JACKSON, WYOMING, May 31, 2024 / Jackson Hole Public Art and The Center will host a celebration for the first LandSignals installation, Listening to Inyan, on June 12 at 5 pm in the Center Courtyard. Mnicoujou artist Rachel Olivia Berg will speak about the inspiration for this piece and the process of creating it. Listening to Inyan centers the Teton Mountain Range of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE) and Indigenous perspectives on ecological stewardship. 

Jackson Hole Public Art is producing LandSignals to envision a future that more authentically includes Indigenous voices and traditional ecological knowledge to help us better steward the natural resources and cultural heritage of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Four Indigenous artists, including Berg, have been commissioned to participate in this project and works will be unveiled at three additional locations during 2024, including the new Jackson Hole History Museum, Russ Garaman Park, and the Greater Yellowstone Visitor Center at the National Elk Refuge. Other LandSignals artists include Nanibah Chacon, Marlena Myles, and Ben Pease. LandSignals will include the return of the Pretty Shield Foundation’s Lighted Teepee exhibit from October 23 - 30 in the Center for the Arts Park. Visit jhpublicart.org/art/landsignals to learn more.

Berg’s site-specific, three-dimensional exhibition comes face to face with humankind’s relationship to the changing landscape. The body of work represents hundreds of species of beings that live within the GYE focusing on the Snake River as the essential life force of the locale. Berg calls upon Lakota symbols, stone, and the sacred color blue to reinforce the knowledge within Indigenous communities that all living beings are connected and that parts of nature like stone, water, sun, and moon are understood to be living. 

This event will also celebrate the opening for Berg’s sculptural and photographic cyanotype work displayed at the Center. This collection portrays a story of creation from the Octeti Sakowin (The Seven Council Fires). The exhibition remembers Inyan and presents his story as a reminder to humankind that we are living members of a universal ecosystem that must be cared for to sustain life for ourselves and all the beings connected to us.

LandSignals is funded in part with a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and with generous support from Christy Walton, Marshall and Veronique Parke, Mary Armour, Kate Jensen, Agnes Bourne, Community Foundation of Jackson Hole, History Jackson Hole, Center for the Arts, Wyoming Cultural Trust Fund, Wyoming Wilderness Association, National Elk Refuge, The Nature Conservancy, Grand Teton Association, Friends of the Bridger-Teton, JH Travel and Tourism Board,  Jackson Hole Land trust, and Charter Communications and Ovation TV.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Rachel Olivia Berg (of Mnicoujou Lakota, Mexican, and German lineages) works in diverse media as an artist, art advisor, and the founder of LivArtfully Design Studio. She holds a BA from Princeton University and a MA in Art Education from Columbia University Teachers College. Since 2004 she has designed, developed, and created custom large-scale commissions in commercial projects across Turtle Island, working with top art consultants and interior design firms. She is a 2023 Emerging Artist Fellow with the Ann Street Gallery in Newburgh, NY and is currently broadening her studio practice to more research-based methodologies and practices that explore Indigenous ontologies and histories, connections in cultural relationships to nature and ecological activism.

ABOUT THE CENTER

Center for the Arts, a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization, serves Jackson Hole and the surrounding region by providing a state-of-the-art, affordable home for nonprofit arts organizations and supporting excellent programming on our 78,000-square-foot campus.

ABOUT JACKSON HOLE PUBLIC ART

Jackson Hole Public Art (JHPA) forges partnerships for the integration of art into any environment to inspire lasting cultural, educational and economic benefits. JHPA is a non-profit organization and our community’s leading presenter of artist-driven projects in public space. We place artworks outside traditional venues of museums and galleries to provide access to art for all people. JH Public Art provides public art consulting services and collaborates with the Town and County and many local organizations on public art projects. 

For more information contact: 

Carrie Geraci, Executive Director

carrie@jhpublicart.org | 307-413-1474

www.jhpublicart.org