Castle House Coop: Unmasking an Artist's Space

Author(s): Mary Petrich-Guy; Renae J. Campbell

Year: 2018

Summary

Self-taught artist, James Castle, lived his entire life in Idaho (1899-1977). From a young age, he created his works from everyday materials, such as mail, matchboxes, pages of siblings’ homework, and found objects. Castle moved to Boise with his family in the 1930s and while at this farm, he used a converted chicken coop/shed as a private workspace and abode. In October 2016, archaeologists from the University of Idaho (UI) collaborated with the James Castle House, Boise City Department of Arts and History, Boise National Forest, and the Idaho Archaeological Society to investigate this space in hopes of better understanding the context of his life and art. During a one-week public archaeology project, UI staff, Idaho students, and volunteers conducted field investigations of the former Castle property, and excavated in and around Castle’s primary workspace, the shed.

Cite this Record

Castle House Coop: Unmasking an Artist's Space. Mary Petrich-Guy, Renae J. Campbell. Presented at Society for Historical Archaeology, New Orleans, Louisiana. 2018 ( tDAR id: 441580)

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Keywords

Temporal Keywords
Twentieth Century

Spatial Coverage

min long: -129.199; min lat: 24.495 ; max long: -66.973; max lat: 49.359 ;

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 1070