Wednesday, June 6, 2007

Valley is ?on the cusp of great things?

Arts scene becoming a Mecca


By PAT MURPHY
Express Staff Writer

Gilman Contemporary on Sun Valley Road is the latest addition to the growing gallery scene of Ketchum.

If communities have lives, then the Wood River Valley is now moving on from its fourth incarnation and assuming its fifth and most elegant personality.

First came the rough-and-tumble mining boom of the 1880s. Then summer sheep ranching, which endures today on a smaller scale. Next, America's first world-class, destination ski resort, which still thrives among the world's best. And then the year-round tourist and outdoors recreation resort.

Now, in a remarkable manifestation, this relatively small, fairly isolated string of small Idaho towns along a 25-mile stretch of state Highway 75 is ballooning into a significant arts-and-culture Mecca worthy of national attention.

This is no small achievement for a rural area whose permanent population is less than 25,000, tucked away in mountains 75 miles from the nearest urban center (Twin Falls).

Where skiing once dominated the valley's life, 80 percent of the area's annual events are now arts related, according to Carol Waller, executive director of the Sun Valley/Ketchum Chamber and Visitors Bureau.

As for economic impact, Americans for Art recently completed a study of the financial benefits of arts here. Results have not yet been released, according to Keith Moore of the Wood River Arts Alliance.

The area's new stature, reflects Jennifer Teisinger, executive director of the Sun Valley Summer Symphony, has until now been a "best-kept secret."

To Teisinger, utterly vital to continued arts appreciation and growth is nurturing the "feeling of goodwill" among the loyal devotees who have been generous financial supporters and faithful audiences.

The crown-jewel symphony, to make the point, is now in its 23rd year, with a roster of more than 100 first-rate professional musicians from 25 orchestras and symphonies in the United States, Canada and Spain who eagerly spend their summers here. The symphony's devoted audience of some 20,000 jams 14 annual free concerts and benefit performances. The symphony also has spawned a series of remarkable youth music schools that create seed stock for future generations of arts aficionados.

Underscoring the momentum and economic importance of the arts, the Sun Valley Resort, known for its ski mountain, will build an eye-catching, multi-million-dollar permanent music pavilion on resort grounds. The 1,500-seat theater—"a work of art" according to resort general manager Wally Huffman--will be surrounded by ample space for thousands of others to relax on the resort's spacious grounds.

Hardly had that announcement touched off cheers than the Sun Valley Center for the Arts, regarded as the grand dame of valley arts and culture since 1971, unveiled its own plans for a stunning, 42,000-square-foot new home in downtown Ketchum costing between $17 million and $20 million.

The symphony's new pavilion and the new arts center, convincing symbols of the valley's explosive growth in arts, created buzz far beyond the Wood River Valley and its wunderkind arts community.

The iconic symphony and arts center are far from being the total of the area's culture. Thousands of visitors with eclectic tastes—for theater, arts and crafts, art galleries, jazz, health and wellness lectures, book signings, antiques shows and more—have popularized dozens of other year-round activities distinguished by variety and wide-ranging diversity (see accompanying list). Each is an adventure for the mind.

The annual Trailing of the Sheep celebrates the end of the summer grazing season with a colorful parade of thousands of sheep and marchers through Ketchum. However, the event also includes educational events about Idaho's history of Basque herders and their culture.

Colorful and festive, the popular Wagon Days parade provides thousands of visitors with a history lesson about the primitive mule-drawn ore wagons that carried silver ore from mines to smelter in Ketchum's early days.

Emblematic of the passion to build the community arts base is the story of nexStage Theater and its managing director, Kathy Wygle, a passionate theater activist for several decades. Wygle has established several performing theater companies, including some for young people. Her crowning achievement, however, has been raising more than $1 million to purchase and expand the nexStage building on Main Street in Ketchum.

Note that the valley's arts and culture programs are not creations of impulse. They've had a long time in coming. The Sun Valley Gallery Association's Robin Reiners points out that the group is celebrating its 25th anniversary, with a few galleries 30 years old.

If persistence and patience have been essential in arts development, other factors unique to this area have provided the fuel.

Arts activist and benefactor Dan Drackett, who spearheaded an early but unsuccessful drive for a permanent arts-and-culture theater, cites the importance of a highly educated valley population with a deep appreciation for culture, along with a philanthropic spirit, as crucial to arts growth.

The symphony's Teisinger also believes that "people become more naturally open to what arts have to teach us in a beautiful environment."

Arts center executive director Sam Gappmayer, who believes arts are "deeply ingrained" in the valley's full-time and part-time residents, believes the area is "on the cusp of great things" in arts.

Perhaps the nexStage's Wygle offers a more basic perspective.

"When people like me came here just to ski 30 years ago," she mused, "I wanted other things to round out my life as my life went along."

So she pioneered theater to enrich herself, while providing some of the building blocks for today's arts culture.




 Local Weather 
Search archives:


Copyright © 2024 Express Publishing Inc.   Terms of Use   Privacy Policy
All Rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of Express Publishing Inc. is prohibited. 

The Idaho Mountain Express is distributed free to residents and guests throughout the Sun Valley, Idaho resort area community. Subscribers to the Idaho Mountain Express will read these stories and others in this week's issue.