If you arenât familiar with the Teton Music School youâll have a chance to become so on Saturday when it hosts its first fundraising âSpring Flingâ at the Bar J Chuckwagon off Highway 390. Proceeds will fill the schoolâs scholarship coffers.
Starting at 2 p.m. and running into the night, the Spring Fling will feature well-known and -loved performers as well some new ones.
Family, friends and other fans are welcome to come for a set or two or for the whole day. Kiddies will have two bouncy castles to ricochet around in, and Teton Music School will have tables of info about its busy summer of programs, like Adventures in Music for grades three to five (July 5-9); Beats/Bangers, a weeklong songwriting and audio production workshop for grades six-12 (July 12-16); and Summer Strings Camp for sixth to 12th graders (July 19-23).
For nigh on 60 years, if you wanted to learn how to paint or draw you could go to the Art Association of Jackson Hole, one of the valleyâs oldest nonprofits. Gotta dance? Then your place was at Dancersâ Workshop, just a few years the Art Associationâs junior. And those bitten by the theater bug had Off Square Theatre Company, the direct descendant of community performing arts organizations that go back at least 40 years.
But if you had a song in your heart or a tap in your toe, well, here in Jackson Hole your options were limited. While there were skilled musicians willing and able to teach you, as well as various community ensembles, no single entity championed music education like those other nonprofits until the late 2000s, when the Jackson Hole Music Experience tried to do so.