By Joshua Wood, tourism/business reporter
josh@cowboystatedaily.com
Snowy Mountain Brewery in Saratoga is looking to combine the art of their brewing with the artistic talents of Wyoming residents through a new contest open to all Wyoming artists until October 1.
The brewery has launched “Canvas on a Can” in a quest to find label designs for the four varieties of beer the brewery cans and distributes throughout Wyoming.
“We want to do this to give Wyoming artists a chance to showcase their talents,” said Annie Wood, brewery operations manager. “We just thought it would be a fun way to get the community of Wyoming together and support a fun project.”
And if the artist is a fan of the brewery’s beer, they’re in luck as the winner gets a year’s supply of Snowy Mountain Brewery beer plus $1,000.
While Snowy Mountain Brewery has a variety of flavors on tap, they have just four beers that are canned and distributed across the state. Those beers are Aspen Alley Amber, Treasure Island IPA, White Buffalo Stout and Altitude Apricot Wheat.
It is for these four beers artists will be creating either individual illustrations or a universal design. The universal design must have something to identify the different styles.
“We wanted to give our cans a little bit of a change, have something that’s fun and really pops and catches the eye,” said Wood.
Snowy Mountain Brewery isn’t the first microbrewery in Wyoming to utilize the creative talents of artists. Melvin Brewing in Alpine has artists who create eye-catching and unique artwork for its cans and merchandise.
Wood told Cowboy State Daily there aren’t any limitations on what medium artists use. She said she is excited to see if submissions range from black and white charcoal or graphite to colorful pastel or watercolor.
“We love absolutely anything that the artist brings to the table. We’re not restricting it to any sort of style,” said Wood. “There’s so many different things that artists can craft and we just wanted to give people the opportunity to really bring to the table anything that they may be talented in.”
The contest opened on August 15 and artists have until 5 p.m. on October 1 to submit their illustrations. Final judging will be held on October 15 with a VIP artist party in November. The new can designs will be released in December.
“I grew up in Wyoming and I have some friends here that are just absolutely amazing, talented artists and we just thought it would be a fun opportunity to put the two pieces together and see what we can get,” said Wood.
