Blackfoot Valley Dispatch - The Blackfoot Valley's News Source Since 1980

This past weekend was the annual Alpine Artisans Tour of the Arts. Artists were featured at galleries through the Seeley Swan Valley, Ovando and Lincoln.

Roger Dey

Visitors are silhouetted in the Teepee Burner Saturday afternoon as they check out the historic photos displayed inside. Barbara Liss of the Bitterroot, ended her Tour of the Arts trip in Lincoln. She wanted to show her friend Leissa Lewis the installations that went in last fall. She said she's visited other sculpture parks, but finds those in natural settings , rather than manicured parks, most appealing. Both Liss and Lewis , who are artists themselves, were part ofstudio tour in the Bitterroot the week before and came up to support their fellow artists.

With advertising in Helena, Missoula, Great Falls, Seeley and Lincoln newspapers, people came from as far as Idaho and Billings to see artists and their artwork in the Blackfoot Valley.

While some galleries saw more traffic than others, Lincoln artists Lisa Gibson, Sally Bogart, Gwendolyn Hendricks, and Tammy Jordan, all displaying their work at the Heritage House in Lincoln, saw more than 30 people through the gallery over the weekend.

Visitors on the tour also checked out Blackfoot Pathways: Sculpture in the Wild, another Lincoln stop on the tour this year.

Tour of the Arts coordinator and Alpine Artisan member Jenny Rohrer oversaw all of the advertising and logistics for the tour, making sure each location was staffed with volunteers to ensure safety precautions and social distancing guidelines were followed for everyone's safety.

The Tour of the Arts is held each year the second week of October. For more information, or to receive updates about next year's tour, please visit the Alpine Artisans website at: https://www.alpineartisans.org/