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Elk are among the many different types of wildlife that live in and around Rocky Mountain National Park. Because Estes Park and YMCA of the Rockies are so close to the park, it is very common to see elk walking the streets of downtown or relaxing in the open spaces in front of the Administration Building at the Y. The best time to see elk is during their rutting season in the fall. Typically, you can see one male elk (bull) with many females (cows). If you're lucky, you might even get to hear the distinct sound of the bulls bugling. If you visit in the summer, however, you might get to see some baby elk as they are typically born around June.Elk are very large animals and can weigh over 700 pounds. It is estimated that there are over 2,000 elk that live around the Estes Park area. Just like deer, male elk grow and lose their antlers every year. While the antlers are growing, there is a layer of soft, velvet skin that is shed during the summer. If you see Aspen trees with lots of dark scratch marks, that is likely from elk or deer using the tree to remove this velvet from their antlers.In the 1800s, people moved west and settled in the Estes Valley. They hunted elk extensively and by the 1890s, only a few elk remained. In 1913 and 1914, before Rocky Mountain National Park was established, 49 elk were moved from Yellowstone National Park to this area by the Estes Valley Improvement Association and the United States Forest Service. All the elk in the Estes Valley today are descendants from those elk from Yellowstone.

Male elk relaxing in the grass outside the Lula W. Dorsey Museum

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This artistic elk sculpture installed outside the Mootz Family Craft and Design Center is called Andrew. A young boy named Andrew Adler was raising money for his bar mitzvah. He loved coming to YMCA of the Rockies and spending time at the craft center with his family. Andrew donated the money he raised to the Y and the sculpture is named after him. 

Andrew the Elk is painted different colors every year. What colors would you paint him? Do you think he's life-size?


Painted Elk Sculpture

This easy, fairly flat tour takes you around the central area of the YMCA of the Rockies in Estes Park, Colorado. As you enjoy the surrounding natural environment during the walk, we invite you to explore these works of art and think about their relationship with nature as you learn more about each piece. 

The first mural Susan Dailey created for YMCA of the Rockies was the Prehistory room in the museum. Dailey was taking a class at Colorado State University, Fort Collins where she formed a connection with the class professor. They were both muralists. The Dorsey museum's director at the time, Jack Melton, called the professor, asking to have a mural done at the museum. The professor was unable to take the project so Dailey's name was mentioned and her connection to the YMCA of the Rockies began. Dailey said she was given a cabin to stay in as she worked on the room during the winter of 1997. She worked mainly from photos, using acrylic paint on the walls as well as foam core and papier mache to create the replica of the rock. Over the next several years, Dailey completed more projects for the YMCA of the Rockies and the Dorsey museum. The year after doing the Prehistory room, Dailey finished a mural of Long's Peak inside the museum that was eventually covered up during a later museum remodel. After the renovations of Mountainside Lodge around 2005, Dailey added the mural of the lodge in the museum, working from old photos of the original building from 1925. For more information on Susan Dailey and her work, use the link below to access her website.

The Dorsey Museum is currently home to two display backdrops by artist Susan Dailey. Both are located upstairs and depict Mountainside Lodge and a prehistoric rock shelter. Mountainside Lodge was built in 1920 on the side of Emerald Mountain by Dr. John Timothy Stone, a Presbyterian minister from Chicago. He loved the Rocky Mountains and found the area to be the ideal place for contemplation, study, writing, family vacations, and entertaining visitors. The lodge is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is representative of western rustic architectural-style. The prehistory room depicts an area on our property where Paleo-Indians from the Late Archaic period sheltered as they moved around the mountains in search of food and other resources. 

There are several animals hidden in this mural. Find the squirrel. How many elk can you see? How many birds? How does the artist add depth and perspective to these backdrops? How does the 3D aspect of the backdrop affect our connection to the art?

Museum Display Backdrops

Elk are among the many different types of wildlife that live in and around Rocky Mountain National Park. Because Estes Park and YMCA of the Rockies are so close to the park, it is very common to see elk walking the streets of downtown or relaxing in the open spaces in front of the Administration Building at the Y. The best time to see elk is during their rutting season in the fall. Typically, you can see one male elk (bull) with many females (cows). If you're lucky, you might even get to hear the distinct sound of the bulls bugling. If you visit in the summer, however, you might get to see some baby elk as they are typically born around June. Elk are very large animals and can weigh over 700 pounds. It is estimated that there are over 2,000 elk that live around the Estes Park area. Just like deer, male elk grow and lose their antlers every year. While the antlers are growing, there is a layer of soft, velvet skin that is shed during the summer. If you see Aspen trees with lots of dark scratch marks, that is likely from elk or deer using the tree to remove this velvet from their antlers. In the 1800s, people moved west and settled in the Estes Valley. They hunted elk extensively and by the 1890s, only a few elk remained. In 1913 and 1914, before Rocky Mountain National Park was established, 49 elk were moved from Yellowstone National Park to this area by the Estes Valley Improvement Association and the United States Forest Service. All the elk in the Estes Valley today are descendants from those elk from Yellowstone.

"Art is important. It was man's first form of lasting communication. I am compelled to tell the story of the wild- to connect people to nature and the environment through Art". -Geoffrey C. Smith Geoffrey C. Smith is known for being a wildlife sculptor and photographer. He attended school at Montana State University and currently lives in Florida. Smith creates his sculptures using the lost-wax casting process, where a clay original is covered in wax, creating a mold. The metal is melted and then poured into the wax mold. When dry, the wax is melted away, leaving the final sculpture. Smith is viewed as a naturalist as he works to depict “the vast diversity of wildlife” found all over the world. He chooses to opt for a more traditional style of patina on his sculptures as he wants to “represent the animal as nature has seen fit to create it.” He has created many pieces for private and corporate collections throughout his career and regularly exhibits at fine art shows. However, he is just as happy creating smaller, more personal sculptures as he is creating large, monumental pieces. Visit the link below for more information on the artist. The Free Spirit by Will KralovecSoar Soar,Over the trees;Ahead of you are boundless seas.Mountain tops at your feetAbove, the sun’s radiant heat.It is not ours to question why,One day with you, we’ll touch the sky. Soar soar,Leave pain and suffering far behind.You remind us of what in life we seek to find;Fly through the valleys, climb up the mountains, find life’s worth;Discover the beauty of our earth.You were, and are, what we must be. Soar soar,Your spirit is now free.<h2> </h2>

This dynamic sculpture titled “American Legacy” was created in 1997 by Geoffrey C. Smith. The piece is a memorial to Robert John Kralovec and was donated by his wife, family and friends. It’s accompanied by a poem called The Free Spirit by Will Kralovec, a relative of Robert's. 

The poem seems to be intentionally written to accompany this sculpture. How does it add to your understanding or feelings about the piece? 

The artist has deliberately added an element of movement to the piece. The wings feel like they could move at any second. Do you think the eagle is taking off or landing? Could it be reaching out to grab something? What might that be? How does the placement of the sculpture help you connect to nature?

Eagle Sculpture

“We ordered the globe statue from a firm in California. I had seen and photographed a ball spinning on water in St. Petersburg, Russia, when we visited in 2013. Then I saw a much larger one in Boulder along the 28th Street Mall. An intern in the marketing department researched it for us, and found one in California that had not been sold.” -Kent Meyer, Former President/CEO of YMCA of the Rockies. When asked what attracted him to the spinning ball, Meyer said “Seeing a spinning stone ball on a thin film of water fascinated me... but the globe seemed an ideal monument for our hosting of World Council Meetings.” The YMCA was founded in 1844 in England by George Williams with the objective of improving the spiritual lives of young men flooding into the cities from rural communities. Concerned that these young men had lost their close-knit community and family ties, Williams set up meetings for young Christian men to participate in Bible study, prayer meetings, and mutual improvement societies. Within ten years, the YMCA had made its way over to the United States, with the first YMCA in the U.S. starting in Boston in 1851, and throughout West Europe, North America, Australia, New Zealand, and India (the former British Empire). Eventually, the movement spread to 119 countries where today YMCAs reach and serve approximately 64 million people globally. Henry Dunant, the general secretary of the Switzerland YMCA developed the idea of creating a more unified global movement with an international headquarters. Dunant convinced the YMCA in Paris to organize the first world conference in 1855 with 99 delegates from nine different countries. From that first conference, the Central International Committee was created, with permanent headquarters established in Geneva, Switzerland in 1878. From there, the Central International Committee became known as the World YMCA. Delegates from all of the participating countries meet every three to four years in a different location around the world for discussions on “promoting empowerment, social justice, and peace for young people and their communities through four key areas – health, employment, civic engagement, and environment.”

This piece was installed outside the Administration Building in the spring of 2014 to commemorate the International Conference of the YMCAs held at the Estes Park Center in July of that year. 

The International Conference has been held in the United States three times and YMCA of the Rockies has had the distinction of hosting the event twice, in 1981 and in 2014. During the 2014 conference, delegates from almost all 119 countries gathered at the Estes Park Center. 

In the summer, the globe rotates and appears to float in a small pool of water. Visitors are encouraged to interact with it, feeling the water and rotation of the piece. Even though today the piece appears to be a stone ball, when originally installed, the ball had the markings of a globe to honor the people from YMCAs all over the world. With the constant rotation and interaction by visitors the markings have worn away. However, the piece continues to commemorate the spirit of unity across the international YMCA associations. 

The globe can also serve as a celebration of our international guests and staff. Every year, people come from all over the world to visit YMCA of the Rockies. We even have an international training program where individuals from many different countries can come to learn to work in hospitality and business. Where do you live? How did you get to YMCA of the Rockies? What's your connection to this place?

World Alliance of YMCAs Globe Sculpture

Sculptor Jane DeDecker aims to capture moments in time that convey an emotional message to the viewer. She focuses on the expressive nature of the human form. As a sculptor for over thirty-five years, DeDecker has developed a very painterly, expressive style. She first creates a piece with clay, manipulating the material as if it is paint and her hands are the brushes. Then, the pieces are cast in bronze, adding a sense of permanence to these otherwise small moments as she connects her pieces to the natural environment and human nature. For more information on Jane DeDecker and her other projects, use the link below to visit her website. Can you find the letters "LVH" on the sculpture? What could they stand for? The initials are for a woman named Laurie Van Horn who was friends with artist Jane DeDecker and was also the Marketing and Communications Director for YMCA of the Rockies at the time of the centennial celebration. When looking at this piece, you can see the mountains of the Mummy Range in the background. The center one is called Mt. Ypsilon. Can you see the ice-covered "Y" formed by the crags in the side of the mountain? It is said that the founders of YMCA of the Rockies came to the area, saw the "Y" in the mountain, and decided that this was the perfect place for the western conference of the YMCA.

Created by artist Jane DeDecker, this piece sits in a beautiful location with a perfect view of Mt. Ypsilon and the surrounding landscape. It was commissioned for the centennial celebration of the YMCA of the Rockies in 2007. Four kids are depicted wearing clothes from different periods throughout the 100 years of history of the YMCA of the Rockies, spelling out the letters Y, M, C, and A with their arms. 

The sculpture is so well loved that several YMCAs have had smaller versions made to give as gifts to donors or to sell in gift shops and a YMCA in Texas had another life size one made.

What's your favorite "kid"? Why do you think the sculpture was placed here?  What is your eye drawn to in the landscape? What "letter" can you see in the center of the mountain range? What letter shape can you make? 

YMCA Kids Sculpture

The two figures depicted in the sculpture are Dr. Smith and his grandson Colin. You can see that they are both wearing backpacks and have a compass to help guide them on their next adventure. Dr. Smith loved exploration of any kind, whether it was in nature or in life. He was a research scientist who had a prominent role in developing a drug for the treatment of MS. Artist Ann LaRose has captured his adventurous nature in the positioning of this piece. Ann LaRose, an Oklahoma-raised sculptor who lives in Arizona, draws a lot of inspiration from children and animals, and frequently uses live models to create her pieces. She undertakes careful research when making a new piece. She seeks to learn the back story of the person she is representing. She wants to know how the person stood or what kind of clothes they wore. Attention is given to the subtle details that many people might not notice right away, but it's those details that really bring life to a piece of art, allowing viewers to better understand the story behind it. LaRose will even find samples of the same type of fabric or the exact piece of clothing to look at how they move on the body in person. In an article for a Kansas newspaper, The Wichita Eagle, she shared how she can work from photographs but prefers to find the exact piece of clothing she needs for a sculpture. "How cloth drapes has a lot to do with how something looks. You can't see that, really, in a photo." How does her study of fabric affect the appearance of her art?

The Opa Statue was created by sculptor Ann LaRose in 2000 to honor the life of Dr. Irvin “Irv” Smith. He is depicted here with one of his grandsons who called him "Opa." Dr. Smith and his family loved to visit YMCA of the Rockies and the Rocky Mountains. The sculpture faces Rocky Mountain National Park and the Mummy Range.
Dr. Smith’s wife, Rosemary, commissioned the sculpture and the piece was dedicated and presented to the YMCA of the Rockies in 2001. What are they looking at? How can you tell by looking at the sculpture? How would the sculpture be different if it was placed somewhere else, for example inside a building? What are some details that show texture in the piece? What other details do you notice that help you imagine what it might be like to take a walk in nature? 

Opa Statue

As a sculptor for over thirty-five years, Jane DeDecker has developed a very painterly, expressive style. She first creates a piece with clay, manipulating the material as if it is paint and her hands are the brushes. After casting the pieces in bronze, her sculptures add a sense of permanence to otherwise small, fleeting moments.For more information on Jane DeDecker, her sculptures, and her creative process, visit the entry in this tour focusing on the YMCA Kids Sculpture or follow the link below to visit her website. Nancy’s Garden is located right outside the upper level of the library. The area is dedicated to Nancy Radcliffe, a much loved staff member of YMCA of the Rockies, Estes Park. There has been a library at the YMCA of the Rockies since the mid-1920s. The Maude Jellison Library, named after Maude Jellison from Junction City, KS, was dedicated in 1964 and holds more than 22,000 books that can be checked out by guests during their visit to the Y. The youth library is located on the lower level of the building and is an inviting space for children to explore new worlds through reading an story time. To complement the relaxing atmosphere of the space, the library also has an art collection featuring several landscape paintings by a former camp artist, Alfred Wands.

Installed in Nancy's Garden outside the upper level of the Maude Jellison Library, this small, bronze sculpture made by Jane DeDecker in 2000, shows a woman reading a book to a young child sitting on her lap. 

What do you think the relationship is between the woman and the child? What kind of story do you think she’s reading? What’s your favorite story? Where do you like to read? What’s your favorite memory of reading?



Once Upon a Time Sculpture

When looking at murals, it's interesting to consider the fact that they are a kind of ephemeral art. Murals are typically placed in locations where they could easily be painted over. These pieces usually exist in a particular place and time and cannot be easily removed from the wall, framed, or placed in different spaces. Realizing this fact can change our relationship with murals and the way we connect with them in space and time. We can appreciate murals a little more knowing they could potentially disappear in a short period of time. Why did the artist choose this location? Why did the artist choose this subject matter? How does the art connect to the surrounding area? In addition to the murals she has created, Susan Dailey also finished a painting to commemorate the centennial celebration of the YMCA of the Rockies in 2007. The painting shows many recognizable buildings and activities throughout the many seasons that are loved by visitors. The painting currently hangs above the fireplace in the Schlessman Executive Office Building. The painting was turned into souvenir posters so more people could enjoy the piece. Along with her public art pieces, Susan Dailey designed an outdoor arts program that she managed and taught from 2005 until the summer of 2019. Her programs included plein air painting, sketching and journaling hikes, as well as animal and landscape drawing for children. For more information on Susan Dailey, use the link below to visit her website. For more information on her other murals in the Dorsey Museum at the YMCA of the Rockies, visit the first entry on this tour.

After initially creating murals for the Dorsey Museum, Susan Dailey was asked to complete a mural inside the Administration Building at the YMCA of the Rockies. The hallway outside the general store was the perfect location for a beautiful depiction of a flower-filled meadow with a view of Mt. Ypsilon and the Mummy Range. Dailey has depicted several flowers you can find on a hike or walk around our property. The Columbine is the state flower for Colorado.  How many animals can you see here? Can you name them? What animals have you seen during your visit? How many kinds of flowers can you find in this painting? What is your favorite flower?



YMCA of the Rockies: Art and Nature Inspire! Public Art Walking Tour

Painted Elk Sculpture

Introduction

Images

Backstory and Context

Sources

Additional Information