{"id":7828,"date":"2015-08-13T13:44:42","date_gmt":"2015-08-13T19:44:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=7828"},"modified":"2015-08-16T06:56:18","modified_gmt":"2015-08-16T12:56:18","slug":"lincoln-sculpture-park-preserving-the-past-with-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2015\/08\/lincoln-sculpture-park-preserving-the-past-with-art\/","title":{"rendered":"Lincoln sculpture park: Preserving the past with art"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\t\t<div id=\"slides-7828\" class=\"navis-slideshow\">\n\t\t\t<p class=\"slide-nav\">\n\n\t\t\t<a href=\"#\" class=\"prev\"><\/a>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"#\" class=\"next\"><\/a>\n\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t<div class=\"slides_container\"><div id=\"7828-slide1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/WildArt-teppe3.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/WildArt-teppe3-771x514.jpg\" \/><\/a><h6>Gary Pemble <a href=\"#\" class=\"slide-permalink\">permalink<\/a><\/h6><p>\u201cRe-Imagining the Delaney Sawmill Tepee Burner\u201d by artist Kevin O\u2019Dwyer is the biggest sculpture in a sculpture park near Lincoln. For more photos, click on the arrow at top right.<\/p><\/div><div id=\"7828-slide2\"><a href=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/WildArt-fence2.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/WildArt-fence2-771x514.jpg\" \/><\/a><h6>Gary Pemble <a href=\"#\" class=\"slide-permalink\">permalink<\/a><\/h6><p>Stevel Siegel's \"Hill and Valley\u201d is made of 30,000 pounds of newspaper.<\/p><\/div><div id=\"7828-slide3\" data-src=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/WildArt-twigs2-771x514.jpg*771*514\" data-href=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/WildArt-twigs2.jpg\" \/><h6>Gary Pemble <a href=\"#\" class=\"slide-permalink\">permalink<\/a><\/h6><p>Finnish artist Jaako Pernu's sculpture is made of spruce branches woven in a frame of wood and metal.<\/p><\/div><div id=\"7828-slide4\" data-src=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/WilodArt-House1-771x514.jpg*771*514\" data-href=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/WilodArt-House1.jpg\" \/><h6>Gary Pemble <a href=\"#\" class=\"slide-permalink\">permalink<\/a><\/h6><p>Alan Counihan\u2019s \u201cHouse of Sky\u201d sculpture was inspired by \"This House of Sky,\" Ivan Doig's acclaimed memoir.<\/p><\/div><div id=\"7828-slide5\" data-src=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/WildArt-cubes-771x514.jpg*771*514\" data-href=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/WildArt-cubes.jpg\" \/><h6>Gary Pemble <a href=\"#\" class=\"slide-permalink\">permalink<\/a><\/h6><p>A small village is part of Jorn Ronnau's \"A Gateway of Change\" sculpture installation.<\/p><\/div><div id=\"7828-slide6\"><a href=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/WildArt-tepee4.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/WildArt-tepee4-771x514.jpg\" \/><\/a><h6>Gary Pemble <a href=\"#\" class=\"slide-permalink\">permalink<\/a><\/h6><p>The tepee burner, as seen from the inside looking up.<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><script>jQuery( document ).ready( function() { loadSlideshow( 7828, 'https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2015\/08\/lincoln-sculpture-park-preserving-the-past-with-art\/', 6 ) } );<\/script>\n<p>LINCOLN\u2014A \u201cHouse of Sky\u201d is just one of the vivid art installations a visitor comes upon in the \u201cBlackfoot Pathways: Sculpture in the Wild\u201d in Lincoln.<\/p>\n<p>There is also a genuine historic tepee burner from a nearby mill; a \u201cHill and Valley\u201d landscape formation made from newspapers; a bulky frame-like statue of entangled spruce branches bound in a wood and metal frame; and a mammoth gateway of downed ponderosa pines, engraved with poetry, overlooking a golden fantasy village.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>These site-specific, monumental abstract sculptures are located on a 28-acre parcel of public land just outside Lincoln, 60 miles northwest of Helena. Harvested from the surrounding ponderosa and lodgepole forest, they have been literally created to tell the story of Montana\u2019s landscape, its people, its culture, its history.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis simply wouldn\u2019t have worked if we would have dropped it in the asphalt jungle somewhere,\u201d said Kevin O\u2019Dwyer, curator of Sculpture in the Wild and silversmith exhibitor. O\u2019Dwyer is a native of Ireland whose artwork reflects his interest in ancient landscapes, industrial archeology and architecture.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have thoughtfully considered and integrated the culture and the community and the heritage of Lincoln into a beautiful forested area,\u201d O\u2019Dwyer said. \u201cThe art has been done thoughtfully with the legacy and the heritage and the environment of Lincoln in mind.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s not a tourist trap,\u201d added Becky Garland, president of the board of Sculpture in the Wild. \u201cIt\u2019s a natural place. It\u2019s real. You can feel it. It is all rooted at the basic level in the landscape, in us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><div class=\"well\"><div class=\"dfad dfad_pos_1 dfad_first\" id=\"_ad_652\"><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/goo.gl\/mjhWkW\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/201703_capeair_variable.jpg\" alt=\"CapreAir_Variable\" width=\"510\" height=\"180\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-18069\" \/><\/a><\/div><\/div>Perhaps it\u2019s only natural that the origins of the project were communal.<\/p>\n<p>O\u2019Dwyer visited Lincoln in April 2013 to join forces with Rick Dunkerley, an award-winning master bladesmith who specializes in Damascus steel. The pair originally met at the Pratt Fine Art Center in Seattle in 2010, when O\u2019Dwyer, then artist-in-residence, took a bladesmith master class presented by Dunkerley. O\u2019Dwyer, who had led the development of \u201cSculpture in the Parklands\u201d at Lough Boora Parklands in Ireland, saw likenesses between Lincoln and that section of the Irish midlands.<\/p>\n<p>Similar to the midlands, he saw in Lincoln a region at an economic and cultural turning point, an area slowly losing its character to forces beyond its control. Lough Boora slumped following decades of peat harvest that left great tracts of hacked bogs and hardly any economic options. O\u2019Dwyer began and directed the Lough Boora International Sculpture Symposium in a disused peat-harvesting site.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn Lincoln, the mining and logging industries have to all intents and purposes stopped,\u201d O\u2019Dwyer said. \u201cThere was the opportunity to depict the history. There were strong similarities\u2014an area at the crossroads, really.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dunkerley, a resident of Lincoln for more than 20 years, was at first doubtful when O\u2019Dwyer introduced the idea. But O\u2019Dwyer had commissioned more than 25 site-specific installations worldwide. He was experienced, passionate and convincing.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_7835\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 336px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"addboard wp-image-7835 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/WildArt-iron1.jpg\" alt=\"Drawing\" width=\"336\" height=\"504\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Gary Pemble<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">&#8220;Montana Line Drawing\u201d by Kevin O\u2019Dwyer<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Dunkerley recognized that bringing a few of the world\u2019s top symposium sculptors to create a site that honors the industrial heritage of the Blackfoot Valley could help revive the town. In addition to economic advantages, O\u2019Dwyer viewed it as a channel, crafting a future for Lincoln as an artistic and cultural hub in the state.<\/p>\n<p>Dunkerley contacted a dozen community members and became the project manager.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was all so positive and the community responded overwhelmingly to the idea in good favor and with enthusiasm,\u201d Dunkerley said.<\/p>\n<p>Sculpture in the Wild went from an open tract of land on the east edge of Lincoln to an exuberant explosion of ideas.<\/p>\n<p>Jaako Pernu, a Finnish sculptor and environmental artist, joined the project. Danish sculptor Jorn Ronnau and Irish three-dimensional artist Alan Counihan came on board as well. So did Steven Siegel, an American noted for the creation of public art installations in natural and urban contexts that reinvent the role of sculpture for an eco-conscious planet. The artists all had their own inspiration as to how to interpret the heritage and landscape.<\/p>\n<p>Six exhibits opened to the public in 2014, and it is open year-round, with no admission charge. The Sculpture in Wild is just east of Lincoln on the north side of Highway 200. It is designed to provide artists, educators and the business community with cultural, social and economic opportunities, including lectures and night walks.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt has given us the prime opportunity to admire the history of the Blackfoot Valley and to get to know one another a little better,\u201d said Dunkerley, executive director of Sculpture in the Wild. \u201cIt has given us the ability to have new eyes, the eyes of world-renowned artists who responded to the beauty and heritage of our land. It has made us all look differently at what we have maybe taken for granted in our daily lives.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_7836\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignright\" style=\"max-width: 336px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"addboard wp-image-7836 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/WildArt-arch1.jpg\" alt=\"Jorn2\" width=\"336\" height=\"504\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Gary Pemble<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">&#8220;A Gateway of Change&#8221; by Jorn Ronnau of Denmark.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Counihan\u2019s inspiration for \u201cHouse of Sky\u201d came from Montana author Ivan Doig\u2019s memoir \u201cThis House of Sky.\u201d The silver box is an optical illusion: it will never twice look the same because the sky perpetually casts different shadows.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe idea of this \u2018House of Sky\u2019 is that you can\u2019t ever live in it,\u201d Counihan said. \u201cIt\u2019s like a changing dream. It is always changing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The art walk nurtures an individual expression of feelings and emotions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s always a different here,\u201d Garland said. \u201cIt has different shadows at different times of day. It is different when it is cold or when it is warm. No matter. It\u2019s still a dream world.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Garland said she overhears more and more Lincoln school kids talking about art. \u201cI think that because of Sculpture in the Wild that the kids are interacting a little differently,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019ve heard them saying things like, \u2018This is abstract, or this isn\u2019t abstract.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Indeed, Sculpture in the Wild is the art of community.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSculpture in the Wild complements the beauty of Lincoln and complements our space,\u201d Garland said. \u201cWe are a town of good, hardworking people, who work hard from dawn to dusk. As a mountain town that has always relied on timber and mining and recreation, we\u2019ve tried to come up with new ideas. And we are hoping that the park is one of those things that allows us to come out smelling like a rose.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>LINCOLN\u2014A \u201cHouse of Sky\u201d is just one of the vivid art installations a visitor comes upon in the \u201cBlackfoot Pathways: Sculpture in the Wild\u201d in Lincoln. There is also a genuine historic tepee burner from a nearby mill; a \u201cHill and Valley\u201d landscape formation made from newspapers; a bulky frame-like statue of entangled spruce branches [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":7829,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,18],"tags":[2938,2503,2939,2937,2940],"class_list":["post-7828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-diversions","tag-blackfoot-pathways","tag-ivan-doig","tag-kevin-odwyer","tag-lincoln","tag-rick-dunkerley","prominence-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7828\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}