At the first ever Sun Valley Field School, arts students explore Idaho jobs

Artist Alicia Tormey demonstrates ecaustic painting, a technique that involves fusing pigmented wax onto a substrate, such as a wood panel, using a heat gun or propane torch. Photo provided by Garrett Ryan

Can I really make money as an artist? If so, how?

The Arts Entrepreneurship program's newest course, the Sun Valley Field School, pulls students into the Idaho art world so they could answer these questions for themselves. In just five days, students earn three upper-division credit hours by learning from a variety of working creative professionals in Sun Valley, Idaho.

This year, 19 School of the Arts students participated in the educational trip from August 10-15, co-organized by School of the Arts Interim Director Nicole Molumby and Arts Entrepreneurship Faculty Lead Sue Latta. The School of the Arts covered students' housing, transportation and food, so that students could focus on the course's packed agenda.

All types of artists, all types of art

Student Elizabeth Orlovich shares art with film producer Allyn Stewart. Photo provided by Sue Latta

Earning a full class-worth of credits in five weeks is no small task. Students at the Sun Valley Field School spent all day, every day learning and working.

The students visited a large swath of arts organizations, including:

• Alicia Tormey Studios, LLC encaustic art studio
• Flashlight Films, LLC with Allyn Stewart, producer
• The Argyros Performing Arts Center
• The Community Library
• The Ernest and Mary Hemingway House
• The Gail Severn Gallery
• The Gilman Contemporary Gallery
• The Trailing of the Sheep Festival
• The Spot (a nonprofit, blackbox theater)
• The Sun Valley Arts and Crafts Festival
• The Sun Valley Museum of Art
• The Sun Valley Music Festival

Molumby noted that her team chose Sun Valley for its robust, interconnected arts community.

"Many of the people we worked with are professionally connected with more than one organization," Molumby said. "They may work in educational programming or archival preservation at The Community Library during the day, perform theatre at The Spot at night."

At each location, students networked directly with working artists and got a behind-the-scenes look at the inner-workings of the art world. They also completed a range of assignments that required them to reflect on their experiences and consider their own career paths.

What is an 'invisible job'?

Behind the scenes at the Sun Valley Music Festival. Photo provided by Sue Latta

Sue Latta, the course's co-organizer alongside Molumby, explained that Sun Valley Field School's primary goal was to show students the "invisible" jobs of the art world - important roles that don't necessarily take center stage.

"When you go to the symphony, you see the orchestra. But there are so many more roles backstage, and in production, from the ushers to the people who are selling tickets," Latta said. "The Sun Valley Music Festival has a video projection, so they need camera operators, and people who are directing which [angle] is going onscreen at any given time. They need an executive director, an art director, security staff."

Latta herself holds an arts job that hides in plain sight. In addition to her career as a sculptor, her role at Boise State, and the teaching business she owns in downtown Boise, Latta also installs art - or sets up art pieces in a physical space.

Arts careers that feel possible

Sun Valley Field School participants pose onstage following a presentation at The Community Library in Ketchum, ID.
Photo provided by Sue Latta

Rose Parham, a creative writing major and arts entrepreneurship minor who attended the Field School, reflected that negativity about arts careers tends to abound - whether from well-meaning family members or strangers on the Internet. "You hear that you're never going to make money as a writer or an artist," Parham said.

But in Sun Valley, Parham said, she witnessed proof of the opposite. Connecting with so many working artists made her own future career feel attainable.

"I just cannot believe how art-focused they are in that little community," Parham said. "There is so much time and money being poured into the arts. It's a priority there. More than I was expecting."

Sun Valley Field School participants connect with each other, artists and business owners at a barbeque hosted by Marilyn Beck, a prominent Boise arts patron and philanthropist. Photo provided by Garrett Ryan

She was particularly enchanted by The Community Library, where the student group toured archives and listened to a panel discussion with the staff.

"It's the best library I've ever been to," Parham said. "I would love to work somewhere like that."

For Theo Noe, a fellow participant in the Sun Valley Field School, also earning their degree in creative writing with an arts entrepreneurship minor, a highlight was the working artists' emphasis on flexibility and career pivots.

"That was the best part for me, being able to see that you can change your path," Noe said. "We got to see a lot of people who maybe went to school for one thing and ended up with a career in something a little different."

Support the School of the Arts experience fund

The School of the Arts is making plans for a second year of the Sun Valley Field School and encourages supporters to donate to next year's student cohort.

Your support will remove financial barriers so students can focus on building connections, growing creatively and preparing for their futures, at the Sun Valley Field School and similar programs.

Share This

• Share on Facebook
• Share on X
• Share on LinkedIn
• Share through Email