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A vista at Tippet Rise Art Center

You know it's beautiful in Wyoming when you can make this image through the driver's window on an iPhone while driving 80 mph and not looking at what you are photographing.

From San Francisco I headed back to LA. I had an unexpected 4 hour visit to the Apple store after both my laptop and iPhone failed on the same day but I emerged (as usual) fully functional and in awe of how great Apple's service is-both were out of warranty and both were fixed anyway.

I had a great visit with Jan Williamson, the ED of the 18th Street Arts Center in LA. With more than 20 years at 18th Street Jan is an industry veteran and has presided over the purchase of their campus and their expansion to the largest residency program in Southern California.

Approaching their 30th year in operation, 18SAC has broad progamming and a full campus of brightly colored buildings for programs, artist studios, residency housing, and exhibition space. Their 3 pronged residency program was unique among all the programs I'd visited. They have a long term program for arts ORGANIZATIONS where the full organization is housed on their site indefinitely and works intimately with their other programs, a medium term 3 year residency program for California based artists, and a more conventional short term program of 1-3 month residencies for national and international artists.

Photos courtesy of 18th Street Art Center

Seems like I barely had my feet on the ground and I was back on a plane for Billings MT to see Tippet Rise, one of my most anticipated stops on the trip. I settled in to a very cool and retro airbnb in Red Lodge, MT.

Olive green shag!

Partying Bear Paintings

Way back in 2011 I was contacted by Rockefeller Philanthropy Adivsors in NYC about one of the their clients who was developing an art, music, and sculpture center in rural Montana. They were interested in commissioning artist Patrick Dougherty to do a piece on their land. Patrick had recently done a piece at Cassilhaus when he was one of our visiting artists and I was also producing a film about his work called Bending Sticks (website undergoing work) and they wanted me to connect them to Patrick. The client turned out to be Cathy and Peter Halstead, the founders and benefactors for Tippet and I have been following their progress and anticipating the opening for years.

Spectacular is the only way to describe this 11,500 acre dream site and the product of decades of dreaming and planning. Music is the first love of the Halsteads and the indoor and outdoor music venues host world class classical music artists from around the globe for an ambitious summer program which as I write this starts in 3 days.

Visiting artists are housed on site in dreamy quarters each with a Steinway grand piano.

Sustainability drives everything with conservation easements over 1/3rd of the property, LEED Gold buildings, and a fleet of electric vehicles charged by on-site solar "garages"

The 9 major sculptural pieces have been situated so each can be enjoyed and viewed from near and far without seeing the other works on the property. Lindsey Hinmon, Director of Outreach and Logistics, and Beth Huhtala, their new Educational Program Manager were gracious enough to spend nearly 5 hours with me, including a 3 hour personal tour of all the campus buildings and artworks just days before their season opening for the public. We also had a very lively discussion about the amazing possibilities for a more formalized residency program for musicians, poets (Peter Halstead is a poet), and other artists that they are working on. THANK YOU Lindsey and Beth!

Lindsay and I in front of a painting by artist Mark Di Suvero

Super Guide Beth

Inverted Portal by Ensamble Studios

The legendary Big Sky

Mark di Suvero's Proverb

DOMO by Ensamble Studio

Patrick Dougherty's Daydreams

Alexander Calder's Two Discs

Mark di Suvero's Beethoven's Quartet

Frank "playing" Quartet with the artist's blessing. That was way fun. At it's previous home at Storm King visitors were not allowed to play it. It seems happier now. Photo by Beth.

After my visit in Montana I was headed for a visit to two programs in Wyoming. Everyone I spoke to said I HAD TO cross into Wyoming via the Beartooth Highway. They were right! In the span of just a few hours I went from an altitude of about 4,000 ft to almost 11,000 at the peak and then back down again. I got a wicked altitude headache but it was worth it. My usual reminder that if you are getting this post via email the videos will not play and you need to go directly to the blog here.