New Relevance of Place episodes featuring artists Jeffrey Gibson, Heather Hart, and Ben Pease
April 25, 2024
We are delighted to share six new episodes as part of Relevance of Place, an online film series that invites artists, architects, designers, and creative thinkers to explore the meaning of “place” as a global, local, and personal concept, as well as “place” as it refers specifically to Tippet Rise.
This latest installment of films features conversations with artists Jeffrey Gibson, Heather Hart, and Ben Pease, as well as Tippet Rise co-directors Lindsey and Pete Hinmon. Guided by Shannon Jackson, Chair of the History of Art Department at UC-Berkeley and a scholar of socially-engaged art, each guest offers stories and insights from their own practice and inspiration, in addition to reflections on the historic past and sustainable future of Tippet Rise – as an environmental site, as a working ranch, as a wide-ranging art center, and as a creative gathering space.
Our team was honored to host this group of artists – who are each incredibly active in their fields – over several days last May, during which they spent time touring the art center and thoughtfully taking part in open-ended discussions.
Shannon Jackson moderates a roundtable discussion with Tippet Rise co-director Lindsey Hinmon and internationally recognized artists Ben Pease, Jeffrey Gibson, and Heather Hart. Photo by Nathan Norby.
Currently representing the United States at the Venice Biennale, one of the art world’s most significant honors, cross-media artist Jeffrey Gibson discusses his personal trajectory as an artist committed to aesthetic abstraction, to Native social movements, and to an increasingly collaborative practice amongst artists and local communities. Interdisciplinary public artist Heather Hart describes the familial and political histories that have shaped her art-making, as well as issues of community, race, and form in contemporary art, and the complicated legacies that inform her approach to public art. Painter and public artist Ben Pease speaks about Native resilience and resistance in his artistic practice, as well as the importance of indigenous worldviews – in Montana and beyond.
In addition to individual conversations with Shannon Jackson, all three artists took part in a group dialogue touching on ideas related to tradition, imagination, and accountability. Tippet Rise co-directors Lindsey and Pete Hinmon also took part in conversations about the unique sense of presence created at Tippet Rise, as well as the art center’s commitment to locality and its evolution over the years.
These six new films, each approximately 20 minutes or less in duration and recorded by guest filmmaker Eric Felipe-Barkin, can be found on the Tippet Rise website and YouTube channel, along with past episodes featuring Tippet Rise co-founder Cathy Halstead, architect Francis Kéré; designer, artist, and architect Ronald Rael; and Tippet Rise ranch manager Ben Wynthein. Artist and designer Walter Hood, architect Laura Viklund, and artist and activist Suzanne Lacy are featured in films recorded by former Tippet Rise filmmaker and professor James B. Joyce.
We hope you enjoy this opportunity to learn more about these artists and creative leaders through their own words and perspectives.
Shannon Jackson in discussion with artist Heather Hart near an original homestead cabin at Tippet Rise. Film still by Eric Felipe-Barkin.