Water Exhibition announcement

PERMIT NO. 679

BOISE ID

Hailey Hours • Location Wed–Fri, noon–5 • 314 S. Second Ave.

Ketchum Hours • Location Mon–Fri, 9–5 • 191 Fifth St. East

Sun Valley Center for the Arts www.sunvalleycenter.org • 208.726.9491

U S POSTAGE

NON-PROFIT ORG.

PAID

Sun Valley Center for the Arts P O Box 656 Sun Valley, ID 83353

WATER

September 13 – November 5, 2010

A multidisciplinary project of the Sun Valley Center for the Arts

Life source, rejuvenator, destroyer, purifier. Water is vital to all life.

Its abundance in parts of the world and scarcity in others is rapidly making it the world’s most important commodity. In the American West, water plays a role in every aspect of our economic and social life. Communities have long been settled near the source.

Traditional industries from ranching to agriculture to mineral extraction are dependent on water. As the West’s economy shifts to economies based on tourism, water and the places where it presents itself shape destinations. Water, in its winter form, creates the foundation of our life in the Wood River Valley—without snow our community would be very different. In this project artists, filmmakers, humanists and conservationists investigate their own ideas about water: some exploring its beauty, some its distribution, some its power, others its transformational qualities. S

Visual Arts, Ketchum Each artist has been selected to convey some sensation or idea that is universal about our relationship to this essential juice. Jan Aronson’s precise and considerate drawings of water speak to its rhythm, its visual patterns and its meditative qualities. Megan Murphy’s contemplative studies of water reflect on place, religion, biology and history. Her paintings of Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty have an eerie, mystical feel that is consistent with Smithson’s writings on entropy and the environment. Murphy’s process involves adding and removing layers of paint, simultaneously revealing and obscuring the photographs and text that lay underneath. Kate Bright’s paintings capture the wonder of this resource in its many different forms from sparkling nodules of snow to sheets of liquid glass. Anne Neely’s colorful paintings focus on water as a powerful source above and below the earth’s surface. Her images speak to the flowing layers that move unseen underground in aquifers and lakes. Dawn DeDeaux made her watermark and mold sculptures in response to the destruction wrought by Hurricane Katrina. DeDeaux’s art is an elegant but powerful reminder of water’s fury and a community’s loss. Basia Irland focuses on the ecology of water. Irland has created a project for the exhibition, A Gathering of Seeds; Big Wood River, Idaho, in which valley residents are invited to make clay fish embedded with native riparian seeds that will be released into the Big Wood River at the end of the exhibition. S

Gallery Walk Fri, Oct 8, 5-8pm S Join us for drinks and appetizers and make a clay fish to contribute to Basia Irland’s installation for Water!

Special Evening Exhibition Tours Thu, Sep 23 and Thu, Oct 7, 5:30pm S Enjoy a glass of wine while you tour Water with The Center’s curators and docents.

Free Exhibition Tour Tue, Sep 28, 2pm and by arrangement S Trained docents offer new insight into the artwork on display in free tours of our exhibitions. Para visitas guiadas en español, favor de llamar al Centro de las Artes.

Closing Ceremony: A Gathering of Seeds; Big Wood River, Idaho Sat, Nov 6, 10am S The Center, Ketchum S Join us for a closing ceremony for Water. Artist Basia Irland will speak about her project and then guide participants as we release clay fish embedded with native riparian seeds into the Big Wood River. Made by Wood River Valley residents during the course of the exhibition, these fish will help restore plant life along the river’s banks. Irland will also release ice books, carved books containing text written with seeds, into the river as part of a celebration of the Big Wood River and its importance to our valley. Coffee, juice and pastries will be served.

Film

Lectures and Music

Classes

Tapped Thu, Sep 23, 6:30pm S The Center, Ketchum S A behind-the-scenes look into the unseen world of an industry that aims to privatize water. From the plastic production to the ocean in which so many of these bottles end up, this documentary trails the path of the bottled water industry and the communities it affects. Tapped will also be shown in middle and high school classrooms.

Maude Barlow Thu, Oct 7, 7pm S $25 / $35 non-member S Presbyterian Church of the Big Wood, Ketchum S Maude Barlow is an international leader in what she has dubbed the “global water justice movement,” arguing that water is a basic right and should not be a commodity. In 2008/2009, she served as Senior Advisor on Water to the 63rd President of the United Nations General Assembly. Her books include Blue Gold: The Fight to Stop Corporate Theft of the World’s Water and the recently released Blue Covenant: The Global Water Crisis and the Coming Battle for the Right to Water.

She is the founder of the Blue Planet Project and has received honorary doctorates from four Canadian universities for her social justice work.

Teen Workshop Sat, Sep 11, 12-4pm S The Center. Ketchum S $10 pre-registration required S ­Students will view the work of Megan Murphy and learn about her artistic process.

They will then have an opportunity to try a similar process. Students should bring images of bodies of water which are important to them. These pictures will be used as photo transfers layered over drawings and text transfers.

FLOW: For the Love of Water Thu, Oct 21, 6pm S The Community School Theater, Sun Valley S This award-winning documentary investigates the world water crisis. Focusing on the political, environmental and human impact of making water a commodity, the eye-opening film begs the question “Can anyone really own water?”

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In-school components of Water are supported by the Christensen ­Family Foundation and Deer Creek Fund of the Helen K. and Arthur E. Johnson Foundation. images side one, left to right: S Anne Neely, Running Water, 2008, oil on linen, courtesy the artist and Lohin Geduld Gallery, New York; S Kate Bright, Drape, 2008, glitter and acrylic on canvas, courtesy Locks Gallery, Philadelphia; S Dawn DeDeaux, A Little Over Three Feet: That’s All, 2008, digital transparency on plexiglas, collection of Michael Duffy, New Orleans. S images side two, left to right: S Jan Aronson, Water Series #9, 2008, graphite on paper, courtesy the artist and Gail Severn Gallery, Ketchum; S Basia Erland, Repository/Backpack for A Gathering of Waters: Boulder Creek: Continental Divide to Confluence, 2007, recycled truck inner tubes, beaver sticks, glass vials, with maps, hydrology reports, photographs, logbook, canteen, participant gifts, courtesy the artist; S Megan Murphy, Stream II, 2008, inkjet print on vellum with transfer lettering, courtesy PDX Contemporary Art, Portland.

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2010/11 Lecture Series Sponsor: Castallano-Wood Family

Our River: Discussion of the Big Wood River Thu, Oct 14, 6pm S The Center Gallery, Ketchum S With a clean and clear river running through our valley, it’s often easy to believe that we are untouched by issues of water quality, shortage and usage. However, as the community grows, our water resources are stretched further and further. Each member of the community has a different perspective on the most pressing water issue: minimum stream flow, trout habitat, water rights. Through a panel discussion with local water experts, The Center hopes to touch on many of these topics and start a dialogue with different stakeholders.

Sam Lardner & Barcelona Fri, Oct 29, 6:30pm S $20 / $30 non-member S NexStage Theatre, Ketchum S Sam Lardner’s music represents everything a cross-cultural artistic experience should be: people from different traditions meeting in a place where everyone shines brighter. A resident of Spain, Lardner has performed with his flamenco fusion band throughout Europe and the US, where he is a regular at folk and world music festivals. Also, Lardner will visit three local schools with Oceans Are Talking, a musical call to action to get kids informed about critical issues facing the world’s oceans. Lardner’s residency is sponsored by The Center and The Ocean Foundation in Washington, D.C., which will send a CD to every school child who will see the performance.

S Water has been generously sponsored by

Visual Arts, Hailey

images The Center, Hailey, from top: S Russell Lee, The Desert Ranch, Black Canyon Irrigation Project, Canyon County, Owned

by H.J. Mersdorf, 1941, Idaho State ­Historical Society, 83.99.1; S Benjamin Ditto, Untitled from Great Basin Water, 2007, ­courtesy the artist.

A Short Tour of Watershed Health with Jon Marvel Sat, Sep 18, 10am-12pm S $15 / $20 non-member S East Fork & Hwy 75 S Reg deadline: Fri, Sep 3 S The Executive Director of the Western Watershed Projects, Jon Marvel will lead participants on a walking tour of our local watershed. Along the way participants will have the opportunity to learn about historic and current human impacts on watershed health, basic hydrology, local water issues and steps that can be taken to improve current watershed ­conditions.

Trout Illustrations with Josh Udesen Sat, Sep 18, 10am-3pm S $50 / $100 non-member S The Center, Hailey S Reg deadline: Fri, Sep 3 S Idaho artist and fly fisherman Josh Udesen will lead students though the process of sketching local trout species. Using a combination of graphite, ink and turpentine on vellum, Udesen creates unique drawings reminiscent of traditional etchings.

Family Day Sat, Oct 23, 3-5pm S The Center, Ketchum S FREE S Families are invited to tour the gallery exhibition. After viewing artist Basia Irland’s installation, families will make fish out of local clay and decorate them with native riparian seeds. These fish will become part of the exhibition and will be released into the Big Wood River in a closing ceremony on November 6. Children will also have the chance to create a paper fish to take home with them.

Complimentary events at the Ski and Heritage Museums, Ketchum The Secret Life of a Snowflake Through text and photographic images of snowflakes by Dr. Ken Libbrecht the exhibition traces the life cycle of a snowflake from its water cycle to its crystallization process and the beauty that results. There will be a collaborative art project for children to do on the process of making snowflakes.

Ski Wax and How it Works by Curtis Bacca A lecture for youth and family S Thu, Oct 14, 6:30pm

S Ski Museum S FREE

Source/­Resource: Ranching and Water in the West September 17 – November 12 Source/Resource pairs Benjamin Ditto’s photographs of water usage on 21stcentury ranches in Utah and Nevada with historic photos from the Idaho State Historical Society of ranching and irrigation in Idaho. The exhibition explores the vital role water plays in sustaining ranching in the West and the way water has been managed as a resource over the last century. S