September 17, 2014 - Jackson Hole Land Trust

SteppingOut
September 17 – 23, 2014 • arts, entertainment and fun
Old barn
seen in
new light
Film, art, dance celebrate agrarian
legacy of Moseley-Hardeman Barn
on Friday at Center for the Arts.
See page 15.
INSIDE
Excursion: Check out Targhee’s mountain bike trails, page 4.
Music: Hear blues band howl at the Wort, page 5.
Arts: Altamira spotlights painters Walker and Ross, page 9.
RICHARD COLLIER / COURTESY PHOTO
The Moseley-Hardeman Barn was
built in 1941 using hand tools.
STEPPING OUT Jackson Hole News&Guide, Wednesday, September 17, 2014 - 15
BRADLY J. BONER / News&Guide file
Roger Smith talks with Cub Scouts about a great horned owl at the Teton Raptor Center, which now occupies the Moseley-Hardeman Barn. Friday night’s Barn Bash
will celebrate the 1941 structure at the Center for the Arts with art, dancing, a panel discussion and the new documentary by Wilson filmmaker Jennifer Tennican.
Old barn seen in new light
Who: JenTen Productions, Teton Raptor Center,
Jackson Hole Land Trust and Jackson
Hole Historical Society
What: Barn Bash (art exhibit, film screening
and barn dance)
When: 6:30-10 p.m. Friday
Where: Center for the Arts
How Much: $15
By Frances Moody
U
nderstanding film’s ability to
spotlight the magic of the ordinary, filmmaker Jennifer Tennican has focused her camera on the
Moseley-Hardeman Barn.
In addition to using film’s power
of storytelling, Tennican — along
with the Teton Raptor Center, Jackson Hole Historical Society and
Jackson Hole Land Trust — has
zoomed in on the barn’s importance
by planning an entire evening to
celebrate its existence.
The Barn Bash — an art exhibit, a barn dance, a film screening
and a panel discussion — is set for
6:30 p.m. Friday at the Center for
the Arts. Tickets cost $15.
Built in 1941 by Wesley Bircher,
the barn is a place many valley residents drive by without stopping to
take a closer look.
While a lot of people take the
barn’s beauty for granted, Tennican has recognized the dazzling elements of the building by making a
short film called “A Treasure Hidden in Plain Sight: The Moseley/
Hardeman Barn.”
“We want to give people new ways
of seeing the barn, both literally and
metaphorically,” Tennican said.
“In the literal sense we provide
some interesting backstory about
who built the barn, why he chose a
Gothic roof, who owned the ranch
To show off the barn’s classic arand how land uses have changed
over time,” Tennican said. “Meta- chitecture the film pans through
phorically we see the barn as a sym- the interior. The curved beams that
shape the building’s roof create a
bol of our agrarian past.”
The idea for the film, which in- look that Tennican describes as “a
spired the notion of the party, came whale’s rib cage.”
The footage of the interior not
to Tennican when she applied for a
grant with the Center of Wonder. only shows off the barn’s design but
As she read through the grant re- also lets viewers see the inside of
quirements the Jackson filmmaker the building’s peak.
“It gives people a chance to tour
noticed this line: “We want proposals for stories that illuminate the the barn without actually going in
it,” Huntington
extraordinary or
said.
the everyday.”
In
addition
Te n n i c a n
to
explaining
thought
the
the architecture
grant called for
that draws at“extraordinary
tention to the
in the everyday.”
barn, “A Trea“It struck me
sure
Hidden
that the Moseley-Hardeman
in Plain Sight”
Barn was both
catalogs its hisof these things:
tory and how it
– Jennifer Tennican has affected the
an
extraordifilmmaker community.
nary example of
vernacular ar“I think the
chitecture and a
Hardeman barn
utilitarian ranch structure that is and property are so iconic,” said
part of the landscape of the valley,” Laurie Andrews, executive director of the Jackson Hole Land Trust.
she said.
“A Treasure Hidden in Plain “They really speak to the history
Sight” has aerial footage shot by of the valley, of families coming toShane Moore, shots of the barn’s gether and the community’s connecinterior and interviews. The combi- tion to cattle. It’s definitely about
nation of film footage and dialogue the open space and the families that
is used to explain the history of the are in agriculture and who lived in
building’s architecture.
that slice of time.”
The Moseley-Hardeman barn has
First owned by Major Moseley,
a Gothic-style roof. Unlike other but purchased by Gerrit Hardeman
ranch structures built in the 1940s, in 1956, the barn served as a storthe building was constructed with- age area until the land trust raised
money and purchased it in 1989. A
out the help of power tools.
“In classic Jackson fashion, we nonprofit organization, the trust
are 30 years behind everybody else,” was created with a mission to presaid Rebecca Huntington, a collab- serve open space.
Before the barn was turned over
orator on the movie and the bash.
“It’s unusual to have barn built in to the trust the community asked
that the property be used to promote
the ’40s that is a hand-built barn.”
“We want to give people
new ways
of seeing the barn,
both literally
and metaphorically.”
the cause of preserving wildlife and
for educational purposes. Using the
place to shelter birds, the Teton Raptor Center is an organization that
fits with the community’s requests.
“One thing about this barn that
makes it stand out is that this particular barn tells the story of preserving both the cultural and the
environmental,” Huntington said.
“They preserved the land and the
building.”
The structure is still a part of the
valley’s culture. Artists participating in the land trust’s View22 project celebrated the barn last month
by painting it. For the Barn Bash
the plein air painters’ work will be
on display and up for auction before
Tennican shows her film.
After the screening there will be
a panel discussion with experts who
appeared in the short documentary.
And a barn dance will celebrate
Moseley-Hardeman barn’s roots. Instructors from Dancers’ Workshop
will lead line dancing. Planning to
set the mood, the Wild Coyotes are
lined up to play.
The money raised from ticket
sales will go to the four organizations that helped plan the Barn
Bash. But Tennican said the event
isn’t about raising money, it’s about
highlighting the magnificence of
the barn. She hopes the event will
continue the barn’s tradition of creating stories for valley residents to
tell, whether it be through film, art
or other means.
“As Mary Humstone, co-founder
of the Smithsonian’s Barn Again
Program and University of Wyoming faculty, says in the film, ‘Historic buildings trigger memories
and memories trigger stories. Those
things would be lost if we didn’t save
these buildings,’” Tennican said.