Cosmological Gardens, Land Culture & Care

Seven community members sponsored by Mountain Time Arts participated in Cosmological Gardens, Land Culture & Care, a 4-week seminar for artists and researchers organized by the Center for Arts, Design and Social Research (CAD+SR) during November 2020. The seminar convened a global group of activists, artists and scholars from Chile, Italy, Palestine, Turkey, Nigeria, Switzerland, China and the U.S. The seminar addressed a range of concepts related to agroecological practices, including soil and land, care pedagogies, and herb and seed heritages. Topics included community initiatives informed by transdisciplinary agricultural thinking, including a wide range of Indigenous knowledge and other structures of social cooperation and production. Conversations redefined gardens, growing, and growth through broadly sustainable processes that involve both human and non-human entities. Following the seminar, the research group is continuing to meet. The aim is to formulate an arts and agriculture project that will focus on gardens and growth in relationship to racial and environmental justice in our region.⁠

KayAnn Miller, Executive sous-chef, Culinary Services, MSU

KayAnn Miller. I grew up foraging with my grandmother and cooking at her side, as well as hunting with my dad. We also had large gardens. We ate pretty Indigenously when I was a kid, except that my grandparents had a cattle ranch, so of course there was beef on the table. We also raised chickens for eggs and meat, along with turkeys. We made a foray into either duck or goose raising, but that ended quickly—so quickly that I can’t recall if it was ducks or geese—due to a big, angry bird! My background is agricultural—I’ve for worked several of the big (some say evil) ag companies and many of the big ag non-profit associations. Working in Indigenous foods at Montana State University has brought me full circle back to the beginning--to the importance of caring for the earth, traditional ways and First Peoples. I am so happy to be part of this group. Thanks for making that possible!

Kareen Erbe, Broken Ground Permaculture

Kareen Erbe is a gardener, permaculture teacher, design consultant and owner of Broken Ground, based in Bozeman, MT, USA. Through her business, she teaches people in cold climates how to grow their own food so they can cultivate more resilience. Kareen has taught thousands of people through her workshops, both live and online, and offers consultations and garden design services. She and her family live on a ¾ acre suburban homestead. Kareen has studied with renowned permaculture designer Geoff Lawton, along with Rosemary Morrow, author of Earth User’s Guide to Permaculture, and Dave Jacke, author of Edible Forest Gardens. She has also co-taught with Jerome Osentowski, founder of the Central Rocky Mountain Permaculture Institute, and is currently on the faculty of the Green Path Herb School and the Online Permaculture Design Course hosted by the Permaculture Women’s Guild. Kareen has written articles for Rocky Mountain Gardening Magazine, Montana Parent Magazine, Distinctly Montana, edible Bozeman and hosts a blog and YouTube channel. She can be found at brokengroundpermaculture.com.

Kate Belton, Mountain Time Arts Communications Staff

Kate Belton was born and raised in Wyoming and has deep roots in the Rocky Mountain West. She is a ceramic and graphite artist, as well as a freelance editor and graphic designer for organizations specializing in the arts, Indigenous cultures, land and water preservation, and climate change mitigation. Kate is passionate about arts as they relate to people and place. Prior to working freelance, she was Assistant Curator/Preparator at The Brinton Museum in Big Horn, Wyoming where she designed the permanent Plains Indian Exhibition, under direct tutelage of Crow and Cheyenne Chief, Father Peter J. Powell, PhD. Leading up to this project, Kate worked in ethnographic art conservation, both at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyoming, and the Arizona State Museum in Tucson, Arizona.  Kate spends much of her free time outdoors. Frequent travel, as well as living abroad and on both coasts, have allowed Kate an appreciation for diversity and a comfort with change. Kate is an alumna of Colorado College and currently calls Bozeman, Montana home.

Mary Ellen Strom, Artist , Curator, Writer and Mountain Time Arts, Founder

Strom's research-based projects operate at the intersection of social and environmental justice.  Strom’s projects work to expose discrimination and environmental destruction caused by white settler culture.  Her installations and temporary public artworks have been exhibited in a wide range of contexts including museums, galleries, passenger trains, cattle ranches, large-scale video projections onto industrial sites and mountain rock faces, in empty retail stores, on rivers and horse arenas. Recent awards include an International Fulbright Scholar Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts, Boston Foundation Lab Grant, Bogliasco Fellowship to the Liguria Study Center for the Arts and Humanities, The MAP Fund, Artadia The Fund for Art and Dialogue, Art Matters and Creative Capital. Her work has been exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, Museum of Modern Art, NYC, the ICA Philadelphia, The Contemporary Art Museum Houston, The Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the Walker Art Center, Mpls., the Wexner Center in Columbus, OH, Mountain Time Arts, Bozeman, MT, the Pompidou Centre-Metz, Paris, the Satouchi Triennial in Japan, the Hayward Gallery, London, Nagoya Museum of Fine Arts, Japan, Fundacion Union-Espacio Cultural Contemporaneo, Montevideo, Uruguay and the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne, Australia. Strom is Professor of the Practice, Media Arts at School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Tufts University.  She is the Projects Director for the Center for Arts, Design + Social Research.

Alayna Rasile, Fiber Artist and Educator

Alayna Rasile-Digrindakis a textile artist who works with natural fibers, plant dyes, deep listening, and hopeful worldviews. She has been a resident at the Textile Arts Center, the Women's Studio Workshop, Rockland Woods, and Cabin Time - Archipelago. In addition to exhibiting artwork nationally and internationally, Alayna has done extensive costuming for the stage, for film, and for the site specific productions of Mountain Time Arts. Alayna has worked as a designer and production coordinator for a wide range of fashion brands and has an apparel line named Absorka.  She has been working towards the material innovation of milkweed floss as a renewable, pollinator-friendly, plant-based alternative to goose down or synthetic insulation inside winter jackets.  She is currently based in Bozeman, MT where she teaches at Montana State University.

Dede Taylor, Art Historian, Mountain Time Arts Founder

Dede Taylor co-founded Mountain Time Arts in 2015 with Mary Ellen Strom and Jim Madden. She is a historian and art historian who taught at Montana State University with a focus on Ancient and Medieval Europe. Since moving to Montana in 1992, Dede has begun to learn about Indigenous cultures and advocate for understanding the diverse communities and lands of Southwest Montana. From its inception, MTA has strived to build awareness of the history and present of Indigenous peoples by bringing their voices and knowledges into collaboration with agriculture producers, scientists, politicians, artists and other stakeholders. Coming to know the original inhabitants of her region has increased her interest in lands, waters and local foods; her home garden sustains her. Landscapes, gardens and plants and their meanings in every era and culture fascinate her with their potential to cross boundaries and forge relationships.  Dede looks forward to this opportunity to look, listen and learn.