For more than 100 years, the Yampa Valley has inspired artists, many of whom have influenced the course of art in the West. Now, their work could one day have a permanent home at the newly opened Steamboat Art Museum.
SAM, as the museum has been dubbed, is the brainchild of artist/gallery owner Shirley Stocks and artist R.C. Dieckhoff, whose work does, in fact, hang in Washington, D.C. – at the White House. “We’ve had conversations for years about this,” R.C. says. “What first struck me was what a museum can do for an artist. So many artists have passed through the area in the past, and not been able to stay here. There just wasn’t the industry here to support them.”
SAM came together following the death in 2004 of Helen Rehder, an artist and long-time Steamboat Springs resident who left her historic building on Eighth Street and Lincoln Avenue to the city. Her only requirement was that it be used to house a museum. "It's a fantastic connection," R.C. exclaims. "It's like a Hollywood script!"The museum opened its doors Dec. 23 last year. “We had two weeks (from the time the city signed the deal with SAM) to clean the building, paint it and get a show hung,” says Shirley.
The museum’s new home is not yet permanent. The organization has a six-month lease with the city, after which local officials expect to finalize plans for its renovation. The estimated cost of bringing the interior of the building up to standards for housing a museum-quality exhibit is $2 million, which the SAM board will need to raise within a couple of years. In the meantime, SAM is planning a summer exhibit that will feature intaglio works, including art from the locally owned and nationally acclaimed Riverhouse Studio, etchings from regional artist Anna Marie Moore of Walden, plus pieces from private collections and local artists.
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