The arts are alive and thriving in Idaho, a state perhaps better known for its active outdoor pursuits like skiing and hiking than for its galleries and Broadway performances.
From Boise, where attendees can take in one of two seasonal performance series, to Sun Valley, where they can get their hands dirty while crafting pottery, Idaho’s palette of arts endeavors makes meeting agendas more colorful.
Boise
One of the gems in Boise’s crown of artsy options is the Morrison Center for Performing Arts, a premier performance venue that enjoys national recognition and stages Broadway hits and more.
According to John Curtis, spokesman for the Boise CVB, the facility has a 2,037-seat theater, a reception area that accommodates about 80 people and a lobby that hosts larger events.
Groups that get tickets to the Idaho Shakespeare Festival, held from the end of May through September, will enjoy professional theater near the Boise River.
Curtis says the stage is set amid a beautiful natural reserve, home to native plants, birds, deer, ducks and foxes, among other critters.
“Bring your food and make a picnic on the grass, rent chairs or choose a group seating area,” he says.
Another popular seasonal event is Idaho Botanical Garden Outlaw Field Summer Concert Series, which welcomes well-known musical artists like Crosby Stills & Nash to its stage.
Curtis says this is another picturesque setting—featuring surrounding foothills and the sun setting behind the stage—that groups will appreciate.
A limited number of VIP seats can be reserved in advance.
Meanwhile, the historic Egyptian Theatre, located downtown, offers group tours and is available to rent for meetings and receptions when not in use for its full calendar of events, including marquee music acts, films, opera and more.
PageBreakCoeur d’Alene
Groups that would like to get acquainted with Coeur d’Alene should start downtown along Sherman Avenue, where they’ll find art galleries as well as restaurants and shops.
“[It is all located] just steps from the lakefront within walking distance of each other for visitors to enjoy year-round,” says Katherine Coppock, manager at the Coeur d’Alene CVB.
For a memorable live performance, the Coeur d’Alene Summer Theatre, Idaho’s oldest performing arts organization, specializes in productions of full-scale Broadway musicals during July and August.
Coppock says the summer program, performed at the state-of-the-art Kroc Center, also features concerts by accomplished regional musicians.
Additionally, Art on the Green, which occurs at the same time as Taste of the Coeur d’Alenes and Downtown Street Fair, is one of the most popular annual events in the area, held the first weekend in August.
“All three events happen downtown, stretching from our City Park onto our main street, offering art, crafts, food, music and fun,” Coppock says.
Idaho Falls
The Idaho Falls Arts Council will open ARTitorium on Broadway next month (August 2014) in downtown Idaho Falls, according to Michelle M. Holt, CEO of the Greater Idaho Falls COC.
She says this unique and innovative facility offers a variety of interactive art and art-making activities that groups can sign up for.
The impressive venue will encourage creativity via a virtual gallery featuring more than 300 artworks from national collections, as well as hands-on options including “creation stations” with six different art-making software applications, a green screen studio, stop-frame animation equipment and a recording studio.
PageBreakSun Valley/Ketchum
“Sun Valley’s vibrancy and cultural offerings far exceed what one would expect from a small mountain town,” says Greg Randolph, spokesman for Visit Sun Valley.
More than a dozen art galleries can be found throughout town, as well as venues featuring entertainment, including nexStage Theatre, which regularly stages performances by the Company of Fools troupe, among other events.
The Sun Valley Center for the Arts, Randolph adds, offers a full calendar of arts programming, from speaking engagements to live music, which planners should check out.
“Groups can also gather at Boulder Mountain Clayworks to put their hands in the mud, so to speak, and learn to craft a variety of clay objects in this fully equipped pottery studio,” he says.
And the largest free outdoor symphony in the country, the Sun Valley Summer Symphony, brings a collection of talented musicians from around the country together for 18 performances in July and August.
Twin Falls
The Herrett Center for Arts and Science resides on the main campus of the College of Southern Idaho.
The center’s highlights, according to Kyle Tarbet, spokesman for Twin Falls Area COC, are the Faulkner Planetarium, Centennial Observatory and six galleries with artifacts from the prehistoric American continents.
The center also has 2,900 square feet of meeting space to accommodate 260 people for auditorium seating or 160 people for a meal function.
At Twin Falls Center for the Arts, which enjoys views of Snake River Canyon and Perrine Memorial Bridge, Tarbet says groups can browse the artwork of local artists.
The center also has many spaces for group events, including an outdoor plaza, three multipurpose rooms on the second floor that can be used for meetings and an auditorium with a stage that sports a projection system, Steinway piano and audiovisual capabilities.
Pocatello
The top two arts options for visiting groups to enjoy in Pocatello are the Museum of Clean and the First Friday Art Walk, according to Birgitta Bright, tourism administrator for Visit Pocatello.
The LEED-certified Museum of Clean is a fun venue where groups will find paintings and sculptures, as well as a large variety of other items that link to the “clean” theme, including vacuum cleaners, bathtubs, brooms, trash cans and clothes washers.
Pocatello’s First Friday Art Walk through Old Town is a local favorite that groups should check out if they’re in town.
The walk, held from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., Bright says, includes more than 20 restaurants and galleries, some with art on display and some with the artist on hand to provide live demonstrations.
Refreshments are available and attendees may also hear live music along the way.
Carolyn Blackburn is a frequent contributor to Meetings Focus.
