Honoring the deep connection between art and heritage in the Yampa Valley, the Tread of Pioneers Museum is proud to host seven local artists who, through their artwork, pay tribute to the Yampa Valley and its remarkable history.

This mixed media exhibit, “An Artist’s View: Cultural and Heritage Landscapes of Northwest Colorado,” reveals the artists’ individual styles and responses to this tapestry of our local landscape and culture. Featured artists are Jim Steinberg, Mary Pat Ettinger, Glenna Olmsted, Cindy Wither, Greg Effinger, Chula Beauregard and Barbara Sanders. Beauregard also helped curate the show with museum curator Katie Adams.

“We wanted to give local artists an opportunity to show how they, like the museum, preserve, share and celebrate the rich heritage and history of Routt County,” said Executive Director Candice Bannister. “A ‘call to artists’ was sent out to all area artists, and we are thrilled to feature a photograveur, a printmaker, a watercolorists, acrylic painter on canvas and landscape oil painters. The subjects of the artwork focus on Routt County’s rich heritage.”

When asked how the Routt County’s heritage inspired their art, the exhibiting artists had a host of meaningful responses.

“The pieces I have chosen to include in this show depict elements of our culture or historical spaces that have either changed or disappeared entirely,” said painter Chula Beauregard. “When I reached into my archives, I realized that many of my older paintings depicted places or events that were no longer with us. Moving beyond the sadness of this change, I began to appreciate the fleeting beauty of our home. I realized how important it is to never take it for granted.”

“I have always been inspired by the natural beauty of Routt County and the way the early settlers of the area found the sheltered, nurturing pieces of ground to wrest their living from the challenging land they had chosen to live in,” said exhibiting artist Mary Pat Ettinger. “Over the last 40 years, I have seen many structures that represented the hard-won success of those people fade slowly into the landscape and the past. … I strive to inspire the viewer to recall and honor the challenges and aspirations and high ideals of those who made the first marks of civilization on this audaciously beautiful land.”

“Having been fortunate enough to live in and photograph the Yampa Valley for almost 50 years, I am pleased to share in the vision of the heritage that is the Yampa Valley and partner with the Tread of Pioneers (Museum) to show off its incredible history and beauty,” said veteran photographer Jim Steinberg.

The exhibit runs through Dec. 2, and opened for May’s First Friday Artwalk.

Learn more about this collaborative exhibit at treadofpioneers.org.

Candice Bannister is the executive director of Tread of Pioneers Museum.