There are big plans for the cityscape of Ketchum: plans for an art promenade of First Avenue, plans to honor the history and people of the Wood River Valley, plans to make Ketchum the ultimate pedestrian-friendly city.
But plans take time, and those are expected to take 10 to 15 years. In the interim, galleries and artists with the help of the Town Design Team, an organization within the Ketchum Community Development Corp., have turned Fourth Street into its own arts promenade.
"The concept is street as gallery, street as museum, street as history, street as art itself," said Dale Bates, board member of the CDC and head of the Town Design Team.
The first exhibition on Fourth Street took place in July 2007. With help from members of the Sun Valley Gallery Association, the town design team brought together a number of sculptures to line the Fourth Street Heritage Corridor east of Main Street.
This year's exhibition features sculptures by more artists and from more galleries. While participants include regulars like Gail Severn, Anne Reed and DeNovo, others like the Green Antelope Gallery of Bellevue joined for the first time.
"The artists and galleries really stepped up to the plate," Bates said. "We have some really world-class art on the street."
In total there are 17 sculptures along Fourth Street. Members of the chamber, the Town Design Team and local business owners juried in each of the sculptures. The main criterion for the selection was that each piece had to come from either a valley-based artist or gallery.
The installations were not cheap. Either the artist who made the piece or the gallery that is showing it had to shoulder the cost of moving and installing it. Robin Reiners of Gallery DeNovo said such an endeavor often requires the use of cranes and can cost up to hundred of dollars per installation.
"What the galleries and artists have done is a huge gift to the community," said Deb Gelet of Anne Reed Gallery. "It is quite a commitment as they bear the expense."
Yet the galleries could not be more thrilled to contribute.
"It's great for us," Reiners said. "We don't have a lot of space to show a nice big piece."
The pieces on Fourth Street, in place until after the Trailing of the Sheep Festival in mid-October, are for sale. While none have sold yet, Gelet acknowledged the exhibition has increased gallery visits.
Participants say the exhibition has also increased community members' awareness of art—its beauty and significance.
"The exhibition is really a new learning curve for our community," Gelet said. "We've had to learn how to live with art, to be careful and respectful around the sculptures."
Reiners noted having to tell people not to put a coffee cup in the hand of a sculpture and not to let their dogs do their business in the dirt near the art.
"There are just little things that people don't understand," she said.
But there is more to Fourth Street than just the art. The design of the pavement and sidewalks serves to facilitate the concept of "street as gallery" and to get people out of their cars and onto their feet.
Bates said the Town Design Team looked all around the world at different cities. Ultimately, the group borrowed ideas from the streets of the Netherlands. The style is called Woonerf—a type of design that blurs the distinctions among pedestrians, bikes and traffic.
"It calls for a negotiation of travel," Bates said. "While it might appear unsafe, it is actually safer because cars don't feel entitled. Drivers have to slow down and pay more attention."
Bates also hopes to change the signage around town. He wants to include signs that tell about the heritage of the city, such as the fact that the building that now houses the Elephant's Perch was the first Wells Fargo stop, as well as signs that tell pedestrians, cars and bikers to share the road.
"Our current signs take away responsibility from people and give them an assumed right," Bates said. "They assume they have the right away to do whatever they can except for what the sign tells them they cannot do. In a more holistic human system you negotiate what your rights are."
The Town Design Team is also looking at other artistic elements like sheep prints in the sidewalk, motion detectors and other interactive things, Bates said.
"I think Fourth Street has already changed the complexion of town," he said. "When you give people pleasant places to walk, they will walk."
A third exhibition on Fourth Street will start in spring 2009.
Anne Reed Gallery’s piece "Sattva" by Josh Garber sits at the corner of Leadville and Fourth Street in Ketchum. Photo by David N. Seelig
