes Sparkes
Assistant Teachers: Elsa Baker, Savannah Bartko, Lena Dill, Mady Johnston, Sarah Newbrough
Student Mentors: Gabriel Barnett, Cole Freyer, Gabe Levy, Mirix Robertson-Leich, Emily Strader, Analina Whitehead-Jimenez, Tula Whitehead-Jimenez
Green Mountain Falls Skyspace by James Turrell DAVID
OVER THE PAST TWO YEARS, Green Box has received demographic data from approximately ten thousand unique people who have participated in at least one event. Not all are represented in the maps below—17 percent of ticket registrations did not list a ZIP code. However, the maps show that people have come from all over the world to experience the power of the arts in nature in Green Mountain Falls.
THANK YOU TO OUR
The below list represents donations of $250 or more to Green Box, received between January 1, 2024, and October 29, 2025.
INDIVIDUALS
Anonymous (2)
Derry & Dave Adams
Maryanna Adelman
Laura Agnew
José Antonio Arellano
Nasit Ari & Libby Rittenberg
Darlene Avery & Derek Krehbiel
Terry & Kay Bachus
Eric Bailey
Heidi Bailey & Rocco Blasi
Greg Baker & Mary Ripper Baker
David Banta & Karen Field
Pamela Banta
Kelley Barnes
Susan Barnett
Jeff & Karen Becker
John Bell & Lisa Bonwell
Chuck & Melinda Bellatti
Bill Berenz
Brenda Biondo & Sean McKeown
Carol Blackwood
Rhonda Blain
Wayne & Pamela Bland
Carrie Blumert
Carolyn Bowers
Gary & Anne Bradley
Ron & Una Brasch
Martha Brassel
Jim & Joy Brown
Cindy & David Bruner
Margie & Bob Bruner
Alfred & Leigh Buettner
Karen Bumb
Barbara Burch
Kelly Butts
Beth & Bob Carlson
The Carnaghan Family in memory of K. B. Mehl
Bert & Mary Carollo
Cynthia Chandler
John Chaney & Elizabeth Mee Payne
Sally Coberly
Deborah Collins
John & Lucy Covington
Charles & Nancy Craig
Scott Craig & Erika Williams
Doug & Jackie Crockett
David & Marlies Cunningham
Dolores Davis
Todd & Nancy Dixon
Sharon & Tom Dobson
David Douglas & Lamar Mathews
George & Paula Drew
Ed & Melody Durso
Richard Eichholz
Elizabeth Eickman & Marvin Quinn
Karen Elliott
Karin Ellis
Mark A. Ellis & Earl B. Thayer
Sari & William Escovitz
Harley & Joan Ferguson
Diana & Mike Fink
Holly & Tony Flores
Margaret & Mike Frey
John & Margaret Fuller
John & Amy Garrison
Susan Gaston & Don Proffer
Dashea & Stephen Gelnar
Charles & Abigail Giraud
Charles & Pamela Giraud
Diane Gjerstad
Rochelle & Rick Glover
Camilla Gresham
Spencer & Gretchen Gresham
Jimmy Sue Guggenhime
Joe & Laurie Guido
Nechie Hall
David & Olive Hanna
Erin Hannan
Stephen Harman & Dennis Foor
Phil & Kim Hatfield
Bruce & Meg Henderson
The Hiking Buddies in memory of K. B. Mehl
Pat Hill
Brian Hohman
Karen & P. J. Hollenbeck
Lisa Huizenga
Pam Hurt & Vickie Samuelson
Kyle & Sally Hybl
Doug & Debby Hydeman
Sean & Liz Ives
Judy Iwata
Angela Jacobsen
Ross Jacobsen
Janet Johnson & Dave Sherman
Joanna (Johnston) and Ryan Bendell
Christian Keesee
Larry Keigwin
Pat & Pam Keller
Mary Kelley
Heather & Leon Kelly
Jehan-Ara Khan
Jennifer & Fritz Kiersch
Valerie & Adam King-Peters
Jan & Joe Kneib
DONORS
Ann Pinney & David Knize
Janet Knox
Andrea Kohlman
Gloria Latimer & Jan Johnson
Elizabeth Leslie
Joye & Scott Levy
Jenee & Darren Lister
Barbara Litchfield
Michael & Jean Luce
Christa & Jim Mahoney
Meredyth Marshall
Bonny & Newman McAllister
Rebecca McDonald
Chris McGarry
Bruce & Marilyn McSpadden
Becky & Jon Medved
Debra Mee & Victor Goetz
Judith & Patrick Mee
K. B. & Linda Mehl
Robin & Shawn Meyers
Suzanne & John Miller in memory of K. B. Mehl
Brandy Moralez
Phil Morris
Thomas & Emily Murawski
David Neff
Jim & Neaty Oaks
William & Tanesha Pashia
Junie Passey
Penman Household
Gina Perenchio
Craig Peterson & Karen Watson
Lynn Peterson
Timothy Pool & Mark Richards
Howard & Jane Price
Matthew Price
Steve & Anne Rendon
Jane & Eric Ridings
John & Lynn Robberson
Jill Robinson
Karen & Robert Sanders
Kathleen & Rick Scaletty
Peter & Jane Scanlon
Lynda Ward Schedler in Memory of Peggy
Jane Cummings
David & Cheryl Schwartz
Angela & David Seals
Linda Seger & Peter Le Var
Alesia & John Sova
Daniel & Patty Starr
Michael & Patti Steele
Jesse Stroope
Michele Strub-Heer & Jordan Strub
Chris Tessarowicz
Elizabeth Berry Thompson
Sophie Thunberg (Papa Soph)
Herman Tiemens
Karen Travis
Dennis & Susan Ullery
Abigail Urish & Ken Sutton
Rick & Jennifer Vasek
Jocelyn Wall
Josh Waymire
David & Lynnette Werning
Jim & Patti White
Suellen White
Todd & Nancy Whitford
Elizabeth Wieland
Ree & Jason Willaford
Jeff Wooddell
Patty Wright
CORPORATIONS
Broadcom
Dance-Along-with-Amy LLC
Green Scapes Landscape
Kirkpatrick Bank
Maguire O’Hara Construction
Mohawk Valley Trading Company
Penman Construction & Properties
Purple Mountain Group at Morgan Stanley
FOUNDATIONS
Adam R. Scripps Foundation
Alexandra William Foundation
Bee Vradenburg Foundation
Blackbaud Giving Fund
Buettner Family Foundation
Burch Family Fund
Central Kansas Community Foundation
Christian Keesee Charitable Trust
The City of Colorado Springs Lodgers & Automobile Rental Tax Fund
Colorado Creative Industries
Craig Family Charitable Trust Fund
El Pomar Foundation
Front Porch Giving Circle Fund
Jackson-Bruner Family Fund
Jake+Zoe Family Fund of Pikes Peak Community Foundation
Jane Hill Charitable Fund
Kirkpatrick Family Fund
Kirkpatrick Foundation
Pikes Peak Community Foundation
Whitford Family Fund
Your Local Hero Fund
“It is amazing that in the scheme of nature certain birds should patrol the air, others the fields, others the trees, others the forest-floor, and so on, so that all outdoors is, in a sense, cared for by our feathered friends. It has been said that our very existence depends upon these birds who make it possible for the trees, the flowers, and the grain-fields to grow. And all the while these same creatures are delighting us with their beautiful colors and their cheerful songs.”
GEORGE MIKSCH SUTTON,
An Introduction to the Birds of Pennsylvania, 1928
INFO@GREENBOXARTS.ORG (719) 465-3065
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Green Box and its related nonprofits and companies celebrate their milestones from 2024 and 2025 with the theme “Flying in Formation,” making use of paintings of birds by ornithologist George Sutton, a friend of John and Eleanor Kirkpatrick. The Oklahoma City Community Foundation and George Miksch Sutton Avian Research Center (with photography by Dan Reinking) graciously made the artworks available.
Unless otherwise noted, all photos were taken by Jeff Kearney / TDC Photography.
2024 & 2025 Annual Report
Agam, Yaacov
Yamasaki, Parker (artist in residence)
Yasuaki Onishi (artist in residence), Stone