The first event held in the old Chopper's Grub & Pub after the Arts Council of Big Sky took it over was the Lone Peak High School prom, in April 2025. Since then, the two-story building at 77 Lone Peak Drive in Town Center has quietly become one of the busiest rooms in Big Sky. It is still only one room at a time, though, and that limit explains both the $1 million that came through on October 22 and why most of this winter's stage calendar is happening somewhere else.
A building that already outgrew itself
Explore Big Sky reported that the Arts Council closed on the purchase on November 15, 2024. The council moved its offices into the building. Its pottery classroom is still at the BASE Community Center.
In an August 4, 2026 update, the Arts Council listed what the building had done in just over a year:
- Partnered with more than 60 community organizations
- Hosted more than 80 programs and events
- Served more than 3,000 people
- Grown youth programming to five times what the council offered before
- More than doubled the number of people it serves each year
Those numbers come from a building that was never laid out for this kind of use. Before 77 Lone Peak Drive, the Arts Council rented an office and a single multipurpose classroom at BASE, and it says it had outgrown that classroom and had no venue for larger programs or visiting artists. The new building gave it a venue, but not yet a way to run several programs side by side. In the council's own words, "there are so many ideas we've had to say no to because we can't host multiple activities at the same time until we remodel the space."
You can see that limit on the calendar. The Center's last listings this fall were Día de Muertos on November 1 and a follow-up on November 2. After that, the Arts Council's December listings are at other venues.
What the October 22 vote paid for
On Thursday, October 22, the Big Sky Resort Area District board took final action on $6,516,643 in fiscal year 2027 resort tax allocations. Explore Big Sky's coverage says the Arts Council received $1 million for the Big Sky Center for the Arts project, just over its $999,999 request. The project turns the former Chopper's into a community space for music, art, cooking, radio, classes and events.
That award comes on top of earlier money. The Arts Council's project page describes the capital campaign as being in its "quiet phase" with one-third of the needed funds raised. That third includes $3 million from lead donor Don Grasso and an earlier $1 million from the resort tax district. The Center's own progress page gives a different figure, saying more than two-thirds of the Phase 1 goal is raised and that the project urgently needs $2.3 million in commitments. The two pages don't say whether the difference comes from timing or from measuring different goals. Either way, the October award adds a second $1 million of public money to a project that is still raising funds.
The Arts Council's August update gives no construction start or opening date. It says only that the council is "continu[ing] toward Phase I construction."
What Phase I is meant to fix
The remodel takes the building from two stories and 4,000 square feet of program space to four stories with roughly 10,000 square feet. The Arts Council's Phase I list reads like a direct answer to the one-room problem:
- Performance and event space
- Youth art classroom
- Pottery studio, which would bring classes back from BASE
- Teaching kitchen
- Gallery and multipurpose classroom
- Radio station
- Rooftop venue
The council says these dedicated spaces would let multiple programs run at once. The plans also include a second floor with a rooftop patio and a basement "sound garden" for musicians to perform, practice and record. The interior design takes its colors from Big Sky's greens, blues and wildflowers. The finished building is planned to have five classrooms.
"There's so much creative energy in the community that's ready to be tapped, and this creates the space for that."
That's Arts Council Development Director Katie Alvin, quoted on the council's Our New Home page.
The radio station is waiting on Washington
One Phase I space depends on a federal agency as well as on fundraising. The remodel plans a home for KLPK 98.3 FM, a low-power community station. FCC records show the Arts Council of Big Sky has held a construction permit for KLPK-LP at 98.3 MHz since February 2, 2024. In a public notice dated October 22, 2026, the FCC reported that it had dismissed the council's minor-modification filing on October 20. The filing had been submitted during a freeze on low-power FM minor-change filings. No on-air date has been announced. So even after construction begins, the radio studio will run on a separate timeline from the classrooms and the stage.
Where the stage is this winter
Until 77 Lone Peak Drive can host more than one thing at a time, most of Big Sky's performance calendar runs through the Warren Miller Performing Arts Center. The same October 22 vote sent WMPAC its full $250,000 request for cultural programming and gave the Arts Council's Music in the Mountains series $245,500. Here's what's on through December:
- Thursday, November 5, and Friday, November 6, 7 p.m. Big Sky Community Theater opens its 14th season with "Doublewide, Texas," which opens Thursday, November 5. In a guest column in Explore Big Sky, the company describes a cast of 11 local actors, plus local musicians Stephanie Kissell and Sarah Mitchell. Costumes came with help from Big Sky Thrift, and the props came from basements and garage sales. The show is open to all ages.
- Sunday, November 15, 5 p.m. Luca Stricagnoli.
- Saturday, December 5, 7 p.m. "Her Gift, Her Creation."
- Sunday, December 13. "The Nutcracker," with two performances between noon and 4 p.m.
- Sunday, December 27, 7:30 p.m. Wu Fei and Abigail Washburn.
The Arts Council's biggest December event isn't held in its own building either. The 29th annual Madrigal Dinner is on Monday, December 7, from 5 to 9 p.m. at Buck's T-4 on Gallatin Road. Its weekly Afterschool ArtVenture series for elementary students meets on Thursdays at Morningstar Learning Center through December 17. In each case, the Arts Council takes its programs to someone else's space. Phase I is meant to give more of that work a home in Town Center.
If you've stopped by the old Chopper's or want to know more about how Town Center is changing around it, our team follows these projects closely. At Life in Big Sky, we'd be glad to share what we know about 77 Lone Peak Drive and the rest of the Meadow. Live Big. Connect with our team.
