It all started in late April, 2022, while I was setting up my art show at Boulder Hot Springs. Barb Reiter asked, “What are you doing for the summer?” I said, “I hadn’t thought that far.” Soon she connected me with the Boulder Elementary School’s summer program and first-grade teacher Stacey Peterson.
In my first phone conversation with Stacey, I asked: What do you have in mind? She said: Playground sculptures. Hmm… As a recycler, I had to figure out what I had on hand that would be weather-proof. We did a “Tribute to the Boulder River” with wooden feet from my tree, rocks, fish I cut out, sticks and recycled Pier One rejects. A panel of kids’ art was created and hung. After we installed it with all the color near the black asphalt and chain link fence I wondered, “How come we didn’t think of this long ago?”
Soon we went on to paying our respects to our local community members with a pole-people tribute, using posts donated by Marks Miller Post and Pole in Clancy. I thought kids were going to leave their people for playground display, but over two-thirds of them wanted to take them home. So they did.
In early spring of this year, I had signed up for a window in the Great Falls Urban Art Project. I asked if it would be OK for the Boulder Elementary summer school kids to make art pieces for the window. The teachers were game, so we set up a few days to get students’ art work ready for the fall installation. The title was already established so I generated ideas around the topic, “The Role of the Rose.”
The question: Just what could we do that all the students can contribute to that is not costly? Well, we could use upcycled material and be creative with our supplies in the makeshift art room we took over in the school.
First, I brought in torn up sheer curtains from the thrift store, and I had baby food jars with Ukrainian egg dye in them. With paint brushes and a selection of colors, many stations of artists were able to quickly generate art pieces that they were proud of.
I had left over foam core from projects in my garage, and I cut out leaves with my scroll saw on my back deck. With my bucket of OminI grip from tiling my bathroom, kids were able to make decorative, creative leaves with globbies, sparklies, leftover jewelry, and random rocks. Mixing such collectibles made kids happy with their creations, which were set to dry and packed up
And I had some shiny, circular disks on fishing line from the wedding department at Walmart. I brought out my bin of dried flower petals, roses, and buds. Little girls enjoyed making dried flowers for stringing.
Bingo — we had liftoff, with three different possibilities for our future installation. As Sept. 30 approached, many of the kids wanted to travel to Great Falls. But with illnesses, the lack of the school van, and liability issues, we decided that Kassie Nordlinder, who coordinates the schools 21st Century program and her art enthusiast son, Wyatt, would come to install our artwork.
Kassie got down on her knees for Boulder Elementary, cut out the quilt on the parking lot cement and stapled it to the back of our window. She stapled hanging lights to spiff up the window at night, and then began to add the panels of dyed curtains and sheet panels to the ceiling as Wyatt and I prepared the rock leaves to go around the edges. I had grabbed some sticks on my back deck and the daisies we glued back in Boulder became a part of the window design.
Soon we were cheering our progress, and it only took us about an hour to do our installation with all the other 10 windows that are an integral part of downtown Great Falls artistic culture.
Now comes the hoopla: On Nov. 2, there will be a streetside reception with the artists, and then munching across the street at the Kellergeist. The installation will be up until Jan. 5, 2024 for visitors and residents to enjoy the generative, artistic and creative talents of Boulder students, some of whom have since gone on to high school. Please come and enjoy.
What it takes to get Boulder Elementary School to Great Falls is a many stepped process full of plan-ning, enthusiasm, willingness, and youthful creativity fully implemented. Here’s how it worked.
Ferrying supplies over the mountains from Great Falls, having students give it a try to add their imprint, then ferrying the creations back and setting up in a parking garage window is just a part of the process.
The Boulder Elementary Summer School “Role of the Rose” installation in a Great Falls downtown parking garage is a chameleon because during the day you can see the colorful dyed strips of creations, but because they are so sheer. You can’t see them at night and the window has a different vibe then.
But overall the window shines brightly with a recycled quilt, curtains, sheets, foam core discards, rocks, glitter, and rocks, with dried flowers from long ago all done by the youthful hands of many artists showcasing their talents in another Montana city.
Alma Winberry is an artist and retired teacher in Great Falls who volunteers in Boulder.
