PUBLIC ART GOES GREEN

PUBLIC ART GOES GREEN WITH WILD WALLS By Carrie Geraci, JH Public Art

Our community’s primary goal as stated in the Teton County Comprehensive Plan is to preserve and protect our area’s ecosystem. To address this challenge, JH Public Art is reinforcing its commitment to support artists who practice sustainable techniques and whose artworks inspire acts of conservation. By siting artworks in iconic public settings, JH Public Art aims to reach broad audiences with conservation messages.

We commission artists who can galvanize shifts in our behavior and thinking with public artwork that illuminates complex issues and energizes people to become better stewards of the environment. This summer you can see us put this pledge into action through our Wild Walls murals, which will be on view from early June through September. The cornerstone of this event is a new, permanent mural at the Snake River Brewery. In addition, we are planning eight temporary murals throughout downtown Jackson. Artists were called upon to create works inspired by the beauty of the scenic and wild Snake River, Teton glaciers, and watersheds unique to the Jackson Hole area.

New this year, Wild Walls murals will be paired with Augmented Reality (AR) features that promote a greater understanding of local water quality issues and offer

proactive conservation solutions. We are partnering with local eco-partners, including Protect our Water JH and Teton Conservation District, to create accurate and motivating educational content to pair with each mural.

You can take a test drive of this exciting new initiative with a portion of our first Wild Walls mural, which was created in conjunction with the Town of Jackson on a large-scale construction fence for the water main replacement project along Town Square. While the full mural extends over 120 feet (at over 7 feet tall!), here you see four local wildlife friends, illustrated by the artist Cal Brackin, with AR content from Protect our Water JH. Download and open the Artivive App on your phone, hold your phone in front of your computer or tablet screen while reading this page, and watch these animals come to life — each with an important water conservation story to tell!

AUTHOR BIO

Carrie Geraci founded JH Public Art in 2010. Since then, JH Public Art has installed multiple public permanent and temporary installations totaling over $700,000 in value. JH Public Art has developed public art plans for the Town of Jackson, Teton Village Association, and St. John’s Medical Center; and produced the Public Art & Placemaking Toolkit for Rural Communities in the Intermountain West, a resource for communities looking to launch public art and creative placemaking programs. Geraci serves on the Americans for the Arts Advisory Council for the Public Art Network. Formerly a full-time artist Carrie Geraci used to show her artwork at the Tayloe Piggott Gallery. She lives in Jackson with her husband and two boys who are attending University of Wyoming and University of Utah.

Our art community - from a local to national level - has accepted the challenge to leverage their creativity to broaden these messages. This year’s inspiring and eyecatching Wild Walls murals reinforce how a healthy watershed is connected to a healthy ecosystem to benefit people, plants, animals, and fishes. We hope you find this project to be an ideal example of what can happen when art goes green.

For more information contact: Carrie Geraci, Executive Director | carrie@jhpublicart.org | 307-413-1474 | www.jhpublicart.org