BIG IDEA Project: The Bottomlessness of a Pond: Transcendentalism, Nature and Spirit

What is the 21st-century experience of the spiritual in nature? How do we understand our own personal relationship with the natural world? What lessons does the Transcendentalism movement of the mid-19th century offer us today? The Sun Valley Center for the Arts will explore these questions and more in its new BIG IDEA project, The Bottomlessness of a Pond: Transcendentalism, Nature and Spirit, opening Friday, Jan. 17, 2020, at its museum in Ketchum.

The mid-19th century in the United States saw the emergence of a group of progressive thinkers who advocated for a new understanding of the relationship between the individual, the divine and the natural world. Men and women including Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau and Margaret Fuller, among others, came together in a shared belief in a variety of [umanitarian causes (women’s suffrage, better conditions for workers, abolition, progressive education) but also religious purpose. Transcendentalism, as their theological and philosophical ideas became known, advocated for a personal knowledge of God founded upon a rejection of materialism in favor of a spiritual experience of nature. Transcendentalism’s ideals found their most famous embodiment in Thoreau’s retreat to Walden Pond (then believed to be bottomless), where he spent a year living in relative isolation in a small, spare cabin, focusing on the spiritual rewards of a life lived in harmony with nature.

“At this technology-saturated moment, when creating time to pause, breathe, and just be in awe of the world is increasingly difficult, it seems appropriate to look again at the approach of the  Transcendentalists, who advocated a retreat from the material world in favor of a divine encounter with nature,” said Kristin Poole, Artistic Director at The Center. “Re-examining their ideas may encourage us to take that pause—to stop and look and, perhaps along the way, find that a deep breath on a crisp Idaho day fills more than just our lungs.”

The visual arts exhibition associated with The Bottomlessness of a Pond: Transcendentalism, Nature and Spirit features the work of six contemporary artists who explore themes central to the BIG IDEA:

The Bottomlessness of a Pond: Transcendentalism, Nature and Spirit exhibition also includes hands-on activities for learners of all ages in The Center’s Maker Space.

To further illuminate this BIG IDEA, The Center will present a series of lectures, classes, films and theatre productions to encourage community participation and discussion:

FREE Museum Exhibition  Jan. 17–March 11
Film: The World Before Your Feet  Jan. 16, 4:30 and 7 p.m.
Class: A Winter Walk with Matt Green  Jan. 18, 10 a.m.
Creative Jump-In: “On Being Thoreau” with Tim Price  Jan. 22, 29, Feb. 5 & 12, 6–7:30 p.m.
Creative Jump-In: “Diving Deep Into Winter Blues: Healing Through Nature” With Cal Millar  Jan. 23, 6–8:30 p.m.
FREE Theatre Reading: “The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail” by Jerome Lawrence & Robert E. Lee  Jan. 23, 7 p.m.
Teen Workshop: Landscape Photography With a Twist  Jan. 25, 9 a.m.–noon
FREE Family Day: Nature Play  Jan. 25, 11–4 p.m.
Performing Arts: Taimane – “Elemental” Tour, Jan. 26, 7:30 p.m.
Featured Speaker: An Evening With Cheryl Strayed  Jan. 30, 6:30 p.m. (Presented in partnership with The Community Library)
FREE Theatre Reading: “Tiny Beautiful Things” by Cheryl Strayed  Feb. 1, 7 p.m. and Feb. 2, 3 p.m.
Creative Jump-In: “Finding the Transcendental in Still Life Painting” With Sarah Bird  Feb. 10–14, 9 a.m.–1 p.m.
FREE Evening Exhibition Tour  Feb. 13, 5:30 p.m.
FREE Gallery Walk  Feb. 14, 5–7 p.m.
FREE Evening Exhibition Tour  March 5, 5:30 p.m.
Film: Five Seasons: The Gardens of Piet Oudolf, March 5, 4:30 and 7 p.m.
Self-Care Workshop: Green Studio With Jordyn Dooley  March 7, 10 a.m.–2 p.m. (Offered in partnership with Sawtooth Botanical Garden)

The visual arts exhibition for The Bottomlessness of a Pond: Transcendentalism, Nature and Spirit will be on view at The Center in Ketchum through March 11, 2020. Admission to the museum is always free, and the public is invited to visit the exhibition during The Center’s open hours, Monday–Friday, 9 a.m.–5 p.m.

Behind the Curtain: Miss Bennet #1

What does the word community mean to You, individually? Ask yourself… 

Now think about it just a bit longer… 

And now: “You’re welcome.” It’s high time to reclaim these two words within our vernacular, to transform them from cliché to genuine invitation. 

Let us not forget that “Ally” is also a Verb. A verb which implies taking distinctive action, of quite often stepping out of one’s comfort zone — even at the risk of discomfort, criticism, or even judgement. For example, perhaps any number of audience members from our sensory-friendly invited dress, student matinees, and parent/ baby matinee performances must get up and move around, or vocalize prominently during or throughout the show. Regarding that, please allow me to use an “I” statement here: in those moments, my implicit bias of what behavior is or is not “acceptable” within the conventions of the modern Theater may come bubbling rapidly to the surface. “Why are they getting up and walking out of the theater at this pivotal moment?! Who brings a baby to the Theater?! Who is making all that noise out there?!” These are impulses that I have been socially conditioned to feel, and I have felt them all during my 17 or so years on the stage. It is part of my personal journey to steadily UNlearn these sentiments… because the ecology of our patron population is shifting, as it should. We as Theatre-makers must stay ahead of this shift, that we might provide an invaluable service to the members of our community who’ve been traditionally pushed to the fringes of our collective awareness. The old guard can no longer support this art form with any sort of longevity; it’s high time to Welcome new patrons of Theatre into our house, and inspire them to stay a while — perhaps for a lifetime. 

I am truly inspired by the community-minded initiatives that Company of Fools is bringing to this community, and hopefully beyond. And I’m immensely grateful that I get to unlearn archaic points of view regarding the craft I love so dearly. I sincerely hope that you will come in from out of the cold this month and get warm with us in Regency-era England… and then join us again early next year for something completely different: The Niceties, by Eleanor Burgess. A play for a new era of critical human dialogue; a newer story for a newer world. 

Art has a responsibility to its Community. The weakest type of Art is the self-serving kind, if you ask this blogger. To serve one’s community, to call one and all into critical dialogue, to educate a whole generation of people through one’s assets — that is how to genuinely leave a legacy. Onward and forward… 

Which reminds me: you are WELCOME to engage me in further dialogue regarding any of these blog posts, and the topic(s) they muse on, after any performance of Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley that you may be present for and/or after. I’d love to meet you, and digest these things further with you. 

 May the Learning never cease!

2018-2019 Sun Valley Center for the Arts Annual Impact Report

As the Executive Director of the Sun Valley Center for the Arts, I am proud to share our 2018-2019 Annual Impact Report with you and provide a snapshot of the smiles, inspiration and joy you bring to the Wood River Valley through your support of this organization. When I think about the meaning of the word impact, I think of the last 12 months of extraordinary arts experiences that you made possible. Our entire community benefits from your commitment to the arts. NONE of the programs included in this report would have taken place without your participation and generosity.

I walk away from every Sun Valley Center for the Arts event I attend feeling both inspired and impressed.

Under the leadership of Producing Artistic Director Scott Palmer, Company of Fools is doing extraordinary work and providing a growing series of enriching educational opportunities.

The museum is in overdrive, with distinctive exhibitions that are gaining national attention thanks to the efforts of Artistic Director Kristin Poole and Curator of Visual Arts Courtney Gilbert.

Both our summer and winter concert series SOLD OUT EVERY SINGLE SHOW thanks to the talents of Kristine Bretall, Director of Performing Arts, who meticulously labors to bring new and exciting artists to Idaho.

And the strength of our education and humanities team, under the leadership of Director of Education and Humanities Katelyn Foley, is apparent in their dedication to K–12 education, life-long learning opportunities for adults, and new programs designed to serve the entire community.

Our impact through arts education has grown exponentially over the last three years, and we are actively looking at new ways to meet the needs of our creative community through special programs and experiences for all.

As you consider your charitable giving at year end, please think deeply about your experiences with the Sun Valley Center for the Arts and what this organization brings to our community. Life is richer in our valley because of your support.

With gratitude,
Christine Davis-Jeffers
Executive Director
Sun Valley Center for the Arts

2018-2019 IMPACT REPORT:
(Fiscal Year: June 1, 2018-May 31, 2019)
Click on the image or here to view in Issuu.
Or click here to view a PDF.

VISUAL ARTS EXHIBITION: Behind the Sagebrush Curtain: Women Modernists in Montana and Idaho

The Sun Valley Center for the Arts is pleased to announce the opening of a new visual arts exhibition, Behind the Sagebrush Curtain: Women Modernists in Montana and Idaho, which will be on view at The Center in Ketchum Nov. 15, 2019–Jan. 10, 2020. Entry to the museum is always free.

Behind the Sagebrush Curtain includes prints, drawings, paintings and ceramics by seven 20th-century artists who were active in Montana (Gennie DeWeese, Edith Freeman, Isabelle Johnson, Helen McAuslan, Frances Senska and Jessie Wilber) and Idaho (Sara Joyce). Working in a wide range of materials and styles, these artists were unified in their desire to marry the landscapes and subject matter of the American West with ideas and techniques that reflected their engagement with international modernism. Many of these women also served as teachers and mentors throughout their careers, influencing the work of younger artists in the Intermountain West for decades.

The exhibition takes its title from a recent interview with Donna Forbes, longtime Executive Director of the Yellowstone Art Museum and a personal friend of Isabelle Johnson, whose paintings are included in the exhibition.

“Tippet Rise Art Center in Fishtail, Montana, posted the interview on their website,” said Dr. Courtney Gilbert, Curator of Visual Arts at The Center. “In it, Ms. Forbes discusses Montana’s art scene in the 1950s and 1960s, describing her colleagues as feeling cut off from the major centers of the art world. She remembered a friend commenting that in Montana, artists were stuck ‘behind the sagebrush curtain.’ But as the exhibition illustrates, artists in the West, despite their relative isolation, were actively working with modernist ideas. This exhibition focuses on women modernists whose work has been less widely exhibited than that of their male counterparts — women who were, in essence, working behind a second curtain.”

The following special events are associated with the exhibition:

FREE Evening Exhibition Tours                                                                  
Thursday, Nov. 21, 5:30 p.m.
Thursday, Dec. 12, 5:30 p.m.
Thursday, Jan. 9, 2020, 5:30 p.m. – members of Sara Joyce’s family will be present to discuss her work

FREE Gallery Walks
Friday, Nov. 29, 4–6 p.m. – Giving Walk
Friday, Dec. 27, 5–7 p.m.

 Behind the Sagebrush Curtain: Women Modernists in Montana and Idaho will be on view at The Center Nov. 15, 2019–Jan. 10, 2020.

Sun Valley Center for the Arts Awarded Grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services

The Sun Valley Center for the Arts is proud to announce that it has been awarded a $34,113 grant by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) to extend the reach of The Center’s innovative Classroom Enrichment program throughout the state of Idaho by creating an Online Teacher Resource Center. The Center’s grant application for this project was one of 449 received by IMLS this year, of which 112 grant requests received funding totaling more than $19 million.

The Center designed its Classroom Enrichment Project to integrate art into core curriculum lessons (math, science, social sciences and humanities) at the secondary level. The program provides regular classroom teachers with new, powerful tools to increase student engagement, deepen understanding of the curriculum and encourage students’ self‐expression.

More than three-quarters of Idaho’s school districts are considered rural (defined as having fewer than 20 students per square mile, or a county with fewer than 25,000 people). Students in rural districts often have less access — and sometimes little to no access — to arts education. By documenting the Classroom Enrichment lessons currently being used in Blaine County schools and making them available online, The Center aims to support teachers across rural Idaho who might not otherwise have access to new approaches for learning and teaching core curriculum.

Specifically, the Center will use the funds awarded by IMLS to create videos of eight of its Classroom Enrichment project lessons and develop instructional materials to accompany each lesson. At the same time, The Center will create an Online Teacher Resource Center to serve as nexus of information on integrating the arts into secondary-level classroom instruction of core subjects.

“IMLS grants are extremely competitive and are only awarded to organizations that are making advances in the field,” said Kristin Poole, Artistic Director at The Center. “We are honored to be among the grantees and are so pleased that the Classroom Enrichment program that has been so successful in teaching core subject matter through the arts to middle and high school students will be extended to other schools and districts in state. Think about all those math and science students who will now be able to grasp complex material through hands-on art projects!”

The mission of IMLS is to advance, support, and empower America’s museums, libraries, and related organizations through grantmaking, research, and policy development. IMLS’ primary goals are to  promote literacy and lifelong learning; build the capacity of museums and libraries to improve the well-being of their communities; increase public access to ideas and information; and support the excellence of libraries and museums nationwide.

Behind the Curtain: Cry It Out #3

Molly Smith Metzler, the playwright of Cry It Out, describes the inspiration for her play in this way:

“When I was six months pregnant, my husband and I relocated from NYC to a small Long Island suburb called Port Washington. He was starting a new teaching job nearby, and we thought Port seemed like a quaint little beach town in which to start our family. What we didn’t consider was how isolated I would be, home with a newborn. We knew absolutely no one in town, and we couldn’t afford a second car, so I was trapped at home all day during the longest, snowiest, coldest winter in the history of Long Island. It was basically Winterfell, and I was dying of loneliness. But then one day, I met another mom. She lived within walking distance, and she had a baby the same age as mine, and even though we had very little in common, she saved my life and introduced me to this beautiful community of moms in town, who all shared their stories with me. I was surprised to realize that no matter what economic background we came from, we all had the same struggles. The experience of having a baby really cracks your career open, your marriage open, your identity open… and it’s mom friends who support you and get you through it all. I thought their stories belonged on stage.”

The idea that all people deserve their stories to be told on stage in an important one to me, and to Company of Fools. In the case of Cry It Out, Metzler is taking a personal experience, a deeply personal experience, and using that to create a play where audiences can learn more about the broader issues of new motherhood based on the individual experiences of the playwright and the characters on stage.

I love theatre that asks you to come in, invites you into the deeply personal and private lives of its characters, which, in turn, ask you to consider how those character’s lives can inform us about the larger context.

When you see the show, you are going to see a deeply personal story on stage; the lives of three women and their remarkably different experiences of new parenthood. But, each of these women have something to tell us, things to ask us, about new parenthood in our culture. More than that, these women challenge us to think differently about what we think we know about parenthood.

As you watch the show, I’d like to ask you to do me a favor: ask yourself if what you are seeing tonight supports or challenges your assumptions about new parenthood? Ask yourself if what you are watching supports your assumptions and what you see that might challenge your understanding, beliefs, and assumptions.

New parenthood is ubiquitous. I said to someone the other day who asked me who this show was for, I said “It is for anyone who has had a baby, anyone who knows someone who has a baby, or anyone who was ever a baby…so, it is for everyone,” and I also think that applies to the broader social and political implications of parenthood.

Here is what recent research tells us about new parenthood in the United States.

In more than 70% of American households with new babies, both parents work. We know that child care costs, on average, $14,000 a year but in many major cities, it can cost more than twice that amount. We know that paid leave for parents is available to about 17% of US workers, and that unpaid leave is available to only about 59% of workers… but we also know that most moms can’t afford to take advantage of unpaid leave due to financial constraints on their families. 50% of women in the United State take less than 2 months of maternity leave, and 1 in 4 new moms in this country return to work within 2 weeks of giving birth.

And these are just a few of the pressures facing new parents, of all genders, that have profound personal and economic impacts on them and their families.

It was surprising to me to discover that American moms are feeling more depressed, less competent, and less positive about their co-parenting relationships than at any other time in our history.

1 in 3 new mothers say that they experience a sense of deep loneliness and feelings of profound isolation after giving birth to their first child, and researches say that cultural expectations make it difficult for new moms to admit to anything but positive emotions about motherhood, so the scale of the problem may, in fact, be much larger.

Throughout the show, each of the moms provides a deeply personal view on the implications of these realities. When should I go back to work? What happens to my child if I have to go back to work? What happens to my life if I don’t go back to work? How can I afford child care without returning to work? What do these choices mean for my partner or co-parent? What are the implications of these choices on my family, my spouse, my extended family, and my community? How do these pressures ripple out and impact all of us – those of us with children, those of us considering having children, and those of us who do not, and won’t ever, have children?

It was my great pleasure to be here, at The Liberty Theatre, on September 23rd, with about 50 members of our community for Company of Fools’ first ever Parent & Baby night. Parents and friends of about a dozen or so teeny tiny little babies joined us here for the performance and for an opportunity to connect with each other as new parents. Given the challenges of social isolation, it felt important to us to respect the origins of this remarkable story by ensuring that parents here in the Valley have the opportunity to come together, to forge connections with other new parents, during a performance where the other audience members would have complete sympathy for babies who might be fussy or have a meltdown.

We made sure that the theatre was ready for parents and babies, including having the houselights up so parents could keep an eye on their kids, find the diaper bag, or get access to a toy or snack. We had baby changing stations, cribs, toys in the lobby, and both parents and little ones wandered the aisles, rocking, playing, and otherwise just being babies and parents watching a show.

Our partnership with St. Luke’s Wood River also allowed us to offer these parents a chance to learn about resources available to them in the Valley; new mom groups, access to post-natal care, and general information about the trials and tribulations of new parenthood.

We are also delighted to have partnered with other non-profit organizations in the Valley, many of whom are with us tonight, including our friends at Camp Rainbow Gold, an amazing non-profit dedicated to emotionally empowering experiences to children diagnosed with cancer and their families, the Papoose Club, a non-profit volunteer organization that supports youth-oriented groups throughout the Valley, and Crisis Hotline in honor of Suicide Prevention month.

These partnerships, and our focus on important stories about social justice and inclusion, is part of a theatre movement across the country called Theatre Civic Practice – a term coined by our friends at HowlRound Theatre based out of Emerson College in Boston.

Currently, within institutional theater organizations, community partnerships are fairly common and are most frequently developed by the theatre to help implement programming that surrounds mainstage productions. For example, our Parent & Baby night is a great vehicle for giving new parents a chance to attend theatre and make connections, but, to be honest, it is also a great vehicle for the Fools to get some great press coverage and support our marketing for the show.  Our partnership with St. Luke’s is equally valuable, it will help us both build new relationships around meaningful, shared interests, and it has already helped us broaden our reach in our community. But more than that, Civic Practice asks the Fools to be focused on how to create intersections – The Liberty will be a place where conversations are sparked, where questions are asked, and where connections between the work on stage, the people on stage, the people in the audience, and the people NOT in the audience, are primary.

Civic Practice is defined as an activity where a theater employs the assets of their craft in response to the needs of a community as determined through ongoing, relationship-based dialogue. What it means is that the theatre understands that it operates within a community, and that the health of that community has a direct and powerful relationship to the health of the theatre. It asks us, as an institution, to remember that we have unique skills and resources that can, and should, be used for the benefit of all.

As you watch the show, it is my hope that you will keep Civic Practice in mind. In what ways does this show speak to your experience, and in what ways does it NOT? How can you take what you see tonight and apply it outside of the theatre? Perhaps more importantly, what can we as a theatre company do for you? What skills and resources do we have that could be of help to you and to our community? What kinds of shows can we produce that will advance our Civic Practice? What role can you play in helping support our Civic Practice? What does it mean for us all to embrace a mentality of Civic Practice?

Every show this season has, and will continue to be, an attempt at Civic Practice. It doesn’t mean that we forget our role as a producer of theatre- in fact, Civic Practice calls us to use our skills as theatre artists. We still strive to entertain, to produce the highest quality work within our means, but will hope to do so in a way that is in service to the community.

In the coming months, you will see us announce new initiatives, such as autism and spectrum disorder appropriate performances, a continuation of our Parent & Baby performances, workshops and education opportunities connected to the themes of our shows – but you will also see our actors from Miss Bennett: Christmas At Pemberly reading Jane Austen to children at the library, you will see our staff dedicating Fools Day as a day of giving back through volunteerism at a local non-profit, you will see us actively promoting the work of other non-profit arts organizations…

But what I also hope you see is that our doors are open and we are here to listen. I also hope that you see that we are eager to bring our skills to the table, if they are helpful, to assist in whatever way we can. I hope you will see that we are eager to be more than just a place to see great shows, we want to be a place of connection, discussion, and support for the needs of our community.

Let me know how we can help. It’s our job.

 

BEHIND THE CURTAIN: Cry It Out #2

I had a nine week maternity leave.  I had to go back to work – for the money and because I loved what I did for my life’s work.  Somehow I thought I could have it all and do it really, really well.

I was due back to direct a Theatre IV touring production about the dangers of substance abuse called Walking the Line.  So I placed my daughter in a sling and set out to direct the show like a deranged kangaroo punch-drunk from lack of sleep.  The lack of sleep a new parent experiences should never be underestimated.  There I was blocking “the walking of the line” only to feel a warm gush of liquid inside the sling.  See I was a mom who decided to save the planet by placing my child in cloth diapers (obviously I didn’t save us from our present climate crisis but she never did get diaper rash) and the fit on those diapers can sometimes be a tad loose.  I paused – told the cast I needed 10 – ran into the bathroom with the diaper bag – only to discover – yup – no diapers.  No baby wipes.  No change of clothes.  Nadda.  So I held my little poo-covered daughter under the spout and did my best.

We do our best.  We do our best even though, at times, we know our best is falling really, really short.  We just keep doing our best.  Molly Smith Metzler’s four characters in Cry it Out – are doing their best.  There are two men  mentioned in the play who are the fathers of two of the babies and they are also doing their best.

Directing a play, in my humble opinion, is about two questions “Why?” and “How?”  You have to keep asking yourself that every minute you are on stage.  I also think that’s true of life – and certainly true of parenthood.  “How am I going to pursue the career I love and take care of my child?” “How am I going to afford all the things my child needs?” “Why don’t I have paid leave?” “Why am I existing between survival and guilt?”

Those are just a few of my personal favorites that I can recall muttering to myself when I had my beautiful baby. 

By the way – she came to see the play and as the lights came up she was crying.  She said she was deeply touched.  Yeah – she was raised in the theatre so she is a lover of stories…..but…..

You know what …..
I realized I didn’t ask her “Why?”
Why was she touched even though she had not experienced motherhood yet?

Well – of course it’s Molly’s beautiful play.  It speaks to being a new parent but it also speaks to us as daughters and sons, as grandparents, as people who are choosing not to have children, it speaks to getting up every day and choosing community – a community that nurtures and holds each other up.  It speaks to doing our best.  Or at least trying to do our best.

So – yeah.  I loved directing this play. 
Oh and that beautiful baby I had?  She survived those poo-encrusted days and is figuring things out with the rest of us at the ripe old age of 28.

Behind the Curtain: Cry It Out #1

I’m Michelle. I’m an actor, a wife and a daughter. Three and a half years ago I became a mom. A MOM!! Nine years after I was told that I wouldn’t be able to have kids because of all of the chemo and radiation I received for Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, I was blessed to start my journey on the most beautifully exhausting, confusing and exciting time of my life.

Two years into my life as “Michelle The Mom”, I was trying to find my way back to “Michelle The Actress”. I was struggling and frustrated and needed to connect with my creative self. Enter my best friend Dawn with several plays for me to read. She thought they all had good monologues that I could work on. But there was one play that she felt very strongly about. Her exact words were…”Girl! Cry It Out. This play…Hold on. It’s gonna hit you right in the reals. Definitely a few monologues you can do. One in particular. You’ll know it.” Boy did I!! As soon as I started reading Adrienne’s monologue my stomach started to tighten and I started crying. This was the one. I read it a few more times and cried each time. I WAS ADRIENNE!! It was all there…the love for the baby, the love of work and the need to get back to it, and the physical pain and mental toll of being a new stay at home mom. We were one.

Caring for a baby is a huge important part of life yet it’s difficulties are very rarely depicted in the arts. This is why I jumped at the chance to take on the role of Adrienne in this production of Cry It Out. The show addresses all of these real-world issues and also highlights the privilege that comes with class and gender.

Momming ain’t easy!!! And no, no one ever said it would be but they also never talked about the struggles like the loneliness of being a stay at home mom, balancing career and being a parent, childcare struggles, and the big one…postpartum depression and anxiety.

As an actor and new mom, there were many occasions where I had to take my baby with me to auditions because we weren’t ready to put her into daycare at such a young age (and hello…DAYCARE IS EXPENSIVE) and we don’t have family in town. Yes, we have tons of friends but it’s not the same as having grandma close by ready to take the grandbaby. And to be honest, the postpartum depression and anxiety I was suffering would not let me leave her with anyone.

Yep, I had the “Big P”! The hush hush topic that unfortunately, most folks just don’t want to talk about. Postpartum depression and anxiety. And let me tell you, IT KICKED MY BUTT!! Being home alone all day with my girl got to be so lonely that I got depressed and became extremely anxious about everything. Especially when it came to her. I wasn’t sure how to function outside of the house with her and it terrified me to take her out. But I had to because it felt like I was losing my mind stuck in the house all day with no adult contact other than the UPS guy dropping off Amazon packages.

Thanks to all things Facebook, I joined a mommy group in my area and was able to connect with other moms with babies close to my daughter’s age. They did park get togethers and story time at the library followed by lunch. So, I took some deep breaths and started venturing out to join them at story time. I was usually anxious and very flustered when I got there but I did it. And it didn’t take long for me to start looking forward to our Friday library and pizza dates. And as wonderful as that was for my mind and my soul, I was still anxious getting there and then when it was time to go home, all of the anxiety would come flooding back in. It took everything in me to get us there and I had to find the courage to get us back home. And there was no stopping anywhere along the way. Out of the question! I knew that I could get us to our Friday fun time and back home. That’s it. My mind couldn’t handle trying to do anything else. And guess what I discovered while getting to know these other moms??? WE WERE ALL STRUGGLING!!! Each and every one of us was struggling with being new moms. Some of the same and some very different struggles. But they were in it too! Hallelujah!! It wasn’t just me! All of these strong, talented, women with careers were now staring down the path of this new mom journey just as confused as I was.  We shared and supported each other like we’d known each other for years. And it was this wonderful group of women that informed me over lunch that what I was feeling 6 months after giving birth was indeed postpartum depression and anxiety. And that a few of them were also going through it. I WAS NOT ALONE!!! And because of that, I was able to get help. Therapy works y’all.

I’m thankful for the way that Molly Smith Metzler has chosen to address postpartum depression/anxiety  and the loneliness that can come from being a stay at home mom. There is so much stigma attached to it that we never see anyone just dive into the topic like this. The need for connection and community is real. Particularly for first time moms. I’m so grateful for my wonderful “Mom Squad”. Not sure what this journey would look like without them. Glad that I don’t have to find out.

If you’re a new parent, know that your community is out there waiting for you. You never know where you’ll find them. Maybe it’s Facebook or maybe it’s Stop and Shop. They’re out there waiting for you. So, take a deep breath and go get ‘em!

BIG IDEA PROJECT & EXHIBITION OPENING CELEBRATION: Marketplaces: From Open Air to Online

The Sun Valley Center for the Arts invites the community to a free opening celebration for its new BIG IDEA project, Marketplaces: From Open Air to Online, on Friday, Aug. 30, 2019, at The Center’s museum in Ketchum. The celebration is free to the public and will begin at 5 p.m., with participating artists Chad Erpelding and Mark R. Smith speaking about their artwork at 6 p.m.

© Brendan O’Connell, Infinite Kicks, 2016, acrylic on canvas, courtesy the artist

What does the marketplace look like in the 21st century? Over the last 25 years, there has been a radical transformation in the way Americans buy and sell goods and services. Motivated more and more by the perception of convenience, we are increasingly choosing to shop online from the comfort of our own homes or in big-box stores where we believe “one-stop shopping” will save us time and money. As a result, small, independently owned stores are facing serious challenges, leaving vacant storefronts along our Main Streets. Even many chain stores have struggled, and giant malls, which were once hubs of social activity as well as commerce, lie empty.

These recent shifts are part of our continually evolving relationship to the idea of the marketplace—a commercial space that has taken myriad forms over human history, from open-air markets and ancient trade routes that linked far-flung parts of the globe to small shops owned by specialty retailers, enormous big-box stores, and the online sites that comprise much of today’s retail market. And how do we buy and sell not just goods, but pieces of the companies that provide those goods? Not all Americans own stocks in companies, but the strength of indices like the Dow, the NASDAQ and the S&P 500 impact everyone.

While box stores and online shopping may be big business today, there has also been a simultaneous resurgence in farmers markets, a call to shop locally, and reinvestment in the downtowns of small towns and cities across the U.S. This BIG IDEA projects sheds light on the complex intersections of these marketplaces and, perhaps more importantly, how our choices as consumers shape our society.

The Center’s visual arts exhibition for Marketplaces features five contemporary artists whose work across explores themes that are central to the BIG IDEA:

Marketplaces provides fascinating opportunities to explore the changing nature of commerce around the globe — and also to consider how our exchange of goods and services has, in many ways, remained essentially the same over time,” said Courtney Gilbert, Curator of Visual Arts at The Center. “As Mark Smith’s artwork illustrates, the global economy has existed for centuries. This BIG IDEA expands the conversation with lectures, panel discussions, films, a family day and a teen workshop that add dimension to the project and give learners of all ages the chance to think about their own choices as consumers and learn about everything from niche markets to the revival of rural downtowns.”

The following special events are associated with this exhibition:

FREE Opening Celebration and Gallery Walk…… Friday, Aug. 30, 5–7 p.m.
LECTURE: Lecture: Kirk Wallace Johnson – “The Feather Thief”……Thursday, Sept. 12, 6:30 p.m.
FREE Panel Discussion: Mighty Main Street Revival……Tuesday, Sept. 17, 6 p.m.
FREE Evening Exhibition Tour……Thursday, Sept. 19, 5:30 p.m.
FILM: Carmine Street Guitars……Thursday, Sept. 19, 4:30 & 7 p.m.
FREE Family Day……Saturday, Sept. 28, 10 a.m.–4 p.m.
TEEN WORKSHOP: Printmaking with Marne Elmore……Saturday, Sept. 28, 10 a.m.–4 p.m.
FREE Panel Discussion: From Rural to Global in Sun Valley……Tuesday, Oct. 15, 6 p.m.
FILM: Spettacolo……Thursday, Oct. 24, 4:30 & 7 p.m.
FREE Evening Exhibition Tour……Thursday, Oct. 24, 5:30 p.m.
FILM: The Biggest Little Farm……Thursday, Nov. 14, 4:30 & 7 p.m.

Marketplaces: From Open Air to Online will be on view at The Center in Ketchum from Aug. 30 through Nov. 8, 2019.

Announcing ART THERAPY WORKSHOP: Stepping Out of the Frame (6-week program)

The Sun Valley Center for the Arts is pleased to announce a new museum-based art therapy program, “Stepping Out of the Frame,” designed especially for adults living with Alzheimer’s disease or other forms of dementia. During the free six-week program, which will be held 1:30–3:30 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays between July 23 and Aug 29, participants will explore The Center’s summer visual arts exhibition Mirage: Energy and Water in the Great Basin through therapeutic art experiences both inside and outside the museum. The program builds upon The Center’s mission of enriching the community through transformational arts and educational experiences.

Art therapy is an integrative practice that enriches the lives of individuals, families and communities through active art-making. Activities are facilitated by a professional art therapist and are designed to improve cognitive and sensory-motor functions, foster self-esteem and self-awareness, cultivate emotional resilience, promote insight, enhance social skills, and reduce and resolve internal and external conflicts. Museum-based art therapy is a collaboration between art therapy and art education in which the museum (in this case, The Center) operates as a space for participants to experience inclusivity, community, and opportunities for learning and exploration while the art therapy catalyzes healing, transformation and expression through the experiences within the museum.

The Center’s art therapy pilot program is designed for adults with Alzheimer’s disease or other forms of dementia. Extensive research in the art therapy field has been done with this population, specifically in museum settings. Following the lead of many larger metropolitan museums, The Center is proud to implement its own art therapy program and share the innovative practice’s many benefits with members of the Wood River Valley community.

“I became interested in the profound possibilities that museum-based art therapy has to offer as a first-year graduate student, and I have since dedicated much of my academic research and professional development to designing and promoting those benefits with a wide range of populations,” said Jordyn Dooley, Art Enrichment Coordinator at The Center, who holds a master’s degree in art therapy from Florida State University. “I have seen firsthand how the power of placing a handmade image on the wall of a museum offered the opportunity for an adolescent boy, who had never been into a museum, the chance to claim the space as his own and elevate his art to that of a professional artist. I have listened to women in their eighties with dementia discuss and appreciate abstract and controversial student artwork, demonstrating that no one is too old to broaden their scope and communicate their opinions. The museum is a space free of stigma and open to all, and we at The Center want to open the floor for discussion and the exchange of ideas to everyone.”

Pre-registration for The Center’s museum-based art therapy program is required, but there is no fee to participate. Participants should plan to commit to all weekly sessions in order to gain the maximum educational and therapeutic benefit. To reserve a space in the program and for more information, visit www.sunvalleycenter.org or call 208.726.9491.