Friends, I hope you are having a great holiday season, and Happy New Year!
In December, a group of us Steamboat Springs area artists motivated by connecting our artwork with environmental protection and climate action met and formed the Eco Art Collective. We are really looking forward to where this collective leads us through collaboration, support, education, and fun. In March, we will be opening up the group to any area creatives to join us! This will officially be happening during Insight: Art for Climate Action hosted by Western Resilience Center at Wildhorse Cinema and Arts. Follow me on Instagram, or Western Resilience’s newsletter to be sure to get those details.
Forest Bathing, linocut by Jill Bergman printed onto a top map section of NW Colorado’s National Forest.
To kick things off for the Eco Art Collective, we are having a group show during the month of January at The Alley Gallery and Art Studios in downtown Steamboat Springs. There are 12 of us bringing different backgrounds and techniques into an exciting collection of work. Check out this preview of artists and artwork, and if you are in the area, please come to our opening during ArtWalk, January 2, 5-8 pm. Above is the new piece, Forest Bathing, that I created for the January show and printed onto a topo map section of our NW Colorado National Forest.
In addition, I’m helping organize two great art opportunities, with Calls for Art out right now. The first is the show I mentioned above, Insight: Art for Climate Action. This is organized by Western Resilience Center, formerly Yampa Valley Sustainability Council. If you are in Northwest Colorado and would like to contribute a piece, submissions are due February 1st. This is a chance to share special places, climate impacts, stories about change in the area, and inspire others to get involved. Please read the Artist Info page, Call for Artists, and submit through the linked form. Feel free to email me with questions, and also please include any fun process or reference photos with your submission.
The other opportunity is for women artists and writers with a connection to the Yampa River and especially river stretches through our public lands. Friends of the Yampa and I will be putting together a zine, or self-published, handmade book with a collection of art, poetry, essays, ecology, history, and whatever other goodness we can collect. I will attach the full info below, submissions due February 28, and the submission form is here. Also, stay tuned through Friend’s of the Yampa’s newsletter for two family drop-in events to make art about the Yampa River and public lands. The first will be at their Yampa River Center, 743 Oak St in Steamboat Springs, Tuesday, January 27, 4-7 pm, and the second is being planned in Craig, date and time TBD.
And one last thing for now, I’ve resumed writing at Creative Climate Action on Substack. Please follow if you are interested in creativity + climate issues. The last post was about pikas, charming high elevation mammals. The next post I have planned is about using your artist statement to more deeply explain the thoughts behind your work, and inspire the reader to action.
2025 was a hard year for those of us concerned about climate change, environmental protection, the arts, and of course, civil rights, immigrants, freedom of speech, etc, etc. Here’s to a better 2026, however it manifests. Don’t sit back and wait, though. Get involved, volunteer, and speak up about the topics that are most important to you. Together we can bring about the change we want to see!
Blue, linocut with gouache and poem by Jill Bergman