Relevance of Place: Shannon Jackson in Conversation with Laura Viklund

Relevance of Place is an online series of site-specific dialogues that explore the meaning of place at Tippet Rise Art Center. Located in Fishtail, Montana, Tippet Rise is anchored in the belief that art, music, architecture, and nature are intrinsic to the human experience, each making the others more powerful.
Guided by Shannon Jackson, Chair of the History of Art Department at UC-Berkeley and a scholar of socially-engaged art, Relevance of Place invites artists, architects, designers, and creative thinkers to engage in conversation about the ethics, aesthetics, and relevance of place. These conversations explore “place” as a global, local, and personal concept as well as “place” as it refers specifically to Tippet Rise. In individual interviews and group dialogues, each guest offers stories and insights from their own practice. Together, they reflect on the historic past and sustainable future of Tippet Rise-as an environmental site, as a wide-ranging art center, and as a creative gathering space.
Here, Jackson interviews architect Laura Viklund on how the community principles of timber-framing have informed her architectural designs as well as her role as an interpreter between artists and the Tippet Rise site. In this episode, Viklund recalls the early stages of development at Tippet Rise and how it changed her architectural practice. Watch to hear her describe the process of building the Olivier Music Barn and to hear her unique take on the installation of Stephen Talasnik’s Satellite #5: Pioneer, together with local carpenters.
Filmed in May 2022.
Director, Editor, and Producer: James B. Joyce
Director of Photography: Kevin Richey
Sound Recording, Editing, and Mixing: Monte Nickles
Boom Operator and Sound Cleaning: Jim Ruberto
Grip: Brett Robot
Hair and Makeup: Sarah Lowther
Visit www.tippetrise.org/relevance-of-place