By Taylor Owens CONTENT MARKETING LEAD
Sahra Beaupré and Greta Hagg began Bozeman-based Echo Arts in 2018 by setting up contemporary art pop-ups in the Bozeman area, then transitioning to a brick-and-mortar exhibition space in the town’s Northeast Neighborhood in 2020. Today, Echo Arts has taken up residence in the new Wildlands commercial spaces abutting Wild Crumb Bakery, Treeline Coffee Roasters, Biome Slowcraft, and others.
“When we envisioned doing something together like this, we really wanted to put Montana contemporary art at the forefront of our programming,” Beaupré said.
“We have this brick-and-mortar exhibition space here at the Wildlands,” Hagg said. “We also have an art advisory side of our business as well.”
The inside of Echo Arts features a traditional gallery space that is open to the public to peruse, and experience exhibits that will continuously change throughout the seasons.
“Sahra and I, we really enjoyed doing our pop-ups together,” Hagg said. “We really wanted to bolster and create a larger contemporary art scene here in Bozeman and Montana and regionally. We have a passion for amplifying artists and creating community engagement.”
“When you come to a city, you want to feel the soul of the city,” Beaupré said. “A lot of that happens via art and in many different formats. Art can run the gamut from public art installations to just the person who’s making moccasins and this very like unique storefront capability. It’s kind of harnessing all of that in. We wanted our exhibition space to be a place where people could experience that.”
The passion behind Echo Arts began through Hagg and Beaupre’s experiences as former artists and the inspiration they gained just by being around other artists and curating shows.
“We were coming at it with a background already and then found we were very like-minded in the way we work together and our visions,” Hagg said.
When you walk through the doors of Echo Arts’ new location, you can expect to find a welcoming, comfortable space to enjoy the art displayed, as well as interactive and relaxed elements like a ping pong table.
“Greta and I both mutually wanted an exhibition space to feel accessible and welcoming,” Beaupré said. “We wanted it to be a place where people felt at home and could just stop by.”
Showcasing artists from Montana is an important focus at Echo Arts and continues to be a cornerstone for what the exhibition space is utilized for.
“I’d say about 80% of our programming is hyper-local and regional,” Beaupré said. “So that means they are given priority in our exhibition space with two-month shows. We’re very hopeful that what we’re doing for Montana artists is giving them a level of exposure that’s necessary in order to grow a career in Montana and just prioritizing them as the ethos of our business.”
With a perfect spot in the heart of the busiest block of the Northeast Neighborhood, Echo Arts is positioned to provide a unique experience for all who wander through the arts district this summer.
“The foot traffic is really wonderful around here and being in proximity of all the wonderful businesses in this corridor of Peach [Street] and Wallace [Avenue], we really love that,” Hagg said.
“Wildlands afforded us the opportunity to build out, which is pretty rare, from scratch,” Beaupré said. “We partnered with Open Studio Collective, which is an architect firm to help us do that and collaborate on a space.”
The next exhibition at Echo Arts will be by artist Sandra Dal Poggetto, a Helena-based artist, with an opening date of July 12th. Poggetto’s exhibition will coincide with the summer exhibition at Tinworks Art.
“There’s definitely a simpatico narrative that’s happening between what they [Tinworks] decided they were going to be doing and the dialogue in Sandra’s work,” Beaupré said. “We’re really excited about that fusion.”
Check out Echo Arts this season in the Wildlands commercial spaces and immerse yourself in a variety of captivating art exhibitions. Find out more about what is on display at echoarts.net.
