Carrie Geraci is the Executive Director of Jackson Hole Public Art, Jackson’s only non-profit dedicated to commissioning public art in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. 

In this episode, Carrie tells the story of how she made her way out to Jackson over 30 years ago. She goes into how she transitioned into the non-profit world when she became the founding director at the Center of Wonder. Carrie shares her love for art and the incredible talent Jackson has to offer. Stephan and Carrie then talk about some of the beautiful installations that Jackson Hole Public Art has helped create, such as the giant troll installation at R Park, Mama Mimi.

Follow Jackson Hole Public Art on Instagram @jhpublicart

Find out more about Jackson Hole Public Art at JHPublicArt.org

This week’s episode is sponsored in part by Compass Real Estate, the region's largest and most dynamic real estate company in the valley. For more information and to view current listings visit COMPASS.com or at @compassjacksonhole

Support also comes from Teton County Solid Waste and Recycling, announcing the new commercial Curb to Compost Program for restaurants and other commercial food waste generators. More at TetonCountyWY.gov or at @RoadToZeroWaste.JH on Instagram

Want to be a guest on The Jackson Hole Connection? Email us at connect@thejacksonholeconnection.com. Marketing and editing support by Michael Moeri (michaelmoeri.com,@thatsamoeri).

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I enjoy reading and learning from others, which guides me to share a quote before we begin this episode, today's quote is those who know, do not speak those who speak do not know.

And that is from Lao Tzu.

Today, we will hear Carrie Geraci's story.

Carrie is the Executive Director for Jackson Hole Public Art.

She was raised in Massachusetts, but grew up here in Jackson.

As many other people have done.

Carrie has worked in a variety of industries in Jackson Hole over the years.

And now with Jackson Hole Public Art has the privilege to work on enhancing the community through public art.

During the pandemic, the work did not stop for Carrie and her team.

And as she moves from one project to the next, our community is the beneficiary of Jackson Hole Public Arts, great work.

Carrie.

Good morning.

Welcome to the Jackson Hole Connection.

So delighted to see you.

It's been awhile and thank you for joining me here today.

Thank you for having me.

I'm excited to be here.

I think this is a great program that you're producing.

Well, thank you.

I appreciate it.

We're getting close to 200 episodes, so we're getting there.

I love beginning these episodes, how did you get connected to Jackson?

We born raised here or if not, where did you grow up?

Where would you call that you were raised?

Yeah, well, I was raised in Massachusetts, but I would say I grew up here in Jackson, meaning that I was.

A young adult.

When I showed up on the town square with my friend's phone number in my pocket, I called him from Jackson drug and went and met with him and his friends and stayed in our temporary lodging until he moved into a little condo.

On rancher street and that began my Jackson hole adventure.

I was an art major in college and I did not have a very, well planned out future.

And when I heard some friends were moving to Jackson hole, even though I was not a skier, I thought, wow.

That's cool.

I've never been out west before.

I've seen a postcard.

I think I'll try that.

And that's how I arrived.

And do you feel comfortable sharing how many years ago that was and what season

I got here the last couple days of August of 1990.

August, 1990.

So you had a phone number in your pocket.

You didn't have a cell phone?

Nope.

Nope.

Those weren't invented yet.

Computers were still relatively new at that.

That's what I mean when I say I grew up here, I was a kid when I got here, starting off on an adventure, I had.

Sleeping bag that went to 20 degrees, not quite warm enough for what you'd probably want.

And I was completely clueless when I arrived.

One of my maybe, I don't know, fourth times on skis.

I'd skied in New Hampshire.

One, one big snow weekend before getting here.

And we were out cross country skiing up cache Creek and on the Hills and little bit off trail and I kept falling down and my roommates were like, if you want to have a social life, you better learn how to ski or do it a little faster.

And so I did, luckily I was working at Jack Dennis sports and Stu Robertson and Tyler Bergene and a couple other guys in the shop.

Chris Jay taught me how to ski.

They would just drag me out to the top of the tram and coach me down the mountain.

And luckily I was young and very, I don't know, made out of.

And I'm still learning how to ski, but I can ski powder now.

And that was a very memorable first year.

So I thank those gentlemen for their kind instruction.

That's pretty bold to take you off the top of the tram and say, okay, we're going to teach you to ski from up here.

Okay.

It was do or die.

And when you're, I don't know, 19, 20, you're like, okay.

Yeah let's do this.

And I do remember a few jumps that I went off of that were hilarious for the spectators that had guided me off those jumps.

But overall.

All in all, it was very very supported great guys and a great place to work.

And we would punch out at 10 o'clock go ski until the afternoon rush.

And it was like a job that first winter,

what are some of the, well, before I ask this question where did you go to college?

And you said that you.

I graduated with an art degree.

Yes.

I went to brown university and before it was.

As easy as they make it.

Now, I took classes at the Rhode Island school of design.

In addition to classes at Brown, I also spent a semester abroad in Florence, Italy, and I would say that semester abroad was very foundational to impart to where I am now and the career I have now.

Yeah, seeing Piazza's and sculpture and beautiful botanical gardens and just, the Renaissance came alive and living in for a few months with just these magnets.

Magnificent works all around.

You was incredible.

We had this very knowledgeable, six foot tall Scandinavian art history teacher.

And if you literally.

It became immersed in a painting and turned around while you were in the middle of Sienna or baloney she'd be gone because she walked so fast and there was so much, she was trying to teach all of us.

And it was just a really incredible time as I was really fortunate to be able to do that.

And it having that much beauty all around you in the history was really incredible in those public spaces really did make you feel something different.

Um, The design and the art and the thinking that went into those spaces uh, was amazing.

I look forward to the day that I get to experience that I have not been to Italy.

I haven't been to Europe.

But I have heard from so many people.

That it is a must do to experience and especially in the world.

Definitely and the world of wine, I'm pretty sure that's a tax write-off that or a good investment in your professional career anyway.

I'd highly recommend it.

It was incredible.

The wine we were buying was made down the street and there, they would say, please bring back the bottles.

We're going to reuse those.

It was incredible.

And same with the Olive Oil like So green and fresh, you could cut it with a knife.

I love good olive oil.

Yes.

Yes.

And so you landed here in Jackson hole the last few days of August, 1990.

What are some of the, and you said that this is where you grew up What are some of the jobs that you've held?

What are some of the things that you've done that have helped you grow up?

And are you done growing up?

No.

No, never.

Gosh, no.

I, so my first job was Jack Dennis sports.

I also worked at Sweetwater for Steve ELLs Meyer.

Um, One of the best guys ever.

And.

I did some graphic design and all along the way, I was learning how to play an air paint.

And eventually I had two little boys and started showing at what was then called the muse gallery for Mike Pickett and Ruth Harmon, and started this simultaneous career of being a mom and a plainer painter.

And slowly pulling back.

I think when you have two little kids, if you're not already immersed in community work, it's really hard to start.

And so at a certain point I realized um, that was actually, my father died suddenly when he was 60 and I realized, wow, I really need.

To contribute um, to this community.

I need to contribute to our families income and that year.

I started working as the art teacher at the community school.

And absolutely loved that it was an incredible experience.

Uh, The students were amazing.

Some of the most creative people I know today, like Scotty Craighead was one of my students and now he's a community leader.

From there.

I went on to be the first executive director of the center of wonder.

And I would say that was a point in my life where I was either going to try to get a teaching degree or.

Some other direction and, you know, it's hard to turn down the opportunity to be the director of the center of wonder.

That just sounded so amazing and awesome.

And wonder a sense of wonder is something I really.

Relate to, and is a big part of who I am.

And I think most of us here have, were just in awe of the world, around us it's beauty and the landscape.

And so it was a good fit and we did some incredible programming there.

And another real milestone in my development in terms of who I am and where I am now is I met Mr.

Bland Holk.

He came to the center of wonder one day and said, I want to be your wonder ambassador.

And we said, okay, what does that mean?

And.

He explained all these incredible projects that he wanted to do out in the public realm that would bring joy and spark curiosity and connect people to this beautiful, incredible place.

And so we started working together and at, it was probably a year or two later, I attended.

And Americans for the arts national public art conference.

And that was in Baltimore, Maryland.

And I realized.

Oh, my gosh, this is a whole industry, this public art, and we don't have this in Jackson yet.

We have millions of visitors.

We have incredibly talented artists.

We have, these beautiful places and scientists, all doing incredible research.

And I saw a really What I thought was a great opportunity to start something new here.

And so I did however quickly realizing there were lots of people that had come before and pay if the way for us to even consider starting a public art program.

People like Karen Stewart who had already done Some incredible public art installations.

Tom Ross has Ravens that were along highway 22 and the driftwood bison that were at Emily Stevens pond and people like John Sims who had already installed major bison and Ben Roth, whose sting rays were above our home team, swim team, the stingrays at the rec center.

Standing on a lot of people's shoulders was how the public art program started, but really that spark came from Bland Hoke.

He One day said something like everywhere is an opportunity.

Every nook and cranny that you know of a blank wall or the dirty corner of a parking garage, those are all opportunities for beauty and transformation.

And that really stuck with me.

I want to learn more.

That's a lot.

I want to learn more about what the center of wonder is.

I want to, before we get to that, I love what Bland Hoke had said to you.

And if I may share an experience with what, how I immediately connected what he said is we were recently visiting my brother in Asheville, North Carolina, and we were downtown and leaving and along the side of a building.

Were these little tiny doors painted on the side of the building at the sidewalk level.

And it was as though people and it wasn't just the same door.

They had painted the different entry way of homes that made it look like this is where the mouse can enter.

And it had all types of different styles, architecture, styles, and colors.

Along the wall going up the hill or down the hill, whichever way you're looking at it.

And they were just so cute.

My wife pointed out, she's look at that.

And it just made, stopping in that location.

So enjoyable to see somebody's creativity.

I was like, how cool is that?

That's an awesome story in how memorable.

I became one of your memories of your vacation.

Yes, indeed.

It has.

It has, it will stick with me for a while and the kids loved it.

Kids.

Absolutely.

Yeah, because what's behind the closed door.

Why are they so different?

It just immediately makes you curious about who the painters were, what, what is it about this place that has these tiny doors and it, even as an adult it pulls out these youthful.

Musings from your brain.

And I think that is one of the coolest, most powerful things about art.

Maybe that's why kids are such great artists because they don't overthink what they're going to create.

They just let it go.

I remember William he's my youngest, he's six.

He brought something home and.

And what did you paint?

Tell me what this is versus making an assumption of what it is.

And he says, it's a bird.

I said, well, it is beautiful.

And what is the bird do?

And he goes into the description and I never would have picked out a bird to be honest.

But for him it was a bird.

Yeah, I think that is.

An amazing aspect of the arts is that you can have your own interpretation of it.

And that's personally, one of the things I love about public art is it's just there for you to discover on your own terms.

And there's something really exciting about that.

So true.

So true.

Now let's reverse back, like I had requested.

And tell me about, the center of wonder let's start

there.

Sure.

So I think the founders of the center of wonder Gary and Veronica Silverberg.

Had this notion of creating programming that would help people really connect to their sense of wonder.

And that was very intriguing to me.

And I loved that notion and simultaneously around this time was when.

We were starting to realize that cell phones and digital technology were keeping.

Children inside a little bit more than they had been in the past.

So that was really an interesting kind of guiding foundation to some of the programming that we were developing.

And really we did things from making a natural environmental sort of indie Goldsworthy art on the river bed with Ben Roth to having speakers like Brock Coburn share.

He's like our local Indiana Jones.

So sharing some of his stories of discovering adventure and it was a very exciting and fun challenge.

I hadn't done nonprofit work before and working with and learning from the community foundation here was incredible.

What a team and what great resources they have for our community in terms of.

Providing a really solid foundation for nonprofits and education for best practices.

And so yeah, the center of wonder was really exciting.

I met a lot of incredible people that are still doing really great work in the community today.

I love it.

Thank you, Carrie.

I did some quick research while you were speaking.

And because you mentioned, you now mentioned Ben Ross named twice, and I've had Ben Roth as a guest on the podcast on episode 86.

So you're in the a hundred, over a hundred eighty eight, a hundred ninety ish area.

So to give an idea of and speaking with Ben and hearing his story was remarkable as well.

And what a vision by Gary and Veronica to help create the Center of Wonder, but more importantly, you to be the first ED to take it to fruition.

It needed a leader too.

They had the idea, but somebody had to bring it to life.

Totally.

It was, exciting and daunting and just a, really a beautiful concept.

And Gary and Veronica are innovators and they have continued to revise and adapt the center of wonder to community needs and community input.

I think that's great.

It was a great opportunity.

And if it hadn't been for that, I wouldn't have discovered Bland Holk and this whole idea of making art out in the public realm.

So it was that part of you growing up.

Yes, learning how to have a real job that, we still like to say at Jackson hole, public art, we are not doctors.

And, we take into account the our place in this community is not necessarily vital to people's daily.

Existence in terms of core necessities of food and shelter, but we do bring an equally important core necessity of happiness and beauty and the ability to see something like.

Mama Mimi or new giant troll and to feel a sense of belonging, that's something we all share together, no matter our backgrounds.

And so, it is important that way.

But we try to have fun with our work and the growing up piece is.

Part of realizing what you can bring to a community, what your role is.

And also how to balance that's a part of growing up.

I'm still working on and how to be thoughtful about, about your work and how to try to engage and reach as many people as possible.

Beautiful.

Thank you.

Thank you, Carrie.

We are going to have a quick break to get a word from our sponsor, but then you just mentioned something about public art, Mama Mimi.

And so I want you to tell the background story of Mama Mimi, because it is cool.

We'll be right back.

Carrie.

Welcome back.

We're now talking about.

Public art, your role as executive director of it's Jackson hole, public art, correct?

Yes.

All right.

And you all are bringing inspiration, beauty, happiness to the public realm through art, and it's in so many different ways.

And pretty recently.

There was an installation called Mama Mimi.

And we have enjoyed playing many times on mama, Mimi, the boys jumping off her leg into the water and climbing all over and going from one side of the creek or the pond to the other.

Can you share with us some of the background.

And how long it took to get mama Mimi put in place and what his mama Mimi.

Well, first of all, mama, Mimi is a troll created by Thomas , who is a world famous recycling artist.

And the story of how she came to Jackson is really a community story.

It started in early 2019 when Laurie Andrews was the president of the Jackson Hole Land Trust.

And we had worked on the annual found space event together for a few years by then.

And she said, you know, it's, we're coming up on our parks, fifth anniversary and the Land Trusts 40th anniversary, and we really want to do something big and something special.

And part of the.

My job is to do research and keep on top of who's making what and what artists are unique and different and might be a good fit for the ethos of Jackson hole.

And we showed her the work of Thomas stamps.

We agreed because he is a recycling artist.

He likes to do community based projects and work.

And the fact that our park is essentially a recycled piece of land, it's been refurbished and revitalized into this beautiful community space.

And so there's really incredible continuity between thomas's work and our park and the connection between, if we all recycle more and less things go to the landfill and re repurpose and reuse, we'll have more beautiful spaces like R Park to plan and explore.

So he came for a site visit in late 2019, and we were reviewing his proposal has site-specific concept and the pandemic hit.

Laurie also took her new job as president of the community foundation.

And so there was this long stretch of waiting and we waited until Max Luddington.

Came into his new position at the land trust.

We talked with them and their committees that oversee the, our park and created a plan and received permission to bring the artists in.

I guess it would be the spring of 2021 and so literally max had been in his new position for a few days and he said, okay, go ahead.

Public art, we give you permission.

That was just after Thanksgiving.

I had COVID I was home, but I started making phone calls and telling people the story about this giant troll we wanted to bring to our park and people were.

So taken with the idea of this big whimsical, giant creature landing in our park that we could experience and share and have together.

And it was really just the perfect fit for where and when we were as a community.

And it also was incredible.

This community just, they laughed and they opened it, their checkbooks and generously gave to support.

Our troll campaign.

And we raised the funds to bring in by the end of the year and scheduled him for 2021.

It was still very challenging because we were still in the pandemic, he was coming from a major installation in Maine where he was building five trolls, his whole entire crew got COVID.

It delayed them for two weeks.

We had to reschedule his visit here.

Two to three times, and that was not easy because as you can imagine, we were relying on a lot of business owners like yourself to help support his visit.

Outpost was providing lodging, you name it.

Every restaurant was providing a meal.

We had volunteers, we had a crew scheduled who had.

Promise to not go on vacation during the spring so they could stay and work.

So it was really challenging, but we were able, I was able with the help of our incredible project manager at that time, Alexandra Pope to negotiate this, get them here safely work safely and create this.

Ginormous sculpture that's temporarily in our park.

And how long will mama Mimi be at our park?

She will live in our park for about three to five years.

And she is one of about 80 trolls that are around the world.

And Thomas creates these creatures to take care of the places where they land and to protect the environment.

I like to think she's watching all the kids swimming in the big pond, making sure they're okay.

She faces east watches the sunrise every day.

She's pretty special.

Excited that she's there and it just depends, how she withstands our winters and the weather and so forth, but so far so good.

That's beautiful.

I'm happy to hear.

And anybody who is planning on visiting Jackson should certainly take the time to go to our park, to see mama Mimi, and I've taken some friends.

To see it and to see her.

And they were just blown away.

They had a blast of kids climbed all over it, and that's what she's there for to bring enjoyment.

And it's fun for adults to climb on it, to climb on or to

it's incredible.

I've seen very tiny people from two years old and amazing anecdotes from parents early on in the summer, say, this is our fourth trip here today.

That was one of my favorites.

And then a little five-year-old boy asking me if she's.

And she's nice.

And I said, oh yes.

She is full on real and he likes it when you climb on her.

And it's been really fun.

And I've seen people as old as 80 holding hands and walking across her legs out to the little island.

So it's pretty cool to have an interactive.

Sculpture that you're allowed to sit on and touch and climb on.

And I I love her hair, her driftwood hair from the river.

It's just really anchors heard this place.

It's super cool.

He was a character.

Thomas.

Oh,

real.

And where a share with everybody where Thomas

is from he's from Denmark has studios in Copenhagen.

He made her face and hands and feet in his studio.

The rest was built onsite.

We actually had the red top Meadows students helped disassemble pallets.

That were that were turned into her first.

That's how the artist refers to her outer being it's her fur.

And he brought two workers with him and we had three to four paid crew members here as well.

And it took them about 10 days to build her.

And we had a lot of help from other people.

And.

Volunteers like two ocean builders helping us place.

Those really important boulders around her hands and feet.

It was a real community effort.

Everybody pitched in something to help.

It was amazing.

And we had gifts ranging in all sizes to help support.

The production of, this great fun piece in our park and the land trust was amazing.

They are really trusting to let us put this sculpture there.

Even though it's just for three to five years, it's amazing that they were willing to.

To do that.

I think in the hopes that more people will come and enjoy our park and she makes it, more intriguing for all different types of people to come in.

Does it

, Stephan Abrams: but it's a blast of a park to go to.

We frequent it winter and summer, spring and fall all the seasons and for people.

Who were out of town or might be looking for living here and looking for a good sledding hill when there's snow, it has some phenomenal sledding Hills.

It does.

Our park is such a special place.

It is.

I always see the most incredible things when I'm there, whether it's.

The spring, we were putting mama Mimi in, there were five Eagle.

It's learning how to fly and hunt for fish.

And then I've seen, calf moose that running through the park with the mom.

That was probably no more than a week old, just the most incredible things.

So beautiful.

Such a treasure.

Yes.

Yes, indeed.

Well, Carrie, you sharing your story and I hope that you're still growing up, that you don't stop growing.

I think so.

I think I'm I still have a ways to go, but we're always learning.

And that is one of the exciting parts of my job.

Is that no matter what you do, it's always different.

We're not going to, you know, install another giant troll or another, giant piece like Willow Grove that's in front of the ELA, the Leidos, and every project is so incredibly different.

You work with different community members.

You.

Partner with different businesses and organizations and the artists are different.

The process is different.

So always learning and always learning more about our community and It's, that's a really rewarding part of my job and translates to being hopefully a better parent and wife and coworkers.

So it's been really fun.

I may I share an experience of offering some public art, which anybody can do wherever they live in.

It's so easy.

When the pandemic hit, it was a beautiful spring day and I decided, I said, boys, let's put a smiley face in the driveway.

And they're like, yeah.

And I told my wife and she's well, what are you going to do it with?

And, And so I went to ACE and I got paint and I didn't want the stuff that was going to go away immediately.

Like a chalk paint that you'd spray a field with, but I didn't want something that was super permanent, now it's still there, but I took a stick, put it in the center of the driveway.

With a string and I got the boys sidewalk chalk, and one of the boys held the stick and in this where it was, and I walked around the stick and made a big circle.

So that's going to be our smiley face.

And it took up the whole width of the driveway.

So with the two cars and we painted the smiley face and kids.

They ride their bikes on it.

They talk about there's the smiley face.

They just want to jump on it and stop and see the smiley face and the adults.

And I'm not a huge social media person, but we heard that the smiley face was all over Instagram.

People were sharing, taking pictures of it and sharing.

We didn't even know our neighbors were telling us, but we can all.

Provide a little bit of art in a very easy, simple way to bring some enjoyment happiness to others.

And it doesn't take a lot.

And so I encourage people to reach out to you for what they can do to help with the public art, but also come up with their own inspiration and seek some ideas from those kids because they have.

Yeah, I've seen your smiley face.

I love it.

I love it.

And how did that make you feel when you were painting it?

Were you guys just cracking up the whole

time?

We w we were having a really good time doing it.

We ran out of paint and we had parked the cars in the garage.

I didn't pull them out.

So I had to ask the neighbors across the street to go down to ACE, to get more bank for us.

The boys learn how to spray paint.

I was teaching the kids how to spray paint.

Excellent.

We had a blast doing it.

There's the oldest one who helps spray paint the spray paint, the smiley face.

Louis.

Good job.

I've seen that.

It's a beautiful piece of public art.

I love that.

Makes people feel good when they see it.

Don't you think?

Yeah, it does.

We have a sick one from home, from school today.

So he's in my office for a few minutes.

Awesome.

I'm sorry.

He's not feeling well, but nice.

He gets to spend time with you

and it's always good to spend time with these little munchkins, my minions.

So Carrie, if people want to reach out to you, what is a good way for them to connect with you?

I think they should check out our website, J H public art.org.

We are also going to be out and about a lot this summer, we have a new.

Community artist's position staffed by different community creatives and we'll be doing activities and parks and at the people's market to do what we were just talking about, make people feel happy and feel good and part of the community.

So look for us around town or check out our website.

Well, thank you, Carrie.

We will keep an eye out.

Will you guys be at the eco fair?

Yes, we will.

You can come make solar flags with Suzanne Morlock the world famous Charlie brown sweater artist who created that great sweater piece that was on the art spot many years.

Well, we look forward to it.

Well, we go that eco fair Lewis.

You got it.

All

right.

Thank you very much for having me.

You're welcome.

Thank you for taking the time to join me.

And I had a blast talking to you and we'll both commit to, we're going to keep learning.

We're going to keep growing.

You're going to keep growing.

All right.

Take care, Carrie.

To learn more about Carrie and Jackson Hole Public Art.

Visit thejacksonholeconnection.com.

Episode number 190.

Thank you everybody who helps keep this podcast going, keep sharing the podcast with your friends and family.

Thank you to my wife, Laura and my boys, Louis and William, and to Michael Moeri, who does all of the editing and marketing for this podcast.

If you're looking to create your own party.

Reach out to Michael Moeri today.

I appreciate you sharing your time with me today.

Cheers.