Ribbon-Cutting & Celebration: Craters of the Moon sculpture installation in Ketchum

The Sun Valley Center for the Arts invites the community to celebrate the installation of two public sculptures commissioned by the Sun Valley Center for the Arts for its recent Craters of the Moon project—John Grade’s Spur and Jason Middlebrook’s Homage to the Limber Pine. A ribbon-cutting ceremony at the reinstallation site of Grade’s sculpture will take place at 4pm, Saturday, October 15, along the Wood River Trail in Ketchum.

Grade and Middlebrook’s sculptures were installed earlier this year at Craters of the Moon National Monument as part of a larger exhibition presented by The Center during the centennial year of the National Park Service. The two artists took inspiration for their works from the rugged, lunar-like landscape of Craters of the Moon in Arco, Idaho, but they were also aware that their pieces would reside in Ketchum over the long term.

In creating Spur, John Grade was keenly aware of the community’s long history with the railroad, and he designed his artwork to reflect that past. The horizontal elements that link Spur’s cedar arches are reminiscent of a train’s rail lines, and the stacattoed light that occurs as viewers pass through the sculpture is similar in feeling to the broken motion of a train moving through a landscape.

carters-of-the-moon-sculptures-2_001_250pxFor Middlebrook, it was important that his slate tree sculpture be placed in an environment where people could discover it in the context of other natural vegetation. The week of September 26, Middlebrook’s Homage to the Limber Pine will be reinstalled in Ketchum’s Little Park (east of the Ore Wagon Museum on 5th Street East), where the scale of the park perfectly complements the size of the tree.

The ribbon-cutting ceremony for the reinstallation of John Grade’s Spur sculpture will take place in Ketchum at the fork in the Wood River Trail just south of Serenade Lane. Guests should park in the Lower River Run parking lot and walk approximately one-third of a mile south along the bike path.

“We hope everyone will come out to celebrate these tremendous additions to the cultural landscape and all of the partners who have come together to realize this special gift to the community,” said Kristin Poole, Artistic Director of The Center.

Artist John Grade will be present at the ribbon-cutting ceremony alongside Ketchum mayor Nina Jonas, members of the Ketchum Arts Commission, the Blaine County Recreation District, the Idaho Foundation for Parks and Lands as well as patrons and friends of the Sun Valley Center for the Arts. The October 15 event is free and open to the public, and light refreshments will be served.

For more information about the ribbon-cutting ceremony and other upcoming events at The Center call 208.726.9491.

Project Sponsors:
The Sun Valley Center for the Arts has received support for Craters of the Moon from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the City of Ketchum and numerous private donors. The project was supported by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts under the “Imagine Your Parks” initiative, a grant established in recognition of the NPS Centennial. In addition to financial support, numerous partners have helped make this project possible, including the National Park Service (and their staff at Craters of the Moon National Monument), the City of Ketchum, Idaho Foundation for Parks and Lands, the Blaine County Recreation District and other public and private partners.