Sometimes when I’m putzing around in my front yard, I’ll look up and notice folks gawking and smiling at the enormous sculpture next door that rises out of a beautiful garden like the tower of Orthanc out of Isengard. The sculpture, titled “Blossom 2,” is 20 feet tall and made from stainless-steel casino table bases — a magical, delightful and profoundly incongruous thing to stick in your front yard.
“Blossom 2” was built by my neighbor, the multimedia artist, saxophonist, educator and general person-about-town Jesse Blumenthal. Over the years, Blumenthal has found myriad ways to delight their fellow Missoulians with art that blurs spectacle, public engagement and unpretentious, unbridled joy. You may recognize Blumenthal’s oversized tricycle, decked out with a mobile forge, which they occasionally ride around town, teaching impromptu blacksmithing lessons. Or maybe you saw their enormous, dazzling piece featured in this year’s Sculpture in the Wild, in Lincoln. Perhaps you’ve heard them wail on the saxophone as part of the merry mischief makers of Noise Complaint, who assemble at the red XXXXs at the northern terminus of Higgins Avenue.
Now, in collaboration with two close friends and colleagues, Blumenthal is taking their egalitarian, community-first approach to arts education to new heights. This Halloween, along with Jay Bruns and Jason Cox, they are throwing open the doors to the new brick-and-mortar homebase of Industrial Arts MT, a studio and workshop space on Ronan Street, right off the Bitterroot Branch bike path. Through a range of classes, they will seek to remind Missoula that there’s no reason why we can’t try our own hand at blacksmithing. Or build a custom speaker system. Or our very own front-yard colossus.
“A lot of the impetus for this is to create a space and create a set of programming that can be anti-gatekeeping. We’re here to open the door.”
And they’re kicking things off with a bang. On Halloween, Industrial Arts MT will throw itself a grand housewarming block party featuring artist talks, a vendor market, a neighborhood stroll accompanied by a marching band and more.
“A lot of the impetus for this is to create a space and create a set of programming that can be anti-gatekeeping,” Blumenthal told me. “We’re here to open the door.”
Blumenthal, Bruns and Cox embrace a wide range of artistic mediums, but they all relish the act of making things. Missoulians may recognize Bruns as the co-founder of the now-defunct performance space Wave & Circuit, on the Hip Strip, or as a member of the synth-heavy quartet Modality. Cox is a multimedia artist as well. A photographer, zine maker, sculptor, and bike builder, among other endeavors, he’s currently wrapping up the construction of a pair of custom speakers for Missoula’s brand-new hi-fi bar, Shapes.
The trio launched Industrial Arts MT in 2019 as a mobile workshop series. But from day one, they wanted a proper home where they could get loud and messy and make big things that require power tools.
Their new headquarters on Ronan Street, on the same stretch as Rockin Rudy’s Record Heaven, Gallery 709 and the American Legion, consists of three adjacent spaces, which double as the artists’ personal studios. Bruns and Cox moved in last December, and Blumenthal is completing their move now. It’s easy to spot — anyone zipping down the bike path will likely have noticed the large, gold Superman “S” sculpture, built by Cox, standing guard on the corner. On a brisk fall afternoon, with the garage door to their studio space open wide, Blumenthal was hanging speakers from the ceiling and getting arrays of tools together that will aid in programming. IAM will offer lessons in what they bill as physical, digital and audio fabrication. The initial workshops — which max out at eight participants — include everything from forging “forever flowers” out of steel cutouts to building speakers and even custom bikes. Blumenthal acknowledged the offerings are likely to evolve. “We’ll see what’s popular and what folks are looking for,” they said.
Around the corner, in Cox’s brightly lit lavender lair — which carries the eternal scent of being a former weed op — he was putting final touches on the speakers for Shapes. He wheeled out a set of theater seats and we took a minute to bask in the sounds of Beck’s “Sexx Laws,” blasting from the sound system. All three artists giggled excitedly as the sound boomed — Cox most of all, as he basked in the success of his DIY project.
Audio will also play a big role in this weekend’s Halloween block party, a collaboration with Starlight Reunion. The event will feature DIY sound systems, plus a performance and neighborhood march led by Seattle’s Perfectly Adequate Brass Band. (The dozen-ish-person outfit will allegedly be arriving via limo.) The block party will also feature artist talks, as well as free blacksmithing lessons — forging a hook, spoon and leaf — led by Blumenthal, along with artists including Louisa Berky, Karl Schwiesow and Jeanne Marshall. And be sure to bring your wallet — there will also be a “vendor village” chock-full of handmade goods, crafts and art.
It’s hard to imagine a more joyful way to celebrate this new chapter of Industrial Arts MT. And sure, times may be a tad bit grim; banging on a hunk of hot steel with a hammer might not solve our societal and existential quandaries, but it might help. “This is just one more little Voltron piece, to make Missoula this epic art place where anything is possible,” Cox said.
Industrial Arts MT’s Halloween block party is Sat., Oct. 31, from noon to 8 PM @ 801 Ronan St. #1. Free. All ages. Dance party with Funktionality Presents runs from 6 PM to 6 AM @ the Legion Hall. $20.
