Bozeman, MT

Bozeman, Montana's Sweet Pea Festival - A Festival Of The Arts. The Festival was founded to celebrate the arts in Bozeman and the surrounding region. Sweet Pea continues because Bozeman desires to continue celebrating the arts and the fact that art adds so much to the life of a community.

From The Sweet Pea website:

Founders. The Sweet Pea Festival had its humble beginnings in 1978. It was established to be a community event that celebrates, cultivates and promotes the arts in Bozeman". The founders of this event wrote on April 13, 1977; "a working committee took shape from an amorphous group of Bozemanites dedicating themselves to staging a three day "celebration of creativity" among the community ....".

Volunteer run. Sweet Pea has always been run and organized by volunteers. It has grown from a group of 17 organizers to 35 committees, 50 year-round Board members and up to 2,000 volunteers by the time all is accomplished for the current year.

Giving back to the community. Sweet Pea is the definition of community in its purest form. The original founders desired that the festival support and encourage cultural activities beyond the annual celebration.

To this end, the Sweet Pea Festival has a proud tradition of returning any funds gathered beyond expenses back to the Bozeman community.

Any profits realized above and beyond the year's expenses are given back to the community, each year, in the form of grants for arts, arts education and special projects, such as taking care of the beautiful park that hosts the Festival.

Funding. Sweet Pea is funded primarily by the sale of the admissions. The first organizers purchased two button making machines and five committee members created 1,000 buttons each. In 2004 over 19,000 buttons were sold.

You can volunteer. Sweet Pea has been an important part of the arts and the artistic and cultural life of Bozeman for nearly 30 years. It is the hope of all of the dedicated volunteers, past and present that Sweet Pea will continue on in the exciting and important tradition it has established and continue to remain the most cherished celebration that it is.

Premier Sweet Pea Festival Events include:

Sweet Pea Ball: Friday, July 31
Chalk on the Walk: Tuesday, August 4
Bite of Bozeman: Wednesday, August 5
Art Show Opening: Thursday, August 6
Children's Run: Saturday, August 8
Sweet Pea Parade: Saturday, August 8

Things To Do:

ARTS & CRAFTS
ART SHOW
THE BALL
BITE OF BOZEMAN
CHALK ON THE WALK
CHILDREN'S ACTIVITIES
CHILDREN'S RUN
CHURCH IN THE PARK
COLLABORATIVE
DANCE
FAMILY ENTERTAINMENT
FLOWER SHOW
FOOD CONCESSIONS
MUSIC
PARADE
POSTER
THEATRE

giving you the advantage...®

Taunya Fagan Bozeman Real Estate - Montana Real Estate

Bozeman, Montana | Too dynamic for a still life

Written By Stephanie Simon

Los Angeles Times

My travels have taken me to many striking U.S. landscapes: the tangled marshes of South Carolina's barrier islands, the red-rock canyons of southwest Utah, a bare expanse of Nevada desert framed by a purple sunset. But nowhere have I had such a strong impulse to capture the scenery - to take it home with me - as I did on a recent trip to southern Montana.

As I drove to Bozeman, the sky opened up and seemed to unfold until the pale blue stretched forever. Farmland rolled out along the interstate, dotted at tidy intervals with round bales of hay. Knife-edged mountains to the north glowed under a fresh drape of snow; to the south, gentler hills rose and fell in shades of brown.

A thick cloud would cross the mountains, and the luminous scene would turn sharply foreboding. Another gust of wind would send lacy puffs drifting overhead, and the same land would look invitingly mysterious. I dreamed of finding a piece of art that would capture the way this landscape constantly changed, the wild sense of possibility it evoked. So when I got to Bozeman, I started browsing galleries.

An artful Main Street

Founded in 1864, the town's Main Street is lined with meticulously restored turn-of-the-last-century buildings. It's made for strolling - and shoppers and diners of every budget can find something to their liking.

There are college hangouts - an Internet cafe, a pizza joint - and high-concept restaurants such as the popular Plonk, which offers up pricey twists on traditional food, such as a crayfish waffle with key-lime rémoulade.

An Army-Navy store sells hunting and fishing gear; a few blocks down, a gourmet fish shop offers sushi-grade salmon. There's a toy store on Main Street and a cobbler who peddles handmade elk-skin boots for $240 a pair. And there are at least 10 galleries.

The galleries offer art of many mediums: oil and watercolor painting, pottery, etching, sculpture, photography. But wander in and out of several of the galleries in an afternoon, and the many offerings soon seem to blend together.

The theme of most works on display could best be described as heroic Old West: giant paintings of stampeding horses, leaping trout, log cabins covered in snow. American Indians, decked out in feathers. Cattle. Sunsets. And, of course, the rugged cowboy: taming a bucking bronco, leaning against a fence, squinting into the sun.

Much of this art, in the style of the late Charles M. Russell, is quite well done; some pieces command more than $10,000.

Tourists gravitate toward the cheaper versions of this Old West art, much of it produced by artists who live in the area at least part-time.

"They fall in love with the history, the landscape, the people, the culture, and they decide they would like to collect a piece of artwork that's reflective of the region," said Curtis Tierney. His East Main Street gallery, Tierney Fine Art, specializes in Western and "sporting" art, including meticulously detailed paintings of fly-fishing and bird-hunting scenes.

I could see the appeal. Problem was, none of it appealed to me.

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Bozeman MT Events Calendar
For The Month of May

5, 6, 13 Music At The Leaf And Bean

35 W. Main 7:30 pm 587-1580

14, 16, 18 Intermountain Opera presents "Carmen"

Willson Auditorium 587-2889

11 Wild Joe's Fundraiser for Family Promise

5:30pm -7:30pm

$20 in advance, $25 at the door 586-1212

17 The Ridge Athletic Club Kids Appreciation Day

10:30am -12:00pm 586-1737

17 Bears, Bears, Bears! at Watershed Festival

USFWS Fish Hatchery 10:00am - 2:00pm .