GTMF ‘Setting the Stage’ for stability — JH News&Guide
The Grand Teton Music Festival announced Tuesday that it has broken the 60% mark on its $57 million “Setting the Stage” fundraising campaign to grow its endowment, add to its housing supply and make improvements to Walk Festival Hall.
Fundraising so far has taken place primarily behind the scenes among board members and donors, but the 64-year-old nonprofit is expanding the effort, hoping to raise another $13 million by November to hit construction deadlines. If goals are met, work on Walk Hall will start in April 2026 and be completed by spring 2027.
“For more than 60 years, the Grand Teton Music Festival has been a beloved destination for musicians and audiences from our region and around the world,” GTMF Executive Director Emma Kail said in a press release. “We are incredibly fortunate to have the support of fiercely loyal patrons and community members who understand GTMF’s impact in and beyond Jackson Hole and the need to secure the festival’s future.”
Walk Festival Hall
The bulk of the campaign total will go to Walk Hall, which the festival owns outright and marked its 50th anniversary last year.
The last round of renovations at Walk in 2006 wrapped the structure with insulated panels helping reduce sound from outside resort activity, replaced the floor of the stage, and made backstage improvements.
This round — to be performed by a team led by HGA Architects, designers of the new History Jackson Hole building on East Broadway — was sparked by a 2020 examination of the hall’s fire suppression system, Kail told the News&Guide. Given the “significant scaffolding” a sprinkler upgrade would require, the organization began to look at other areas that may need improvement at the same time.
“We went through a process of dreaming big,” Kail said, “and then carved down to absolute essentials.”
Some of the work includes basic housekeeping, such as seismic improvements, a new roof and a new electrical system. Other changes will address accessibility. Walk Hall has no loading dock, for example, which complicates the moving in of large pieces of gear — a grand piano, for example.
read the full story