Insight: Art for Climate Action Artist Information

Insight is an art auction fundraiser hosted by YVSC that celebrates the power of art in communicating the science and meaning of climate action in the Yampa Valley.

Event Description

We believe that art is a powerful way to educate around climate science and communicate sustainability efforts to a wider community. Art enables us to combine intricate scientific topics with beauty and emotion, allowing us to connect with our own hummanness. We at YVSC value art as an important means of communicating science and inspiring action, and YVSC’s annual fundraising event, Insight: Art for Climate Action, has been built with those intentions in mind.

During our inaugural year, we did just that. In 2022, Insight brought together 27 artists who created over 35 pieces, and, together, we raised over $45,000 that benefitted YVSC and furthered climate action in the Yampa Valley. However, more importantly, the event generated important conversations around the ways in which we all feel and experience climate change, with pieces ranging in subject from wildfire and species loss to Indigenous stories and the heart of the Yampa River.

New this year, we have developed a partnership with Steamboat Creates to bring your artwork and the message of Insight: Art for Climate Action to a wider audience. The pieces created for this event will be shown in the Art Depot’s Bliss Hall for the month of June, leading up to the event. We hope that this new partnership will allow the broader community to enjoy the beauty of your work, increase artist visibility, and increase the event’s fundraising capacity.

Artists are invited to create pieces based on prompts that engage three key climate action areas: Resilient Land & Water, Waste, and Energy & Transportation. These pieces will be auctioned off during a grand evening complete with delicious appetizers, and beverages at the beautiful Larson Barn.

View 2024 call for artists
View last year’s pieces

What to Know

Event Details

When: Saturday, June 29
Where: Larson Barn
32380 Wild Goose Ln

Call for Artists

If you are interested in submitting artwork for this event, please view our Call for Artists, which outlines the details of the event, how to participate, and the three prompts, which you can use to inspire your work and will help you create a piece that’s in line with the mission of the event.

Important Deadlines

Submission Deadline: Monday, May 13
Artwork delivery to Steamboat Creates: Tuesday, June 4
Steamboat Creates show opening: Friday, June 7

Submission

When you are ready to submit your piece(s), please use the form linked below, and send a photo of your piece to kate@yvsc.org.

Contact Us

If you have questions about the event or creation and submission process, check out our FAQ’s below or reach out to our awesome event team.

Kate Brocato – YVSC Communications & Program Manager
kate@yvsc.org | 970.871.9299 ext. 108

Abby Vander Graaff – YVSC Operations Assistant
abby@yvsc.org | 970.871.9299 ext. 117

FAQs

As a participating artist, you will receive 25% of the final sale of your piece(s) as compensation for your time and efforts spent creating your piece(s). Should the piece not sell, you will be welcome to keep the piece to do with it what you please. In addition to compensation, you will also receive name recognition during the event and on event marketing materials as well as YVSC’s website and social media.

There are countless ways to interpret these concepts. Keep in mind that the end target is to create work that relates to the prompts, and also, a buyer would love to hang in their home or office. Instead of an image with a heavy message, it’s ok to have a more beautiful or inspiring image, and share your thoughts about the issues in your artist statement. We will be sharing the statements in different ways to help spread the message. Feel free to reach out if you’d like to discuss the work you’d like to create for Insight!

Thank you for creating a piece for our event! To submit, please fill out the form linked here, and submit a photo of your piece to kate@yvsc.org.

Your artist statement will be displayed alongside your piece, and it is meant to help the viewer interpret your piece and understand how you engaged with the prompts. The mission of Insight: Art for Climate Action is to utilize the arts as a way to communicate climate science and climate issues, and your artist statement will be an important part of helping us accomplish this. If you’re personal lived experiences played any role in your piece, don’t be afraid to highlight these. We as humans connect with science well when interpreted through human stories and emotions.

For more assistance with your artist statement and to view past examples, please follow the link here.

Your artist statement should be around 150-250 words, and YVSC staff may make slight edits for formatting.

Although we’d like to include every piece submitted during the Insight event itself, due to space constraints and considerations of the size of our event, we will only be able to accept about 25-30 pieces. However, at a minimum, a larger selection of pieces will be shown in the Steamboat Creates show. Submitted pieces will be judged by our artist steering committee. If you intend to submit, please notify kate@yvsc.org of your intent, and she will be happy to share the judging criteria with you. YVSC reserves the right to refuse any artwork that is considered divisive or offensive. We will not accept artwork generated using AI. The photographic representation of the piece must closely resemble the physical piece.

The event will be held on Saturday, June 29 at the Larson Barn just South of Haymaker on 131. The address is 32380 Wild Goose Ln.

Yes, we encourage our artists to attend! We see great value in giving our artists an opportunity to connect with our guests and those interested in purchasing your pieces. While the artist statements are a great tool for helping guests interpret and understand your piece, there’s nothing like having the opportunity to speak directly with the artists and hearing their first-hand accounts of their motivations and inspirations for the piece.

Additionally, we host an artist reception before the event starts to thank our artists for their contributions and to give you the opportunity to connect with other artists and YVSC staff and board members.

Yes, you will be able to invite a plus one to the event, and you will also receive two complimentary tickets to share with your collectors or supporters.

New in 2024, YVSC will be utilizing online auction software. All submitted pieces will be open for bidding in advance of the event, with the auction closing on event day. During the event, we will have both a live auction and a silent auction. Our Artist Steering Committee will determine which pieces will be included in the live auction.

As a participating artist, we encourage you to share the piece that you’ve created on your social media and with your networks. Below is a sample caption that you can use to share your piece:

“I created this piece for Yampa Valley Sustainability Council’s inaugural fundraiser Insight: Art for Climate Action. The event aims to utilize art to communicate climate science and inspire action all while fundraising for the awesome work that YVSC does.

This piece along with many others will be auctioned off during a grand evening complete with delicious appetizers, beverages, and live music at the beautiful Larson Barn on June 29. Tickets can be purchased here.”

Resources

Resilient Land & Water

Waste

Energy & Transportation

Community Engagement

Thank you to our 2024 Insight Steering Committee

Jill Bergman Artist
Kate Brocato YVSC Communications & Program Manager
Ann Feldman Artist
Jennifer Grathwohl Artist, Event Planner, & Executive Director of Steamboat Orchestra
Julia Hebard YVSC Marketing & Communications Associate
Joanne Orce Artist

Marguerite Pilon Artist
Ryan Scheer Artist
Michelle Stewart YVSC Executive Director
Jillian Tomlinson Artist & Steamboat Creates Visual Arts Coordinator
Abby Vander Graaff YVSC Communications & Administrative Coordinator