Last Window on Whitefish set to be installed

After three years of hard work, the last Windows on Whitefish addition will be revealed prior to the Whitefish Winter Carnival Parade.

The fourth and final window, depicting winter in the town, will be officially unveiled on Saturday, Feb. 7, at 2 p.m.

“This moment is very bittersweet,” said Deb Stika, the project’s artistic director. “It was a long, sometimes difficult road, but I’ve met a lot of really cool people and volunteers who made this all possible.”

In 2012, Stumptown Art Studio launched Windows on Whitefish as a public art project consisting of four large, 6-by-9-feet mosaic murals, each depicting one of the four seasons on the Whitefish Range and in the Flathead Valley, displayed on the side of Latitude 48 on the corner of Central Avenue and Second Street.

In addition to serving as a permanent public art exhibit in downtown, Windows on Whitefish was cultivated to serve as a critical fundraiser for the arts community, set up to raise money for a permanent endowment fund for Stumptown Art Studio, the nonprofit community art center. The majority of the funds go to the studio’s Art from the Heart Outreach Program, which provides under-served and special needs community members with artistic opportunities.

The Art from the Heart program gives community members who may not have access to arts programs a chance to express emotion through social interaction and artistic expression, as well as help to build confidence and pride. Members of the studio travel around the community to provide services to at-risk youth, Montana veterans’ home residents, Flathead Industries, assisted living and nursing facility residents, hospital patients, and children or adults experiencing challenging situations.

“A lot of our schools don’t have big art programs, so it’s really important that we find a way to expose children, especially young ones, to the arts,” Stika said.

While the final window is complete, the studio is still far from reaching their fundraising goal. As of this week, the studio has reached only 30 percent of their $100,000 goal.

Donations are still being accepted, with those of $500 or more recognized with a hand thrown tile bearing the donor’s name or company’s logo displayed next to the murals.

The project was initially funded through a start-up grant from the Montana Arts Council, and continues with support through donations from individuals and businesses.

Several years ago, Stika and the board at Stumptown Art Studio sat down to brainstorm a way to raise money for funds that would maintain the nonprofit art center and operate their outreach program.

“We wanted to do something different, but something that would still give back to the community,” Stika said.

The group created the windows project, which would allow community members to participate in a large mosaic art project. Stika designed each of the four windows to reflect a season, and directed the classes, completion and installation of the project.

Locals who took mosaic classes through the art studio, which taught them the basics of laying tiles and grout, were then allowed to work on the windows during open sessions throughout the year. More than 185 people participated in the classes and helped complete the project.

“It was an awesome project, because it brought people from all walks of life together,” Stika said.

One such participant is Terri Muraoka, who worked on all four windows from the start.

“I think by the end of it, we were hoping someone else would want us to do a project for them, because we just want to keep going,” Muraoka said, referring to the volunteers who worked on the project. “It was just such a great experience.”

Muraoka attended the instructional classes on how to mosaic, and helped lay out each window as they were built.

Stika would draw the designs for each window, and then gather as many volunteers as she could at the art studio to cut tile and arrange it in different ways to depict the four seasons.

“We’d go through the broken pots or extra pieces and look for little treasures to add to the piece,” Muroaka said, adding that the windows should be viewed first up close, so observers can see all the details, then from a distance, to take in the full picture. The four seasons blend with one another, so “rays” of sunshine from the “summer” window can be seen in the “fall” window, and even a bit in the “winter” window.

As they worked, Stika said the windows continually changed as they discovered what worked and what didn’t. What was originally planned to be a moose in one window evolved into a tree, and a snowmobiler became a skijorer in another.

“The process was incredible, and beyond fun,” Muraoka said. “If there’s any way people can be involved in their community — volunteering or with the food bank, or the school — jump in with both feet. Just get involved.”

Stumptown Art Studio is a nonprofit community art center located at 145 Central Ave. in Whitefish. Call 862-5929 or visit www.stumptownartstudio.org for more information or to make a donation.

Reporter Brianna Loper can be reached at 758-4441 or bloper@dailyinterlake.com.