Marguerite Pilon, YVSC Intern | June 23, 2023
We are two weeks away from our very first inaugural fundraiser, Insight: Art for Climate Action! This event will serve as an important mechanism for sustaining YVSC’s work for years to come. The YVSC team has been hard at work planning a night that will be full of delicious bites, local drinks, buzz-worthy auction items, community, and most importantly, beautiful art that is sure to inspire a passion for climate action and our local environments. We challenged local artists to create work based in YVSC’s priority areas, and we’ve received 30 pieces of art from over 20 local artists- each telling a distinct and detailed story around issues within our ecosystems, waste streams, and energy, woven in with each artist’s personal sense of connection to these topics and appreciation for our natural world. We are so excited to share these pieces with you at our fundraiser, and we are grateful for
talented artists who dedicated their time to support this event. Here are a couple exciting artists and pieces to read about.
Sloane Speer is going into her senior year of high school here in Steamboat, and for her piece, she explores the many different colors that appear in the Yampa across seasons and time as the day passes. In her statement, she says “the placement and balance of colors in nature is so stunning, it is often said Mother Nature is the world’s greatest artist… Appreciating the beauty and importance of the environment is the first step in generating support for climate action.”
Tony Urbick has lived in Steamboat for the past 23 years, and describes himself as a relative newcomer to the Steamboat art scene. His piece is a brilliant explosion of color, growth, and personal and environmental resilience. “Coming back from shoulder surgery made the experience of resilience personal to me and informed my works. Strengthening while experiencing this big snow year, runoff season, I observed examples of our land and water’s resilience, of life finding a way, abounding. For the piece, I sought to capture the feel of budding growth, carving a niche, rising up from the river bottom towards the turbulent flow of the water and the promise of the glowing sun between the overhanging trees and thickets,” he describes in his artist statement.
Laura Tamucci is an art educator at Steamboat Montessori School, sewist, and fiber artist, as well 
as the artist in residence at Steamboat Creates this summer. Her work for this event combines an awareness of waste and repurposed materials with the wild and untamable nature of the Yampa. “All materials in this piece are scraps, mainly cut off bits of thread from other projects. As I was pulling tiny bits of thread from my scrap pile, I reflected on diversion and the effort and intention that goes into repurposing. As I was trying to show the line and shape of the Yampa River, I found I couldn’t precisely control the materials I was using and it felt like a metaphor for the river, always moving and changing and deciding its own path.
Artists like Kathi Fresques, Dedi Knox, Missy Borden, Jill Bergman, Ann Feldman, and many more will be included. We will also have some smaller artistic pieces available for purchase at the event, like sweet monarch garlands made by Jill Bergman, or hand painted “yampscaping” magnets by Marguerite Pilon. We have some awesome auction items in addition to this art- travel packages, a coveted private dinner at Elkstone Farm, and a backcountry ski with a scientist with Steamboat Powdercats, among others. Our event will also include live music, conversations with the artists, and the creation of a community mural – so you can try your hand at some art making, too, all while learning about sustainability, climate science, and building community.
The event will take place at La Joya Dulce Ranch on July 9th, from 5-8 p.m. There is childcare available through the Steamboat Climbing Collective. Tickets can be purchased here, and to see all event information and to view our full collection of artwork, please visit http://yvsc.org/insight-art-for-climate-action/. We hope to see and connect with you there! And, if you are already planning on attending, tell your friends and family to come and join us! We hope to make this a fun, inspiring, and intentional night filled with our community members and supporters, and we can’t wait to have you there.
We would like to thank our sponsors Alpine Bank, RE/MAX Partners, Steamboat Magazine, Nomad Vacation Rentals, Amuse Bouche Steamboat, KUNC, Mythology Distillery, Storm Peak Brewing Co Debbie Aragon, Jill Bergman, and Southwest Airlines.
