2017 Finding Peace in Nature

2018 Snow Design: Snow Stitching in Nature

Sunday, March 4, 2018 - 2:00pm to 4:00pm
  • Carpenter Ranch, Hayden
Help create a large, landscape-scale design on a snowy haymeadow at the Carpenter Ranch.

Due to very high winds this snow drawing at the Carpenter Ranch was postponed.

The Yampa Valley community is invited to join the Bud Werner Memorial Library and The Nature Conservancy in creating a large, landscape-scale design on a snowy haymeadow at the Carpenter Ranch. The theme of this year's pattern is "Snow Stitching in Nature."

Volunteers meet at the Carpenter Ranch near Hayden at 2 p.m., where we'll share info about the landscape that is our canvas, answer questions, and offer inspired ideas and instruction for how to delve into your own contributions to the snow pattern before we head out to the haymeadow. We will walk the meadow until 4 p.m., but folks can leave earlier if they need to, or stay later if they want. Participants must bring their own snowshoes, snacks and water.

Sign up!

RSVPs are not mandatory, but sure would help us plan! Contact Adult Programs Coordinator Jennie Lay at jlay@steamboatlibrary.org with your name, email address and phone number.

3 Films

A film by Justin Hirsch about our 2018 snow drawing, "Snow Stitching in Nature"
This video by TNC's Gustavo Lozada features the "Finding Peace in Nature" 2017 snow drawing installation on the Carpenter Ranch
A 2017 film by Justin Hirsch captures the "Finding Peace in Nature" installation at sunset.

History of Steamboat's grassroots snow art designs

Initially, we collaborated with environmental artist Sonja Hinrichsen, who first came to Steamboat Springs in 2010 via a Colorado Art Ranch residency at The Nature Conservancy's Carpenter Ranch. In winter  2011, she made a solo installation on the Carpenter Ranch, then decided to get the community involved -- which is where TNC and the library stepped in, along with hundreds of community volunteers. She returned during winter 2012 for the series of community snow drawings with local artist volunteers on Rabbit Ears Pass, which received national and international attention. She came back to work with local artists again for multiple snow drawings on Lake Catamount.

Now we carry on with this annual grassroots effort, led communally by the creative and athletic participants who walk the designs. In 2017, volunteers translated this grassroots event into an experience of "Finding Peace" on the local landscape. Surrounded by a peace sign, the patterns were inspired by the hearts and minds of local participants. More than 200 volunteers from the Yampa Valley Community have worked on these community installations to date, and we look forward to sharing another new, beautiful design for 2018.

The Community Snow Drawings are sponsored by The Nature Conservancy's Carpenter Ranch and the Bud Werner Memorial Library.