Support art to support Jackson

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

By Matthew Irwin

When I began working on the summer arts cover story earlier this year, I had something a little bit different in mind.

I had just returned from Buenos Aires, and though January is the hottest month of the year there, the local government and area nonprofits provide a two-month-long, citywide arts festival. Dance, lectures, music, theater – all free, mostly outdoors and always packed.

When I returned, I found out in researching that Jackson Hole also has a lot of free arts programming, relatively speaking, and I found no shortage of local patrons and advocates simultaneously excited about the possibilities for local arts and frustrated by the realities.

But I wanted to focus the story on what it would take to make JH a sustainable arts town. In New York City, artists get rental subsidies. In Austin, musicians have their own healthcare plan, as well as “musician only” loading zones outside gigs. Buenos Aires employs artists for its free summer programs. In Galway, Ireland, public support for the arts is matter-of-fact, with many young people working only part-time while receiving living subsides from the government.

Teton Artlab director Travis Walker said that a lot of people in Jackson don’t own homes, so he finds it difficult to say that an artist deserves one more than anyone else. But both he and Center of Wonder director Carrie Geraci say that artist-specific spaces would foster an art-friendly environment, especially zoning that allows live-work areas. 

I agree; however, I made a discovery after talking to local economist and founder of the eco-nonprofit 1% for the Tetons, Jonathan Schechter. As anyone who reads his column knows, he puts sustainability on the top of local priorities.
People want to be in Jackson Hole for various, specific reasons, he would say, all tied to our surroundings. Artists and “cultural tourists” do not come for the arts, they come for the arts in Jackson Hole – even local arts organizations will agree. This being the case, the environment should be our priority.

Yet, I also see that artists can be our greatest spokespeople. The Center of Wonder realized this when it hired Bland Hoke as its Public Art Ambassador. Art makes people look at the world differently. Public art makes people see the environment in which the work exists, again, and maybe for the first time.

Moreover, young artists are also very conscious of why they live here, and they want to continue living here, not just in the sense that they want to be able to afford it, but also in the sense that they want to be able to enjoy it.

To help keep them here, we could hire them to design and promulgate the valley’s new image. They also have some pretty cool ideas on what that image could be, which for me means not only having mountains to hike, but also environments full of rosy-cheeked individuals in which to share and interpret those experiences, say, like a First Friday event. JHW
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Support art to support Jackson | Planet JH News Article: Editorial

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