Taking Home the Bronze

In the two-and-a-half hours before the October 31 midnight deadline for voting, the lead for the Platte Valley Arts Council’s (PVAC) annual Hay Bale Sculpture Contest changed three times. It made for a late night for Mary Martin, who facilitates the contest each year.

When it was all said and done, however, Brush Creek Ranch beat out the other 13 competitors with their entry “Should’ve Been a Cowboy.” Lauren Trostle and Dakota Lewis, representing Brush Creek Ranch, accepted the traveling trophy on November 12 at the Platte Valley Community Center.

For the past eight years, Valley residents and businesses have competed in the annual contest, which challenges participants to get creative with hay bales. According to Stacy Crimmins, president of the PVAC, the contest started as a way to introduce the Platte Valley to the concept of public art.

“At the time, Pam Kraft was the president and she had suggested it [Hay Bale Sculpture contest]. We had started talking about public art as a long-term goal. She thought this would be a fun way to introduce the community to public art,” said Crimmins. “That it’s free, anybody can see it any time, that it’s available all year round.”

While it started out slow, said Crimmins, it didn’t seem to take long for locals to become interested in the event.

“It’s always been very popular for the Valley, just because of the uniqueness of it,” said Crimmins. “As we were planning the big public art project in 2022, I didn’t think that we were going to keep going with it. There’s enough interest that people really wanted to keep going with it.”

In September 2022, the PVAC unveiled seven new public art installments between Saratoga and Encampment. Each of them were completed by local artists and were sponsored by local businesses or organizations. Crimmins said the hay bale sculpture contest was a contributing factor in the Valley’s acceptance of public art.

“It’s a layman’s way of demonstrating that art can be made by anybody—you don’t have to be an ‘artist’—and that art doesn’t have to be in a museum,” said Crimmins. “Art is for every person, it’s not meant to be just for people who can afford it or who can travel to see it. We’ve had some really good entries over the years, some that are very creative.”

Each year, once entries have been submitted and the sculptures have been completed, Martin drives around the Valley to take pictures. These pictures are uploaded to the PVAC Facebook page where, for a period of about two weeks, people can react to the photos. The photo with the most reactions wins each year. These uploaded photos also lead people on a scavenger hunt of sorts as they try to locate the hay bale sculpture, as many of them may not be seen from the highway.

The public art tour compiled by the PVAC, it turns out, is also a scavenger hunt of sorts.

“After those seven pieces [for the public art project] were permanently installed, I just heard today that there are people who come to the [Platte Valley] Community Center specifically to see some of the art that’s on the public art tour,” said Crimmins. “We know that people are somehow finding out about public art in the area because they’re specifically saying they came in to see this or that.”

Crimmins, who served as the Saratoga/Platte Valley Chamber of Commerce CEO for 17 years, said public art also provides a benefit for tourism. It gives visitors something to do in between seasons or events, when other amenities such as hiking, ice fishing or snowmachining may not be available or accessible.

“Public art is a way to give people something to do besides shopping and restaurants which are always available,” said Crimmins. “It’s a little bit of a scavenger hunt. Some of them, people may drive by them everyday and not realize that mural was there until somebody points it out to them.”

In a way, the PVAC is coming full circle with its work on public art—whether with the public art tour or the hay bale sculpture contest.

“Before [the] hay bale [contest], we did a public art project which Liz Wood wrote the grant for.

That was five or six pieces of public art [and] that was also well received. Unfortunately, a couple of those pieces were at the old hot pool building and some picnic tables that have long since been destroyed or removed,” said Crimmins. “We have two of the original murals and we are in the process of moving those to the community center so they can be protected.”

According to Crimmins, the PVAC has hopes to add a new piece of public art each year to the Valley. She admits this is an ambitious goal, especially as the arts council obtains funding to pay the artist—instead of requesting they donate a piece—and work with a property owner for placement of the piece.

In the meantime, there’s still the hay bale sculpture contest.

“It [hay bale sculpture] is temporary where some of the other art pieces are permanent. It’s a little bit like installation art in that respect,” said Crimmins. “There’s a lot of very famous installation art and they take years of planning, millions of dollars and then they’re up for a short period of time.”

For the Valley, however, it just comes down to the cost of hay and materials.