UPDATE – June 24, 2019 – After 3 years of creating the Yampa is Wild mural, today we are hanging this piece of art in downtown Steamboat Springs.  Over 100 volunteers have assisted Jill Bergman in her efforts to make this idea a reality.  The Friends of the Yampa, along with Steamboat Creates and all our other partners are very thankful for Jill’s expertise and our communities passion to create something special. Having this mural placed on the Ambulance Barn on the Yampa River in downtown Steamboat Springs is very exciting and satisfying as it will continuously remind us that this river here in Northwest Colorado is very important and beautiful for many reasons.

This collaborative mural project has merged many partners here locally and from afar.  THANK YOU to all who have been part of this mural.

UPDATE – June 2019 – Its go time.  The mural was finished earlier this month as Jill put her final touches on the art.  As we gear up for the hanging of the mural on June 24th, we will be hosting several events.  We are unveiling the finished mural for the first and only time and inviting our volunteers to get a sneak peek at the project.  We will then be hosting a fundraiser with our friend Mishka at the Mountain Tap Brewery.

For other updates – check out our Facebook Page or Jill Bergman’s page

UPDATE – Aug 29, 2018 – We have joined in on the First Friday Art Walk for September 7.  We will be hosting this event at our mural venue in the Clocktower Building off Burgess Creek Road on the Mountain, off Mountain Werner Circle. This building is the first right as you go up Burgess Creek Road where the Steamboat Powdercats office is located.

UPDATE – Aug 27, 2018 – We are now in the midst of creating the mural!  We have now finished our tracing of the 30+ panels and will soon be getting onto painting! Thank you t

o all who have joined onto this mural project.  We have had great support from volunteers along with our partners. If you have time and want to be part of something special, please check out our volunteer sign up page and help us create the Yampa is Wild mural.

 VOLUNTEER NOW TO PAINT MURAL

We need your help in fundraising!  Friends of the Yampa has earmarked $10,000 of the $25,000 budgeted for this mural.  As of April 1, 2018 we are in need of raising $15,000 dollars to help finalize this mural project.  By June 2018 we need to have all the funding for the project completed. Thank you in advance for helping create something special for the Yampa River.

Donate to Yampa is Wild mural here!

Friends of the Yampa has partnered with local Steamboat Springs artist Jill Bergman and the Steamboat Springs Arts Council to create a large scale mural themed “The Yampa Is Wild”.  In partnership with the City of Steamboat Springs, the Steamboat Springs Area Fire Protection District and Routt County Search & Rescue, this mural will be placed on the upper south and upper east walls of the Ambulance Barn building along the Yampa River in Steamboat Springs, Colorado next to the footbridge over the Yampa River between 9th and 10th streets. Click here to view full application to City of Steamboat Springs Public Art Process

The goal of this project has been to collaborate with partners in order to permit, design and deliver a public mural that will be visible along the Yampa River in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.

The outcome of this project will be to engage, inspire and educate people about the Yampa River, to allow for creative expression through art, and foster partnerships in hopes of broadening the interpretive scope of what the Yampa River means to Steamboat Springs, the state of Colorado and beyond.

The Yampa is Wild mural will impact citizens and encourage them to develop a caring ethic for the Yampa River, one of the last wild rivers of the Upper Colorado River System. We envision this initial Yampa is Wild mural expanding in the following years and growing to several murals along the Yampa River in Steamboat Springs and the Yampa River Basin. Today we are only fundraising for this one project in downtown Steamboat Springs.

Mural Details

Using vivid colors, this mural will include prominent local landscapes, physical features of the river basin, cities which the Yampa meanders along, other tributaries of the Yampa River, local wildlife and 4 of the 5 main uses of Yampa River water including agriculture, environment, municipal and recreational use.

The theme of this mural will be “The Yampa is Wild” and will depict the Yampa River from it’s headwaters in the Flat Tops to it’s confluence with the Green River in Dinosaur National Monument at Echo Park.

The location of this mural at the Ambulance Barn will be visible from the footbridge, the bike path, the river and from Yampa Street in downtown Steamboat Springs. Thousands of people utilize the bike path on any given day, especially in the summer when locals and tourists flock to the Yampa for a variety of reasons.  Beyond the bike path, hundreds if not thousands of people use the Yampa River on a daily basis to fish, raft, paddle board and tube.  This location will serve as a ideal venue to remind people that the smaller Yampa River in Steamboat Springs turns into one of the last wild rivers in the Western United States.

This mural will be approximately 70 feet long by 12 feet high.

Jill will be first painting the mural on a fabric called PolyTab.  This material is lighter than canvas and once painting is complete, it will be hoisted and adhered to the walls of the Ambulance Barn building. This method has been used for mural projects across the country.  The process will retain the vivid colors of the paints more so than directly painting onto the stucco of the building. Read more about this material  and process here.

Donate to Yampa is Wild mural here!

Timing of Project

Jill will be working on the mural during the springs of 2018 (April-June) and then we plan to hang the mural in June of 2018.  We will be looking to have community support in helping Jill paint the mural.

How you can help

Please contact us at Friends of the Yampa here if you have any questions.  You can also contact the Steamboat Springs Arts Council to discuss with them the needs for this project.

Donate to Yampa is Wild mural here!

THANK YOU – THANK YOU – THANK YOU – THANK YOU