Walking through Downtown Boise, you might notice large black and white portraits dotting the old walls and alleyways. These are the faces of Open Air Archive, a temporary outdoor exhibition that celebrates the people who have lived in the Boise Valley during the last two hundred years. With funding from the Boise City Department of Arts and History, Treefort Music Fest and local donors, artist Angie Smith compiled these historic photographs from public archives and private scrapbooks.
For hundreds, and perhaps thousands of years, the Shoshone and Bannock people roamed this abundant expanse of land which they called “Cop cop pa ala,” loosely translated into English as the meeting place of many cottonwoods. When gold was discovered in the Boise Basin in 1862, the city saw an influx of prospectors from other parts of the United States, Latin America, Asia and Europe. The sheep industry, railroad development, The Homestead Act and other growing industries continued to attract newcomers throughout Boise’s history.
Open Air Archive reminds us that the Cottonwood Valley has always been a multicultural enclave for those leaving behind previous lives for new opportunities. This exhibition is a love letter to the beautiful land, its indigenous people, and to the many newcomers who have helped build Boise’s legacy of welcoming. May this legacy endure.
