Montana State art students shine light on local grain mill’s forgotten history

BOZEMAN - Montana State University students from the School of Art will illuminate the past of a local, historic grain mill on Friday, June 5.

From 9 to 10 p.m., four students will project visuals onto Bozeman's BG Grain mill at 714 E. Mendenhall St. in a public art installation providing insight into the history of the building. The installation is free and open to the community.

"When students realize their work might be the one of the only things that keeps the history of this place alive in people's memory, it hits them differently," said William Culpepper, assistant professor of graphic design. "Suddenly, design isn't just about making things look good. It's about honoring something from the past."

Culpepper founded Grafik Intervention in 2011 at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. Since then, at least eight universities across the country have held their own "interventions" to highlight the forgotten histories of local buildings.

Over the course of four weeks, graphic design and studio arts students at MSU conducted background research using reference materials from the MSU Library's Archives and Special Collections, the Bozeman Public Library and the Gallatin History Museum. Built in 1928, the mill was once crucial toBozeman's agricultural economy as a site for processing, storing and shipping grain along the former Northern Pacific Railway.

Ben Parks, a senior graphic design major from Missoula, had driven by the BG Grain mill several times in the past but had never looked at it closely. Educating community members who have done the same motivated him and his peers on the project to aim for perfection in their designs, he said.

"It gives this project some stakes," Parks said. "This is how it'll be in the industry. Everything you make is going to be for the public, so you might as well make it as good as you can."

Parks jumped at the opportunity to develop his motion graphics skills after completing a final project on projection mapping for installations, taught by associate professor Minjee Jeon in the spring. He is earning credits toward his degree through MSU's Bobcat 4X4 option, in which classes meet four times a week for four weeks during the summer.

Students will give final presentations on their Grafik Intervention project from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. June 10 in Cheever Hall, Room 215. The presentations are open to the public.