2017-2018 BIG IDEAS Projects

The Unreliable Narrator
September 1 – November 24, 2017

Holly Andres, Keyhole, 2017, courtesy the artist

The Unreliable Narrator considers the power of the narrator who may not be trustworthy: a storyteller who misleads, or perhaps misunderstands the events unfolding in the course of a story, or asks the reader to construct their own narrative structure as they read a book, watch a play or film, or look at a work of art. How do we know when we can believe the story we’re being told?

Visual Arts Residency for The Unreliable Narrator is generously sponsored by Jennifer E. Wilson.

Associated Events: The Unreliable Narrator

Museum Exhibition…..Sep 1–Nov 24
Exhibition Opening Celebration…..Sep 1, 5-7pm
Evening Exhibition Tours…..Sep 28 & Oct 12, 5:30pm (DATE CHANGE: Please note the second evening exhibition tour date has changed from the originally published date of Oct 19)
Film: Under the Sun…..Sep 28, 7pm
Film: Nuts!…..Oct 12, 7pm (DATE CHANGE: Please note this film date has changed from the originally published date of Oct 19)
Lecture: James B. Stewart “Truth Matters: How Fake News and False Statements Undermine America”…..Oct 19, 6:30pm (DATE CHANGE: Please note this lecture date has changed from the originally published date of Oct 12)
Creative Jump-in: How to Tell a Great Story with Matthew Melton from Story Story Night…..Oct 26, 5:30–8:30pm
Teen Workshop: From the Page to Stage with Matthew Melton from Story Story Night …..Oct 28 & 29, 10am−4pm
Company of Fools Staged Reading: Pal with post-show conversation with Playwright Tasha Gordon-Solmon…..Oct 27, 6:30pm
Family Day…..Nov 4, 3–5pm
Public Storytelling with The Center & Idaho Basecamp…..Nov 9, 6–8pm

This Land is Whose Land?
January 26 – March 31, 2018

Angie Smith

This BIG IDEA project considers the United States’ relationship to the international refugee crisis. What role should our country play in resettling refugees? The Center tackles this project in large part because of Idaho’s history of resettling refugees. More broadly, how do we define who has access to a particular place (a neighborhood, a town, a country), who doesn’t, and who gets to decide?

This Land is Whose Land? BIG IDEA project is generously sponsored by Jeanne Meyers and Richard Carr.

Associated Events: This Land is Whose Land?

Film: Big Sonia with filmmakers Leah Warshawski & Todd Soliday…..Jan 25, 7pm
Museum Exhibition…..Jan 26–Mar 31
Exhibition Opening Celebration…..Jan 26, 5–7pm
Company of Fools Staged Reading: The Diary of Anne Frank and post-show conversation…..Jan 27, 7pm & Jan 28, 2pm
Creative Jump-in: “Seeing Other People: Photography, Difference, and Ethics at the Limit” with Sarah Sentilles…..Jan 30, 5:30–7pm
Company of Fools Theatre: Clybourne Park with post-show conversation…..Feb 21–Mar 10, various dates and times
Evening Exhibition Tours…..Feb 22 & Mar 22, 5:30pm
Family Day.….Mar 3, 3–5pm
Lecture: Viet Thanh Nguyen…..Mar 8, 6:30pm
Panel Discussion: Whose Land Is it?….. March 13, 6:30 p.m.
Film: Welcome to Refugeestan…..Mar 22, 7pm

Bees
April 13 – June 22, 2018

Cameron Cartiere/Border Free Bees

Bees explores the critical role bees and other pollinators play in our food chain and environment and the challenges they face today, from colony collapse disorder to shrinking habitat. The project offers opportunities for all to learn how to help ensure the survival of pollinator species.

Associated Events: Bees

Workshops: Seed Paper Making…..Feb 2–3, various times
Lecture: Ruth Reichl “Protect What We Eat”…..Feb 8, 6:30pm
Creative Jump-in: Backyard Beekeeping for Beginners with Sawtooth Botanical Garden…..April 5, 5:30–7pm
Lecture: Cameron Cartiere Border Free Bees…..Apr 12, 5:30pm
Museum Exhibition…..Apr 13–Jun 22
Exhibition Opening Celebration…..Apr 13, 5–7pm
Special Event: Pollinator Pop Up (Celebrate Earth Day!)…..Apr 20, 5-7pm
Company of Fools Theatre A commissioned mini-musical Inside, Outside, Upside Down! with post show interactive workshop…..Apr 21, 6pm & Apr 22, 2pm
Panel Discussion: What is the Threat?…..Apr 24, 6:30pm
Evening Exhibition Tours…..Apr 26, May 24 & Jun 14, 5:30pm
Film: Pien, Queen of the Bees…..Apr 26, May 24 & Jun 14 (short 17-minute film following the Exhibition Tours)
Film: Queen of the Sun: What Are the Bees Telling Us?…..Apr 26, 7pm
Teen Workshop: Ceramic Bee Baths with Boulder Mountain Clayworks…..Apr 28, 10am-1pm
Family Day: Bees and Pollinators…..May 12, 12–4pm
Creative Jump-in: Cooking with Honey with The Haven…..May 17, 6–8pm
Special Event: Community Planting Party…..June 9, 1-5pm

We the People: Protest and Patriotism
September 28–December 14, 2018

As citizens in a representative democracy, Americans rely on elected officials to make legislation and policy—to act in the United States’ best interests domestically and internationally. But from the time of its founding, the U.S. has also been a nation that embraces the idea of participatory democracy. Our country functions because it allows (and depends upon) the participation of its citizens. Those seeking to participate in the democratic process can take a wide range of actions, from voting in elections to running for office, showing up for city council meetings, or organizing and joining public marches and rallies. In fact, public acts of protest have shaped America’s history since the moment in December 1773 when colonists gathered in Boston Harbor to reject a shipment of tea from the East India Company in protest of their lack of representation in British Parliament. Public protests have punctuated America’s history, bringing people together to speak out against slavery or the Vietnam War, and in favor of voting rights for women, expanded protections for workers, or civil rights for African-Americans, members of the LGBTQ community and many others. Organizing publicly gives citizens with a shared set of beliefs the chance to speak with a unified voice about their vision for the country and the opportunity to effect social and political change. While marches and rallies may be among the most visible ways that Americans participate in their democracy, citizens also take quieter measures—exercising their right to vote, for example. Volunteering on a campaign. or running for office in order to be part of the process of governing, which begins at the grassroots level. American democracy has never been neat and tidy; instead, it is complicated and sometimes messy. However, democracy is enriched and ensured by its citizens’ participation, whatever form that might take. And every act of participation, whether flying a flag or voting in elections, running for office or marching in the streets, is also an act of patriotism that affirms and celebrates our shared belief that as citizens, we have the right and the duty to help shape our nation’s government.

The BIG IDEA project We the People: Protest and Patriotism is generously supported by Jeri L. Wolfson.

VISUAL ARTS EVENTS

Museum Exhibition
Sep 28–Dec 14, 2018
FREE at The Center, Ketchum
Mon-Fri, 9am-5pm

Evening Exhibition Tour and Discussion with Artists Deborah Aschheim and Paul Shambroom
Thu, Oct 11, 5:30pm
FREE at The Center, Ketchum

Evening Exhibition Tours
Thu, Nov 1 and Thu, Dec 6, 5:30pm
FREE at The Center, Ketchum
Enjoy a glass of wine as you tour the exhibition with The Center’s curators and museum guides.

Gallery Walk
Fri, Nov 23, 4–6pm
FREE at The Center, Ketchum
Start your Gallery Walk at The Center!

ASSOCIATED EVENTS

COMPANY OF FOOLS THEATRE: Woody Guthrie’s American Song, Songs and Writings by Woody Guthrie, Conceived and Adapted by Peter Glazer, Orchestrations and Vocal Arrangements by Jeff Waxman…..Jun 26–Jul 15, 2018
ART HISTORY LECTURE: Artists as Agitators and Changemakers with Kristin Poole, Artistic Director…..Thu, Sep 27, 5:30pm
LECTURE: Jon Meacham “The Soul of America”…..Oct 3, 2018, 6:30pm
ART HISTORY LECTURE: Ambrogio Lorenzetti’s Allegory of Good and Bad Government: 14th Century Ideas with Relevance Today, with Elaine French…..Oct 18, 5:30pm
COMPANY OF FOOLS PLAY READING: The Agitators, by Mat Smart…..Oct 23, 6:30pm
PANEL DISCUSSION: Governed by the People—Why Do We Serve?…..Nov 13, 6pm
CONCERT: The War and Treaty…..Nov 15, 7:30pm
FILM: The Other Side of Everything…..Nov 1, 4:30 and 7pm
FILM: Two Trains Runnin’…..Nov 29, 4:30 and 7pm
FAMILY DAY: It’s as American as Apple Pie!…..Nov 3, 3–5pm

As part of the BIG IDEA project, We the People, the Sun Valley Center for the Arts is a 50 State Initiative partner of For Freedoms. Since 2016, For Freedoms has produced special exhibitions, town hall meetings, billboards, and lawn sign installations to spur greater participation in civic life. This year, For Freedoms launched its 50 State Initiative, a new phase of programming to encourage broad participation and inspire conversation around November’s midterm elections. Building off of the existing artistic infrastructure in the United States, For Freedoms has developed a network of more than 300 artists and 200 institutional partners who will produce nation-wide public art installations, exhibitions and local community dialogues in order to inject nuanced, artistic thinking into public discourse. Centered around the vital work of artists, For Freedoms hopes that these exhibitions and related projects will model how arts institutions can become civic forums for action and discussion of values, place, and patriotism. Learn more at: forfreedoms.org/50-state-initiative