Local Artist Interview - BYP Night at Boise Art Museum

Art isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when thinking of Idaho. In many forms art has existed somewhere in the Gem State’s subconscious for a while now, always present but not prominent. However, with recent efforts by the Boise Art Museum (BAM), Mayor David Bieter, the Boise City Arts Commission (BCAC), and local business owners, the local art scene is experiencing its own renaissance. On the heels of the unveiling and development of several major art installations is BAM’s Triennial, where artists from all over Idaho take center stage every three years.

Many of the artists selected for this year’s event call the Boise Metropolitan Area their home and have watched the area and its arts develop during the past decade. They have seen the impact of art on Boise and Boise on art, and why it is integral to a vibrant and livable community like this one. Leading up to the Triennial, you will find blurbs in your inboxes featuring local artists and their stories regarding Boise and art. Get to know the people who are influencing the way our area is seen across the nation and check out their art in person with other BYPers September 18.

Angela Katona-Batchelor

For someone whose career profile test suggested “forest logger”, Angela Katona-Batchelor has taken advantage of an art inclination from an early age. “I guess artist wasn’t an option on that test,” says Katona-Batchelor.

Katona-Batchelor has been involved in the Boise art scene for five years. She came to the City of Trees from Twin Falls, a move that she says shifted her concept of art and its boundaries. “I was accustomed to seeing traditional materials and subject matter and much of the work I was exposed to here didn’t fit into that category,” says Katona-Batchelor. “I think that the development of more alternative art spaces in Boise, like the Visual Arts Collective, only helps to educate the public about what is happening in the contemporary art scene.”

Still, Katona-Batchelor would like to see more public art pieces, because she feels it adds to the daily lives of those who are exposed to it. She believes the movement is heading in the right direction and sees the difficulties of introducing new concepts to an exisiting market. “Art is a hard sell … some art takes a long time to reach people and to develop an audience that will support it.”


Katona-Batchelor considers herself a mixed media artist and works in, among others, painting, drawing, sculpting, and printmaking to find the medium that best suits an idea conceptually. “I try not to be exclusive to any particular media simply for the sake of loyalty. To me, every medium has a specific language ascribed to it that can inform meaning,” says Katona-Batchelor.

The Boise art scene is happy to have her and glad she decided to pick up a pencil and a paintbrush instead of an ax. Katona-Batchelor has recently been viewed at the Visual Arts Collective and she will be one of the 25 artists whose work will be on display at the Triennial.

Written by Blake Bowyer - BYP Marketing & Development Work-Team