Standby Snow: Chronicles of a Heatwave, Chapter Two
August 2021
West Creek Ranch
STANDBY SNOW: CHRONICLES OF A HEATWAVE, CHAPTER TWO, West Creek Ranch, August 2021
STANDBY SNOW: CHRONICLES OF A HEATWAVE, CHAPTER TWO, an outdoor place-based project, premiered at West Creek Ranch in Emigrant, Montana in August 2021. The work brought together video, architecture, music, and live performance to activate this rich and complex location, which is rife with historical narratives and environmental lessons in the Yellowstone region.
STANDBY SNOW was created by Shane Doyle (Apsáalooke), musician, writer and Indigenous scholar; Ben Lloyd, architect, designer and media artist; Shakira Glenn (Apsáalooke), singer; Michael O’Reilly, dancer, singer and choreographer; Alayna Rasile, textile artist and costume designer. Laine Rettmer, visual artist and opera director; Mary Ellen Strom, writer, performance and video artist; Rachel Tang, researcher and art historian.
Central to the themes of STANDBY SNOW: CHRONICLES OF A HEATWAVE, CHAPTER TWO were the reversing of settler ethics that continue to damage our Indigenous communities and our region’s environment. The work seeked to restore cultural histories and to imagine ways to reverse the devastation caused by drought and fire. Mountain Time Arts cultivates relationships between artists, scholars and community members to conduct research and produce artworks about social and environmental justice in Southwestern Montana. We understand collaborative and inclusive inquiry as a means to generate new knowledge and work toward solutions for all. Employing an ethos and method of participatory practice, Mountain Time Arts projects propose new ideas about who is an artist and what art can accomplish. Our projects propose solutions for an equitable community and a renewed environment.
This research-based project was produced in dialogue with advisors from our region, including Native Studies scholars, a fire scientist, an environmental scientist, a climate data analyst, ranchers and fire fighters from Southwestern Montana. STANDBY SNOW chronicles current regional climate realities and speculates about possible methods of environmental regeneration. The work examines the cultural and economic complexities of human values that shape restoration goals and practices.
Mountain Time Arts is grateful for the generous support from:
The MAP Fund, Montana Arts Council, The National Endowment for the Arts, and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. We are funded in part by coal severance taxes paid based upon coal mined in Montana and deposited in Montana’s cultural and aesthetic projects trust fund.
Special thanks to our partners and collaborators:
Ben and Barbara Phinney, Dave Leverett, Music Villa, Eagle Mount.
Mountain Time Arts is grateful to be working with West Creek Ranch, part of AMB West Philanthropies, a working ranch in Emigrant, Montana that is bordered by the Yellowstone River and Gallatin National Forest. West Creek Ranch is a collaborative destination for experts, advocates, organizers, influencers, and disrupters to harness their collective power, tackle challenges, catalyze progress and build community.