Revitaliseʌᴉʇɐlǝɹ Audio Experience

Revitaliseʌᴉʇɐlǝɹ (Revitalise Relatives) a #SeeBozemanCreek Artwork

City Hall Pedestrian Bridge (Downtown Bozeman)

121 N Rouse Ave Bozeman, MT 59715

Details of the Audio Experience

We were excited to unveil our newest public artwork, Revitaliseʌᴉʇɐlǝɹ (Revitalise Relatives), in front of City Hall in Downtown Bozeman on Earth Day 2023. The audios below were created as conversations with contributing artists and will compliment your interaction with the artwork itself as well as the body of water rushing down below it, Bozeman Creek.

To get the most from this experience, we invite you to travel to the City Hall parking lot and cross the pedestrian bridge until you are standing in front of the artwork. Revitaliseʌᴉʇɐlǝɹ (Revitalise Relatives) is a pair of images and words, digitally printed onto laminated glass panels that have been installed as a frieze atop the railings of the bridge. Take a moment enjoy the details of the images and then maybe look through the images to see Bozeman Creek happily doing it’s thing down below. Enjoy the sound of the rushing water as life slows down for the next few minutes. You are now ready to press play on the audios below.

Monologue by Gallatin Watershed Council

Spoken Text by Holly Hill

A Conversation

Spoken Text by Ben Pease, Apsáalooke/Tsétsêhéstâhese (Crow/Northern Cheyenne) & Jill Falcon Ramaker, Native Turtle Mountain Chippewa (Ojibwe)

Community Prompts

We invite you to explore these thoughts and questions while enjoying Bozeman Creek.

Restoration and Access

Ecological restoration—an often-overlooked tool in placemaking—helps to protect and revitalize urban waterways while fostering advocacy. Native plantings, healthy stream banks, green infrastructure, and floodplain restoration are a few key strategies to help bring ecological health front and center.

A healthy creek system is where the creek’s natural geometry creates dynamism, ecological variety, and improved flooding mitigation. This can be accomplished with relatively low investment actions, done in concert with public land or adjacent land owners.

• How can adjacent land owners feel an increasingly sense of involvement in and connection with the creek and community?

• What role can ecological restoration play in #SeeBozemanCreek?

 Interpretation

Making water visible and expressing its value is key to building a sense of understanding and dedicated stewardship. Public art, both temporary and permanent—with a focus on engaging a diverse range of storytellers from the past to the present—can capture the broad cultural legacies and stories associated with shared landscapes.

• What individual communities can we seek for the most diverse interpretations of Bozeman Creek?

• What areas/populations are missing in the community’s existing interpretation of Bozeman Creek?

 Activation

• What does activation mean for Bozeman Creek?

• How can Bozeman Creek be highlighted as an existing, extended outdoor resource that can be used safely?

• How can we use art to create engagement with the water’s edge and the water itself, allowing the public to experience the dynamism of the water over the course of days and seasons?

• How can we best activate Bozeman Creek while building community appreciation for Bozeman Creek (encouraging better stewarding practices now and forever)?

More about #SeeBozemanCreek

Revitaliseʌᴉʇɐlǝɹ (Revitalise Relatives) is the second artwork in an ongoing, multi-year effort to revitalize Bozeman Creek.

See Bozeman Creek is Bozeman’s opportunity to highlight and bring to life Bozeman Creek, the waterway running through the heart of our community. Generating ideas and cultivating support through specific community working groups, public art is at the forefront of raising awareness to foster engagement, appreciation and create local identity in downtown Bozeman. Art is a catalyst for change and this project will bridge diverse cultures and water, emphasizing the importance of seeing and living sensitively with nature.