ARTISTS

As we entered our fourth year serving the Bozeman community, we were thrilled to announce in the spring of 2022 that the old industrial complex at 719 N. Ida — a former sheet metal manufacturing warehouse, our namesake, and the home of Tinworks Art 2019 and 2020 — is now our permanent home.

“It’s an exciting time to be a part of Tinworks Art,” said Greg Avis, Co-Founder. “We know that people want cohesive community more than ever these days, and we believe that making exceptional art accessible to all — art that inspires and brings people together — is an important piece of that puzzle.”

In light of the move to the industrial site, this year’s program Montana: Culture Industry celebrated artists and designers who are notable for their innovation and entrepreneurialism. Tinworks Art Consulting Curator Melissa Ragain explained, “Montana is a producer of many forms of culture besides the traditional fine arts. Our region contributes to the film, design, fashion, design, and music industries in a way that has yet to be acknowledged.”

Curator, Dr. Melissa Ragain
Assistant Curator, Jennifer Woodcock-Medicine Horse
Curatorial Assistant, Angela Yonke
Intern, Greta Patterson

NATive fashion mural

by Louis Still Smoking (Blackfeet)

A mural by Louis Still Smoking (Blackfeet) now graces the façade of an old grain storage building on the Tinworks Art campus, a structure we affectionately call “Building G.” It celebrates Native creativity as expressed through fashion, and depicts two figures: the first, Christian Parrish Takes the Gun (known professionally as Supaman), who is a successful Apsáalooke rapper and fancy dancer. The second figure is Acosia Red Elk, a champion jingle dress dancer and yoga teacher from the Umatilla people of Oregon.

Acosia Red Elk (Umatilla) (born 1980) is a descendant of Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt, and became interested in dancing at age 16 when she taught herself to dance from videos of other jingle dancers. Red Elk began dancing professionally in 1998 with her then-husband, Paris Leighton, visiting up to 50 pow wows a year for ten years.

In 2015, she performed in Supaman's music video “Why?,” after meeting him on the pow wow circuit.

Supaman/Christian Takes Gun Parrish (Apsáalooke) is an innovative hip hop artist who has dedicated his life to empowering and spreading a message of hope, pride, and resilience through his original art form. His uncanny ability to motivate, encourage, and inspire through dance, and hip hop music keeps him at the forefront among his contemporaries which gives him a platform to educate on Indigenous issues.

Society6 | @louis.stillsmoking.art

NATIVE ART AS CONTEMPORARY FASHION

by gina still smoking (Lakota from kul wicasa oyate)

In an evening celebrating contemporary Native Fashion and performance, audiences enjoyed a spectacular event with showcase designs and jewelry by Gina Still Smoking (Lakota from Kul Wicasa Oyate) of Still Smoking Designs. This event followed her decade long career in fashion, including her most recent participation in the Oceti Sakowin Spring Fashion show Runway 2022.

To punctuate the runway debut, participating model, chef, and aerialist Mariah Gladstone (Blackfeet, Cherokee) performed for the Tinworks Art audience in honor of and to raise awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW). From Babb, MT, Gladstone is also known for her innovative work in creating Indigikitchen.

The evening ended with a dynamic and engaging live musical performance by rapper Vincent Bird-Webster (Séliš/Ktunaxa), better known as Yvng Vin the Rez Chief, a Salish/Kootenai hip-hop artist from the Flathead Reservation in Montana. Through his work with youth, music, and music videos, Webster also puts his time into advocating for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW).

@stillsmokingdesigns | @mariahgladstone | @yvngvintherezchief

The caucasian chalk circle

by Nervous Theatre

In the outbreak of war,
a mother abandons her child.

​Grusha, a kitchen maid, rescues him
and embarks on a perilous journey.

​Terrible is the temptation to be good...

​The Caucasian Chalk Circle, an intensely political and deeply human story by Bertolt Brecht, exposes the destructive power of ownership and the arbitrary nature of justice. 

The play asks, "How do we decide who is best fit to care for our communities?"

In a wildly reimagined performance of a classic story, Nervous Theatre, Bozeman’s local, rootless theater collaborative, redirected this question to modern day, and our own community, in a playful, bold, and thought-provoking new production.

www.nervoustheatre.com | @nervous.theatre

Daughter of a lost Bird, 2020

directed by Brooke Pepion Swaney (Blackfeet/Salish)

Daughter of a Lost Bird, directed by Brooke Pepion Swaney (Blackfeet/Salish), follows Kendra, an adult Native adoptee, as she reconnects with her birth family, discovers her Lummi heritage, and confronts issues of her own identity. Her singular story echoes many affected by the Indian Child Welfare Act and the Indian Adoption Project.

The history of Native adoption in the US is a relatively untold story.

Before the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), large numbers of Native children were being separated from their parents, one in every 3-4 Native children (25%–35%) were being removed; of these, 85% were placed outside of their families and communities — even when fit and willing relatives were available. In foster care today, Native children in states with higher Native populations are overrepresented in the system. It seems like almost every Native family has been touched by adoption and/or foster care in some way or another.

After the trauma of boarding schools, the Indian Adoption Project of the 50s and 60s and now the present trauma of foster care, Native individuals are still trying to recover from removal from their families. Breaking up families leads to a plethora of social problems from drug and alcohol addiction, to higher rates of incarceration, and most tragically, suicide. All of this falls under the umbrella of Historical Trauma.

Our nation continues to debate race and its place in society. At this critical juncture in American history, Daughter of a Lost Bird asks, “How do transracial Native adoptees fit into this larger historical narrative?”

www.daughterofalostbird.com | @daughterofalostbirddoc

Writing workshop on origin stories

by kendra mylnechuk potter (Lummi)

In this Tinworks Art writing workshop, Kendra Mylnechuk Potter (Lummi) worked with participants to access origin stories through many different lenses. Prompts ranged from drawing exercises like The Story of My Body, which includes a self-portrait and notes about our relationships with our physical body based on the experiences it has faced in life; to a discussion about the creation stories of the cultures from which participants originate; to contemplation of our individual birthing experiences — from our memories and those of our mothers — and the implications those stories have on our lives and how we relate to the world.

Potter, the protagonist of the film Daughter of a Lost Bird, is an actress, theatre educator, writer, yoga teacher, and birth doula living with her family in Missoula, Montana.

sistermoonwellness.com | @sister.moon.wellness

An Evening with LAura Ortman

by laura ortman (white mountain apache)

In conjunction with the weekend screening of Daughter of a Lost Bird, Tinworks Art hosted composer and musician Laura Ortman (White Mountain Apache) in the star-spangled Asterisms room.

Ortman is versed in Apache violin, piano, electric guitar, keyboard, and pedal steel guitar. She often sings through a megaphone and is a producer of capacious field recordings.

In an outstanding, stimulating, and vibrant evening performance for the Tinworks Art audience, Ortman masterfully created rock and roll vibes on her violin under bold, brightly colored lights beneath the 10,000 holes in the tin roof of the performance hall. She left an impact on everyone who braved the heat for this once-in-a-lifetime performance.

Listen to Laura Ortman | @ortwoman

where you from?

by placed projects

Tinworks Art hosted Placed Projects’ Where You From?, a debut marketplace for Montana’s most exquisite ceramic art, with guest artists and designers from Southern California and New York showing lighting design, sculpture, and ceramics.

Where You From? acknowledged and celebrated local and visiting artists’ vernacular form-making by placing them in dialogue with one another, in this very unique exposition of collectable decorative art.

EXHIBITORS INCLUDED:

Dan John Anderson • Kat + Roger Ceramics • Soojin Choi • DeJong & Co. • Iva Haas • Perry Haas • Giselle Hicks • Trey Hill Studio • Jason Koharik • Steven Young Lee • YehRim Lee • Victoria Morris • Joel Seigle • Ravenhill Studio • Maura Wright

placedmt.com | @placed_projects

NE Neighborhood Walking tour

by laurel sparks

As part of research for her upcoming residency and installation work for Tinworks Art 2023, painter and performance artist Laurel Sparks led a walking tour around Bozeman’s Northeast Neighborhood. A member of the Lehrkind family, Sparks told stories for audiences members that dug into Bozeman’s working-class past, exploring her family’s history in the industrial neighborhood of Bozeman. The tour ended inside the historic Lehrkind Garden House and the former site of the Lehrkind Brewery.

This event was presented in partnership with The Extreme History Project and Julius Lehrkind Brewing with all proceeds benefitting The Extreme History Project.

laurelsparks.com | @sparxxx

Bring-Your-Own-Art Show

by the cottonwood Club

After a two-year hiatus, the beloved Cottonwood Club brought back the established Bring-Your-Own-Art Show in collaboration with Tinworks Art, kicking off Labor Day weekend at 719 N. Ida.

The evening brought hundreds of visitors and participants; painted canvases were stacked high on the walls; sculptures of all shapes and sizes sat on pedestals in the two main rooms; and digital art and music created a late night, urban vibe in the Asterisms room. Musical performances by Jeff Pagano and The Love Darts, DJing, laughter, and dancing lasted into the wee hours of the morning.

The invitation was clear: bring your art, performance, installation, ceramics, film, paintings, or whatever. Come get weird. And you did.

The evening was the perfect way to end the 2022 Tinworks Art season, as the underground, local art scene of “the old Bozeman” merged with the many newcomers, curious visitors, and fresh perspectives of recent years. We left with opened minds, new connections, and full of hope for the future.

@thecottonwoodclub