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WYOMING ARTS COUNCIL NEWS • WINTER 2019
cover story Announcing the 2018 Governor’s Arts Awards Recipients PAGES 4, 6, 8, 10
3 7 TH A N N U A L
F R I D AY, F E B R U A R Y 8 , 2 0 1 9 LITTLE AMERICA,GRAND BALLROOM 2 8 0 0 W E S T L I N C O L N WAY CHEYENNE, WY
a SOCIAL HOUR: 6PM DINNER: 7PM AWA R D S C E R E M O N Y: 8 P M D R E S S : C O C K TA I L AT T I R E CASH BAR
E L A I N E H E N R Y, B I G H O R N KARYNE DUNBAR, SHELL
KEITH SEIDEL, CODY M A R S H A K N I G H T, L A R A M I E
REGISTER ONLINE: GAA18.EVENTBRITE.COM
table of contents Executive Director’s Column...............................2 Letter from Governor Matt Mead ...................... 3 Governor’s Arts Awards: Karyne Dunbar..........4
our Mission
The Wyoming Arts Council provides leadership and invests resources to sustain, promote and cultivate excellence in the arts.
WAC Staff
Michael Lange : EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Rachel Clifton : ASSISTANT DIRECTOR Karen Merklin : GRANTS MANAGER Brittany Perez : PUBLIC OUTREACH & EVENTS COORDINATOR
Mary Billiter: ARTS EDUCATION SPECIALIST Taylor Craig: CREATIVE ARTS SPECIALIST Josh Chrysler: FOLKLORIST AND HEALTH & WELLNESS
Governor’s Arts Awards: Elaine Henry..............6 Governor’s Arts Awards: Marsha Knight...........8 Governor’s Arts Awards: Keith Aaron Seidel...10 Arts Advocacy Day Schedule............................12 Adam Harris, 2016 Governor’s Arts Awards Recipient...............................................14 Engaging Educators Through Poetry Out Loud............................................................16 Ann Simpson Artmobile Curator, Stories from the Road............................................................18 Piatigorsky Tour Visits Rock River....................22 Art is Everywhere..............................................24
SPECIALIST
WAC Board
Holly Turner (Chair) : CASPER Steve Schrepferman (Vice Chair) : CODY Tara Taylor : MOUNTAIN VIEW Marianne Vinich : LANDER Stefanie Boster : CHEYENNE Chloe Illoway : CHEYENNE Nina Swamidoss McConigley : LARAMIE Sharon O’Toole : SAVERY Simon Marshall : CASPER Adam Duncan Harris : JACKSON
ON THE COVER: Governor Matt Mead announced
the recipients of the Wyoming Arts Council’s 2018 Governor’s Arts Awards. Recipients will be honored at a dinner and awards ceremony on Feb. 8, in Cheyenne. ON THE BACK COVER: Save the Date for Wyoming Arts Council’s 2019 Arts Summit.
magazine
Artscapes is published triannually and supported with funding from the Wyoming Legislature and the National Endowment for the Arts. wyomingartscouncil.org
wyoming arts council 2301 Central Avenue • Cheyenne, WY 82002 Phone: 307-777-7742 • Fax: 307-777-5499 Hours: Monday-Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. wyomingartscouncil.org
executive director's column
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s a musician, there are times that I try to listen to new music that I haven’t heard before. Often, these discoveries are the Michael Lange result of recommendations from family, friends, and colleagues. One of my resolutions for 2019, is to attend 25 performing arts events that I haven’t experienced before. It is my hope that everyone’s year is off to a great start and filled with wonderful arts opportunities and events. I want to start this column with a heartfelt thank you to Governor and First Lady Mead. Throughout their administration they were strong supporters of the arts across Wyoming. Governor Mead and his staff took their role in supporting the arts very seriously. With a hands on approach to honoring Governor’s Arts Awards recipients to appointing Wyoming’s Poet Laureate, they remained involved in honoring the arts. Additionally, First Lady Mead’s attention to the literary arts and her approach to recognizing high school visual artists will be remembered by students across Wyoming. The arts community, and Wyoming communities throughout the state, are better because of their support. We are also excited to have Governor Gordon join the arts community in his new capacity. Governor Gordon has been a long supporter of the arts and humanities, serving as a trustee for the Ucross Foundation and serving as a board member for the Wyoming Humanities Council. Last year, as Wyoming State Treasurer, Gordon served as Master of Ceremonies for the Wyoming Arts Council and National Poetry Foundation’s Poetry Out Loud ceremony where he recited some of his favorite cowboy poetry.
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I have received many questions over the past month about how folks can get involved with the arts and cultural initiatives that have been put forward in the ENDOW report. First and foremost, thank you for your interest in helping advance arts and culture across Wyoming. It is the day-to- day work that you are all doing in the trenches that strengthen our communities. There is a handful of organizations that are working together about next steps, which includes the Wyoming Arts Council, Wyoming Humanities Council, Wyoming Cultural Trust Fund, and the Wyoming Arts Alliance. One of the best ways to help and show your support is to let your leaders and decision makers know what you value and why you believe arts and culture matter toward building a stronger Wyoming. If you are struggling with what to say or feel intimidated, do not despair! You can find useful information on our website at www.wyomingartscouncil.org under the tab: Why Arts Matter. Additionally, the Wyoming Arts Alliance is a great resource for helpful information about the value of the arts, which can also be found at: www.wyomingarts.org. If you are not a member of the arts alliance, think about joining to receive their most up to date information about how to support the arts at the local, state, and national level. On a closing note, as the nights are longer than the days and the weather is colder, it can sometimes be hard to head into the studio, pick up the instrument to practice, sit down to write the next stanza or chapter, or attend an arts activities. I know this is true for me and many others. I encourage you to push yourself to get up and get going. Your mental and physical health well thank you!
Michael Lange, Executive Director Wyoming Arts Council
Wyoming arts council
LETTER FROM GOVERNOR MATT Mead
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Governor's arts awards
Artist Karyne Dunbar imagines the many worlds of raven and crow By Mike Shay The community got to know her through the giant western mural on the town’s grain elevator. She also painted bison on all of Greybull’s trash cans. She was small “d” democratic, placing her artwork in stores and diners, places where people congregated and might take a passing glance at one of her western scenes. She did the same with her students, urging them to take their art to where the people are.
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hat is the best way to convert a horse barn into a studio/art gallery?
How does one wrap and ship a bronze sculpture to a remote village in Ireland? What is the toughest paint to use for western scenes on the corrugated exterior of a grain elevator? Not topics covered in your typical art school class. You can call it OJT -- on the job training -- especially if you are an artist from the big city trying to make a place for yourself in rural Wyoming. Karyne Dunbar moved from Chicago to teach art in the Greybull school district. She grew to know and love a succession of students over her 30-year career. And they got to know this transplant from Illinois and Wisconsin. When it came to establishing an art career in a new place, she found that talent is fine, but flexibility and endurance are crucial for survival.
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Then she dreamed about her own studio and gallery. “It started out as a horse barn,” Dunbar said. “I dreamed that I changed it into my gallery. Dunbar and friends rehabbed the place that was “a mile from the heart of beautiful downtown Shell.” And then she threw a party for her first exhibited artist and 50 people showed up. That was the beginning of a tradition. “Twenty-five years it’s been,” she said. “Every year I host guest artists, serve food and beer and soft drinks, all out of my pocket. Sometimes we have 50 people, sometimes 150. We shuttle people from the highway because we run out of parking.” This has helped nurture the local arts community. “We’re remote from Cheyenne,” she said. The Shell Valley is hours away from towns of any size. Cody and Powell are across the Basin and Sheridan and Buffalo on the other side of the Big Horns. Residents are closer to Billings and Bozeman than to the state capital. Dunbar had just returned from Billings to set up her work for the pre-Christmas art walk. Dunbar has noticed the growth of arts events, businesses and organizations over the years. Art galWyoming arts council
leries have popped up in surrounding communities and Thermopolis now has a monthly art walk in its downtown. The old Stone School Gallery just down the road is now an Air B&B. She can’t say enough good things about the Washakie Museum in Worland and its support of artists. She participates in the Washakie’s annual quick-draw/quickfinish show which features 50 artists as they create and sell their artwork on the spot. “Things are changing,” she said. “There are more things going on. And I am really enjoying my studio space.” This is where she spends her time painting her favorite subjects, ravens and crows, since her retirement from teaching five years ago. Her Art Shelter Gallery is getting noticed around the state and region.
piece, Dunbar had an idea. “I wrote a letter to the president of Ireland, an empowered woman, and sent her pictures,” she said. “I soon got a letter back that said there was a museum that would love to have the sculpture if I handled the shipping.” The museum, the Granualle Center in County Mayo, is dedicated to another powerful woman in Irish history, Grace O’Malley the Pirate Queen, and also remembers the brutal Irish Potato Famine. After the Maeve sculpture was cast, Dunbar and her crew stabilized the piece in a big crate, filled it with Styrofoam and spray insulation, and shipped it off to Ireland. They flew Dunbar over for the installation.
But it wasn’t always so easy. She didn’t have the facility for her early work, such as her monumental bronze sculpture of Ireland’s “Warrior Queen,” Queen Maeve.
“The president was there and the Minister of Arts and Culture. I was a celebrity for three days there. And then I returned home and mowed the lawn.”
Two of her grandparents migrated from Ireland so the roots run deep. “My grandmother was very influential in my life.”
Dunbar sees a link between Irish and Native American lore. Her years in the Great Lakes region acquainted her with the lore of the Sac and Fox peoples. In Chicago, she dreamed about a Native American elder telling details of her future in Wyoming. “After I moved here to teach, an Arapaho elder verified the information in that dream.”
Dunbar was doing a lot of work related to Celtic mythology. She discovered that there were “no graven images” of Maeve in Ireland. “Christian missionaries destroyed them all because she was such a bad girl.” Maeve was renowned for her prowess on the battlefield as she was for her sexual appetite. Dunbar figured it was time to reintroduce an image of Maeve to the island. The story is as intriguing as an Irish folk tale. Dunbar had worked in fired clay sculpture but wanted to do something more permanent. She researched the story and limned some sketches and drawings. As Irish luck would have it, she discovered a neighbor that had been a foundry worker in Cody. Armed with a Wyoming Arts Council grant, she enlisted the man’s help to make molds and pour the wax, crucial elements of the lost-wax firing process. They shipped it off to the Caleco Foundry in Cody, which was started by renowned sculptor Harry Jackson. While she waited for the finished artscapes • WINTER 2019
Such is the life of a Wyoming artist.
While she says she is not connected to any organized religion, she does admit that her life and art is guided by spirituality. She feels connected to the spirit guides of bison, crow and raven. The last two have been very important in her recent work. “Working to me feels like a prayer,” she said. “I deliberately put prayer into my work.” She says that “social statements are sometimes necessary” but the artist must be careful that is doesn’t overwhelm the work. She sees crows and ravens as guides into her paintings and, because of their connections to other worlds, better icons than humans. You can see this in works such as “World Peace: As Likely as Hatching a Stone.” It shows a raven, a rock and a stylized nest. Humorous, but also deadly serious. A bit like Dunbar herself.
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Governor's arts awards
Elaine Henry’s artwork reveals a conversation between excess and constraint By Mike Shay This dichotomy in Henry’s work has led her to some memorable art and many honors and awards, including a 2019 visual arts fellowship from the Wyoming Arts Council, a fellowship at the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts, and 2007 Kansas Governor’s Arts Award during her time as a professor at Emporia State University.
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Her work is dynamic. You can see the excess in some of her sculptural vessels. The clay seems to boil up from the base like a living thing, spitting out loops and tendrils as it rises. And, as it is with all good things, the work must come to an end. Building shelves of unexpected shapes and designs. That end can be abrupt, as it is in her bowllike “sculptural vessels” in the “No Secrets” series. Or it can be surprising, as in her elegant pitcher, “Light Source.” Some excess here, some constraint there. Attention-getting in all cases. xcess and constraint.
That’s how ceramicist Elaine Olafson Henry of Big Horn describes her work. Sometimes, during talks on the international lecture circuit, she experiences some pushback. At a presentation in Beijing on the topic, as Henry recounts in a 2015 interview with Sheridan Media, an audience member replied that, “Sometimes I think there is too much excess.” Everybody’s a critic. Henry’s response: “I like to push both elements. It’s like a conversation.”
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While she works in a variety of ceramics, she does have a favorite. “I love to work with porcelain,” she said. “It’s the texture of cream cheese and a very sensual material.” Some of her vessels seem to be hybrids of this excess/constraint idea. The base of one of her porcelain constructions may start with a pedestal and flare upward into what could become a beautiful but very standard piece. About halfway up, the bowl explodes into a white riot of shapes, making it look as if the bowl’s innards have split their seams. It prompts the curious observer to want more inforWyoming arts council
mation about her motives and methods. Henry’s artistic standards are obviously very high and have earned her a place in exhibitions all over the world. She has had one-person shows throughout Wyoming, Montana, Kansas, Missouri and Illinois. Since 2015, she’s been part of two group exhibitions at the prestigious Brinton Museum in Big Horn, Wyo. She has participated in a long list of group exhibits throughout the U.S., as well as Germany, New Zealand, and China. She’s also traveled the globe to present lectures and workshops. Some of her stops include Denmark, Wales, Ireland, Turkey, Latvia and Taiwan.
Series,” which brought experts on creativity to campus. “Elaine and I collaborated to develop the study groups, lectures, and workshops with a focus to train your brain, trust your intuition, find your flow, and encourage creativity,” Lawrence said. “It was well received by the community.” Henry has been the chair of the college’s Department of Arts Advisory Board since 2015. Her advice was valuable during the construction of the new Whitney Art Center. She co-curated a national ceramics exhibit in the completed Whitney Gallery.
While her approach to her own art may be a conversation between excess and constraint, it’s obvious that Henry’s contributions to the arts in Wyoming know no boundaries.
It helps that she is a practiced communicator, both on the lecture circuit and in print. She is the former editor and publisher of the international ceramics journals Ceramics: Art & Perception and Ceramics TECHNICAL. Along the way, she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) from the University of Wyoming, an Master of Fine Arts (MFA) from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale and now is working on an Master of Arts (MA) in English at the University of Wyoming.
Henry taught at Emporia State University in Kansas from 1996–2007 where she served as the Chair of the Department of Art from 2000–2007. She served as the President of the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) 2002– 2004 and the International Ceramics Magazine Editors Association (ICMEA) 2014–2016. She is currently a Fellow of NCECA and a lifetime member of ICMEA. Her work is internationally published, exhibited and collected. She is an elected member of the International Academy of Ceramics.
She also was hard at work across town at the Sheridan Artists Guild Art Center (SAGE). According to SAGE Director (until 2016) Edre Maier, Henry “educated everyone she came in contact with, sharing her arts expertise and her contacts in the art community.” For observers who’ve walked around Sheridan’s dynamic downtown and admired the public artwork, you can thank Henry and Maier, both of whom served on the city’s Public Art Committee. The list goes on and on. Artist, lecturer, writer, editor, arts leader – Henry has a hand in all of these fields. While her approach to her own art may be a conversation between excess and constraint, it’s obvious that Henry’s contributions to the arts in Wyoming know no boundaries.
Henry has been especially busy since coming to Wyoming. Working with Linda Lawrence at Sheridan College, she inspired the college’s “Insight Lecture
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Governor's arts awards
Teacher and choreographer Marsha Knight asks the big questions By Mike Shay grant oral histories with music and dance. The oral histories are from the archives of the Ellis Island Historical Museum in New York City. Knight uses 100 of the 2,500 extant recordings in her piece. They were recorded by aging Americans looking back 50 to 60 years on their immigrant experience. The oral histories prompted Knight to ask this overriding question: “Why do people go to such extraordinary length to change their circumstances, to improve their lives?”
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hat does a century-old immigrant’s experience at Ellis Island have to teach a 20-year-old University of Wyoming dance student? Plenty. “Six Songs from Ellis,” a dance piece choreographed and directed by UW Dance and Theatre professor Marsha Knight, features an interplay of immi-
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These kinds of big questions should not seem strange to generations of migrants who found their way to Wyoming. They came for jobs on ranches and in oil fields and coal mines. They were looking for new opportunities and, in some cases, a place to live their lives free from persecution. These were two big reasons that brought people through Ellis Island, and they are incorporated in “Six Songs.” The Irish fled poverty and starvation during the 1840s Potato Famine. Thousands of Armenians fled the 1914-1918 genocide inflicted by the Turks. During the 1930s and 1940s, Jews fled Nazi tyranny. Knight heard their stories during her first visit to the Ellis Island Historical Museum in 2007. As she combed through the oral histories, she wondered how “I could incorporate them into a dance.” In 2009, Knight premiered the first iteration of “Six Songs from Ellis,” in what she called “a multi-me-
Wyoming arts council
dia theatre and dance event.” It was adjudicated favorably at the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. But it wasn’t until a 2016-17 sabbatical from her teaching at University of Wyoming that she had time to do the research that led to the show’s 2018 revision. It debuted on the UW stage and then, Knight and her UW theatre company, assisted by UW Emeritus Professor Eric Sandeen, embarked on a summer tour of Wyoming. Sandeen’s memories of the tour were still fresh in the recommendation letter he wrote to the Governor’s Arts Awards selection committee. He recalled “a week spent intersecting with a bus full of enthusiastic UW students, a truck loaded with stage equipment and grizzled crew members, and a car, driven by Marsha, which acted as a courier service and, on more than one occasion, an emergency medical vehicle…. ‘Six Songs from Ellis’ is a sterling example of how the arts community works in Wyoming.”
ballet. It features UW students, members of the community and a children’s choir. While her choreography fits the ballet’s traditional format, the first act is performed in a recreation of Laramie’s Ivinson Mansion. She has been active in the Snowy Range Dance Festival. She arranged with the renowned Dance Theatre of Harlem to do a two-week company residency at UW. She helped commission a new work by the company that premiered at UW in September 2017. While she is new to the roster of Governor’s Arts Awards’ recipients, she has received numerous honors and has traveled extensively to study and teach. She spent three weeks as a faculty observer with the Moscow Art Theatre in Russia, home of the Bolshoi Ballet. During that same trip, she traveled to St. Petersburg to spend a week with the Kirov Ballet. She’s led students through their London Semester. She taught or choreographed dance at the Dance Theatre of Harlem Ballet School, the Ballet Society of Colorado Springs, University of Northern Colorado, Northern Plains Dance in Helena, Mont., and Dancers’ Workshop in Jackson.
“Her artistic contributions to the state, region, and nation have been of the highest quality for the past 30-plus years.”
Residents of Rock Springs, Rawlins, Riverton, Cody and Torrington flocked to the production to view stories similar to the ones told by their ancestors from Poland and Hungary, China and Central America. To some, the personal stories were new, yet unforgettable, as they came to life through dance moves choreographed by Knight. This was just one in a long line of productions by Knight. She has been a UW faculty member for more than 30 years. Her ballet productions include “Innana – Queen of Heaven and Earth,” “Pulchinella,” “Coppelia” and “Billy the Kid.” She choreographs the musicals in the UW Theatre and Dance Department, including “West Side Story,” “Working,” and “Godspell.” Her most recent work will be seen in “The Robber Bridegroom” at UW in April 2019.
Margaret Wilson, Knight’s colleague in the UW Theatre and Dance Department, nominated Knight for the Governor’s Arts Award. She summed up Knight’s artistic contributions this way: “Her artistic contributions to the state, region, and nation have been of the highest quality for the past 30-plus years.”
On Dec. 6-9, she produced her seventh “Nutcracker”
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Governor's arts awards
Keith Seidel seeks to give new life to the art of saddle making By Mike Shay to his art and teaching. When he walks to the podium to accept his Governor’s Arts Award this February, Seidel will have made more than 800 custom saddles. If that doesn’t seem like a lot, remember that to handcraft a leather saddle takes time. This isn’t an assembly-line operation. Charil Reis, publisher of Leather Crafters & Saddlers Journal, has watched Seidel refine his craft over the years. The journal puts on the annual Rocky Mountains Leather Trade Show in Sheridan. The journal also sponsors saddle-making courses which Seidel teaches at Sheridan College. Here’s how Reis described Seidel’s work:
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eith Aaron Seidel of Cody was named Saddle Maker of the Year in 2012 by the Academy of Western Artists. By then, the Cody resident had been repairing saddles since 1977 and making them since 1979, while he was still in high school. After graduation in 1983, he traveled the West and worked under master saddle makers. When this itinerant leather artist returned to Cody in 1994, he parlayed all his knowledge and craft into a little place called Seidel’s Saddlery. His shop became a large retail store and saddle shop in the heart of downtown Cody. He sold it a few years ago to devote more time
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“Mr. Seidel has developed an artist’s style that is uniquely his own. This is incredibly hard to do, when faced with hundreds of years of unique iterations on the same craft. “Yet, anyone could pick a Seidel saddle from a group of them by identifying his unique scroll work, floral design, depth of carving and exacting stamping, without a single glance at the maker’s stamp. It is his carving style and its perfection where he particularly shines, and which has elucidated the respect of leather workers from all over the world.” Seidel is not shy about sharing his hard-earned techniques with up-and-coming artists. Although Seidel has learned many tricks of the trade over the years, Reis notes that the artist has a “no secrets” policy when it comes to teaching.
Wyoming arts council
“Mr. Seidel understands that an obscure profession like saddle making can only improve and be perpetuated through sharing, not hiding, one’s talents,” Reis said. To that end, Seidel has acted as mentor to more than 20 young artisans. On his way to winning the 2012 award, Seidel made a saddle from a single piece of leather that, according to his wife Lisa, “the likes of which had never been done.” “The entire top of the saddle -- skirts, rigging, skirts, swell – is all one piece of leather, shaped and constructed without a seam, either in the front or back, and then fully hand-tooled.”
cause the makers were notoriously close-mouthed about their work. “They would cover up their work and were very unfriendly,” he said. Often, he was told to leave or roughly shown the door.
“Mr. Seidel has developed an artist’s style that is uniquely his own. This is incredibly hard to do, when faced with hundreds of years of unique iterations on the same craft.”
Usually, Seidel approaches his work like any traditional saddle maker. It’s a labor of love and one of painstaking detail. While a one-piece saddle is distinctive, construction of a traditional saddle proceeds piece by piece. It takes time, as do all handcrafted items. Each saddle takes Seidel approximately 10 days to build.
“It’s more friendly now. We talk and share. But the level of expertise is way down. There are very few master saddle makers left in the nation.” There is a big gap between the masters and the novices.
“It is impossible for me to share advanced information with a novice maker,” he said. “I can give him the answers to questions but he doesn’t know what the questions are.” Seidel tries to mend this knowledge gap with classes at community colleges and conferences.
Seidel’s experience with leatherwork goes back to his childhood.
He has been called upon to make saddles that become collector’s items for well-known people around the world, such as former president Vincente Fox of Mexico. He also made custom items, such as briefcases, for Arnold Schwarzenegger and a belt for President George W. Bush.
“We raised horses and broke a lot of equipment and couldn’t afford to get it fixed,” Seidel said. “I was the oldest of four brothers and I just learned how to fix things.”
And he continues to win awards at prestigious shows, such as Jackson’s Western Design Conference, Cody (Wyo.) High Style, and the Texas Boot & Saddle Maker Roundup.
From fixing things, Seidel went on to making functional leather items such as chaps, bridles, rifle scabbards and saddle bags. He had to stitch them by hand and hated it, so at 13 he went to a bank, borrowed money and bought a stitcher. At 14, he went to work with a saddle maker in town who made 500 saddles annually. He learned a lot but moved on, hoping to learn more from others. Back then, it was always a bit risky to go to a saddle shop be-
If you’re interested in seeing Seidel in action, visit the YouTube link at https://youtu.be/EFwu3gFCEk8
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Seidel continues his distinguished career, most of the time as a teacher and mentor. He’s still in the saddle after all these years.
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WyAA Advocacy Update
Arts Advocacy Day Schedule
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rts Advocacy Day, WyAA’s annual education and advocacy event took a break last year...but it’s back in 2019 with great activities in store. Arts Advocacy Day will be held on Friday, February 8, 2019, which is the same day as the WAC’s Governor’s Arts Awards ceremony. Arts Advocacy Day 2019 will kick off with a WyAA-sponsored Legislative Breakfast at the Jonah Building in Cheyenne. The breakfast will feature arts leaders and advocates from around the state, who will visit with legislators over breakfast. The rest of the morning is devoted to educational roundtables and panels designed to help arts organizations, community developers and artists grow their arts advocacy skills. Registration for AAD includes a free Individual Membership in WyAA. “Arts Advocacy Day is all about networking,” said Jo Crandall of Pinedale and Co-President of WyAA’s Board of Directors. “There are so many ways the arts have positively-influenced economic and community development across the state, and this is the perfect place to share those good ideas.” Please review the complete Arts Advocacy Day schedule. Registration is available at www.wyomingarts.org.
Arts Advocacy Day Friday, February 8, 2019 | Cheyenne Botanic Gardens, Gathering Room | 710 S. Lions Park Drive, Cheyenne, WY
6:30 - 8:00 am
WyAA Legislative Breakfast
8:00 - 9:00 am
AAD Registration/Check-in
9:00 - 9:15 am
Opening and Welcome
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Jonah Building, L-51, 3001 E. Pershing Blvd., Cheyenne, WY
Cheyenne Botanic Gardens, Lobby
Jo Crandall & Steve Schrepferman, Wyoming Arts Alliance; Mayor Marian Orr, City of Cheyenne Wyoming arts council
9:15 - 10:00 am
“Considering a Creative Future for Wyoming” (A discussion “in the round” of trends and policies that are impacting state and regional arts policy) Steve Schrepferman, Wyoming Arts Council; Jo Crandall, Wyoming Arts Alliance; Susan Stubson, Wyoming Cultural Trust Fund; Shannon Smith, Wyoming Humanities Council; Christian Gaines, Western States Arts Federation; Abi Paytoe Gbayee, Wyoming Art Education Association; Erin Taylor, Taylor Strategies & Consulting (Moderator)
10:00 - 10:15 am
“Wyoming Legislative Update” Erin Taylor, Taylor Strategies and Consulting
10:15 - 11:00 am
“The Arts and Economic Development” (The arts drive innovation, create jobs and catalyze community revitalization. Hear from these Wyoming examples) Desiree Brothe, Wyoming Main Street; Diane Harrop, Art 321, Casper, WY; Chad Banks, Rock Springs Main Street, Rock Springs, WY; Micah Schweizer, WyAA (Moderator)
11:00 - 11:45 am
“Amplifying Your Arts Voice: Community Art Coalitions” (There’s power in numbers, especially when creative people band together. Find out how Wyoming communities are making things happen with coalitions) Meg Thompson Stanton, Laramie Public Art Coalition, Laramie, WY; Carrie Geraci, Jackson Hole Public Art, Jackson, WY; Desiree Brothe, Arts Cheyenne, Cheyenne, WY; Lindsey Grant, WyAA (Moderator)
11:45 - 12:15 pm
“Creativity? Meet Data . .” Paul Nguyen, Western States Arts Federation, Denver, CO
12:15 pm
Closing
2:00 pm
Arts Cohort at the Wyoming Legislature Jonah Building (Senate & House Chambers), 3001 E. Pershing Blvd., Cheyenne, WY (Join your Wyoming art peers as we travel back to the Wyoming Legislature to be recognized by lawmakers as they open their afternoon session)
For more information about arts advocacy in Wyoming, please visit the Wyoming Arts Alliance website
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2016 Governor's Arts Awards Recipient
Adam Harris, 2016 Governor’s Arts Awards recipient By Adam Harris, Joffa Kerr Chief Curator of Art, National Museum of Wildlife Art of the United States
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was first introduced to the Governor’s Arts Award early in my tenure at the National Museum of Wildlife Art. I started working here in December of 2000 and the Museum was given the award in 2001. That year, I traveled to Cheyenne with many of my new colleagues and was humbled to be included in the receipt of the award, even though I had only been a part of the team for a few months. After that, it took a few years for the Governor’s Arts Award to reappear back in my life on a personal level.
immediately. She successfully submitted the nomination with me being none the wiser. Needless to say, I was thrilled (also surprised and shocked) to learn that I was to receive the Governor’s Arts Award in 2017. On a snowy night in early February, a wonderful group of coworkers accompanied me to Cheyenne to attend the ceremony. (Does it always snow on award night?) Receiving the award was a more emotional experience than I had anticipated; the personal impact was even greater because I got to share the event with my parents, as well as former mentors/professors from the University of Wyoming. The sense of a greater community of like-minded individuals and organizations was palpable that night and I left feeling the same way Jocelyn had the year before; this was something we needed to be involved with on a regular basis.
...the award, the Council, and the ceremony work to make connections in a state where people can often feel isolated and disconnected.
In 2016, Jocelyn Boss, former head of our Development Department, attended the Governor’s Arts Award ceremony in Cheyenne. She returned full of positive energy about the whole event and determined that we should play a more active role in the program, starting with attending the awards every year. Unbeknownst to me, she was secretly organizing materials to nominate me for the award the following year. I remember a series of emails one week when I was out of town with requests for my most recent resume, to add to a “grant application” she was creating that was due
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At a reception at the Governor’s mansion prior to the ceremony, longtime Jackson colleague and thenWAC board member Karen Stewart reminded me of
Wyoming arts council
2016 Governor’s Arts Awards Recipient Adam Harris beside First Lady Mead and Governor Matt Mead.
a conversation we had had a while back. Karen was planning on retiring from the Council, but wanted someone from Teton County to at least have an application on file before she left, feeling that representation from this corner of the state was imperative. After the genuine affection generated from the awards ceremony weekend, I was more than happy to submit an application upon returning to Jackson. In the meantime, I was asked to write a letter of support for retiring UW Museum Director Susan Moldenhauer for the 2018 Governor’s Arts Award. In contrast to my reaction when I found out I had won, I was not surprised at all when I heard that Susan had won the award. I cannot think of a more deserving individual. Her winning prompted me to go back down to Cheyenne and, on another snowy night, attend the ceremony for her and the other award winners. En route, I stopped in Casper to visit the Nicolaysen, talk about a possible collaboration, and do some quality antique shopping. Similar to the year before, I left Cheyenne feeling energized and more connected to my peers.
ent to recommender to Council member has been a quick but rewarding journey. The point of revisiting this series of events in detail is to show how the award, the Council, and the ceremony work to make connections in a state where people can often feel isolated and disconnected. I wrote in my letter of interest for the Arts Council that my application was far from selfless, that one of the main reasons I would enjoy serving was that it would afford me the chance to get to know much more about what was happening in the arts around the state and to make closer connections with my fellow Wyomingites. Another motivation for wanting to be on the Council: I have an excuse to attend the Governor’s Arts Award every year and help to pass on the warmth and gratitude I felt as a recipient, snowstorms or no.
To finish this narrative, in November 2018, I got a call from Cheyenne, saying Governor Mead had reviewed my application and was appointing me to the Council. This recent journey from award recipi-
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POETRY OUT LOUD
Engaging Educators Through Poetry Out Loud By Mary Billiter, Arts Education Specialist
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n her first year of teaching, Brooke Davidson integrated poetry into her English class at Lander Valley High School. “The students performed poetry slams and liked it so much they wanted to do more after the section was over,” she said. Davidson answered the call by creating a poetry club that met once a week during lunch or after school. “The group started with four students,” Davidson said with a laugh. “But it was nonetheless a start.” Davidson took the poetry club to the next level the following year. “I hadn’t explored Poetry Out Loud for myself in high school, but I knew of its existence,” she said. Davidson organized a Poetry Out Loud competition for Lander Valley High School. Three students from her poetry club competed in the contest. “Our first place winner wasn’t able to compete at state, so the second place winner, Kailie Behunin went in her place. And she won first runner-up at state, which was really cool,” Davidson said. The first runner-up in each state receives $100 from Poetry Out Loud. Poetry Out Loud is a free, national program sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation. Students from grades nine to 12 learn about great poetry through recitation and performance. PAGE
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Brooke Davidson, Lander Valley High School English Educator and Poet.
Poetry Out Loud uses a pyramid structure that starts at the classroom level. Winners advance to a school-wide competition, then to a state competition, which the Wyoming Arts Council produces. Each winner at the state level receives $200 and an all-expenses-paid trip with an adult chaperone to Washington, D.C., to compete for the national championship. Now in her third year of teaching, Davidson’s poetry club is in full swing. “This year’s club has seven students,” she said. Davidson credits her students for nearly doubling its membership. In an effort to raise student awareness about poetry club and Poetry Out Loud, Davidson invited her poetry club students to perform their poems at the school’s monthly assembly.
Wyoming arts council
for her and her students. “On the teacher end of things, it’s a really cool way to connect with students. You’re not grading stuff or having to meet set school standards. You’re engaging with students about things they are really interested in and teaching them life skills. Learning how to read critically, speak confidentially, and stand up in front of a crowd to put forth your best effort are life skills,” she said. “Plus, it’s cool to see students use poetry in a way to communicate.” Kailie Behunin, Wyoming State RunnerUp 2018, Poetry Out Loud.
“The students chose poems that were a little more modern rap or slam-esque,” said Davidson, who thought the works resonated with the student body. “They weren’t reading some dead white guy’s work,” she said with a laugh. Schools have until January 25, 2019 to register a team and must hold their school-wide competition by February 14, 2019. This year’s state competition will take place in Cheyenne on March 4-5, 2019. This will be Davidson’s second trip to Wyoming’s capital city to have one of her students compete at Poetry Out Loud. “I think I have a better understanding of the judging criteria and how to coach my kids. And I think my kids have a better understanding of the impact their stage presence has in the competition,” said Davidson, who reminds her poetry club students, “It’s not just about liking poetry, it’s about embodying the poetry and effectively communicating the poem.” Each year, Poetry Out Loud provides an anthology of fresh and diverse poems that are eligible for teachers and students to choose from for the competition. During lunch, Davidson and her poetry club students utilize the “Random Poem” feature on the Poetry Out Loud website to discover new poetry. “A new poem just pops up and someone will stumble upon one they like and they share it out. It becomes a collaborative way to categorize the poetry,” said Davidson, who sees the process as a win-win
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Davidson’s passion for teaching poetry is a result of her own love of the art. “I still remember entering my first poem for publication in the second grade. Writing poems matched how my thought process worked. I liked sharing it with people and reading it on the podium. It was so cool,” said Davidson, who continues to write poetry decades later. “Poetry is just kind of how I journal at the end of the day.” Davidson is in the process of organizing her poetry collection in hopes of getting her work published. She shares this process and her poetry with her students. “I wrote a poem that consisted of four lines about life in Wyoming in the winter and my students’ reaction was, ‘Oh, yeah, I know what you’re talking about,” she said. The evolution of poetry has transformed the way students view the art. “People have realized that there are certain forms and meters, but the current stage of poetry is all about free verse and how to convey an idea with our own rhythm and pattern. Poetry is so much more individualized and students find poems about things that they are interested in and can be conversational,” she said. Davidson’s poetry club continues to hone their skills with their focus on the state competition. “I’ve loved doing Poetry Out Loud with the kids. It’s been an awesome opportunity and something I so clearly see the merits of,” she said.
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ARTMOBILE
Ann Simpson Artmobile Curator, Stories from the Road By Sarita Talusani Keller Sunday, October 21 Daylight is getting shorter, so I get on the road early. I start the drive to Sundance—my home base for the week. I’ll be working with Crook County librarians who have coordinated with local schools and art teachers to bring in the Artmobile Program. The drive from Laramie takes about 4.5 hours—about the same from Houston to Dallas.
L Wyomingites affectionately refer to Wyoming as a small town with long streets. The Ann Simpson Artmobile travels those long streets that connect 99 municipalities over the 97,914 square miles of our state. The Artmobile Program is not the first mobile art program in the country. However, it does have one of the most unique models for community engagement and has been successfully running for 36 years. Before the Artmobile, the UWAM sent crated exhibitions around the state to libraries, schools, and other public venues as part of the Cultural Outreach Program, which was at the time, partially funded by the Wyoming Council on the Arts. In 1978, when Ann Simpson joined the UWAM Museum Board, she was inspired by experiences of visiting isolated Wyoming communities on the campaign trail with her husband, Al, giving her the idea of creating the Artmobile. The Artmobile could bring museum exhibitions to these communities, and at the same time create jobs for artists. Unlike other Artmobile
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programs, this one would use a van to transport art and house collapsible exhibition panels that could be set up and arranged to fit most spaces. Instead of a driver-security guard, art was transported and installed on site by the Artmobile Curator, an artist-outreach educator employed by the museum. The Artmobile Curator would also “help people see more perceptively the world around them” using a methodology former UWAM director, James Forrest called, “Learning to See”. Today the Artmobile model is surprisingly similar.
L I arrive in Sundance, check into my room. The woman at the desk suggests the Longhorn for dinner. It’s a block away, so I cut through an alley. I am greeted by a big black longhorn with a white belly mounted above the entrance. Inside, I find longhorns mounted on the walls. The chairs have longhorn silhouettes branded on the backs. I text pictures of everything to my in-laws in Texas and my husband in Laramie. Bevo is everywhere!
L Born in Houston, TX, I am the daughter of immigrants who left rice farming behind in India. My father was a community college professor and my mother, a stay-at-home mom. My father’s passion was teaching, and I learned the most rewarding part of his job was helping students break out of the poverty cycle by connecting with resources, obtaining an educa-
Wyoming arts council
tion and securing an income. My mother was my first art teacher. She taught me to draw and modeled creative problem solving in the household by sewing curtains, bedspreads, clothes, and choosing to “make” rather than buy when she was able. With my father’s encouragement, she went on to earn an associate degree in drafting and design. Later, I worked as an art teacher in the classroom, at various museums and community arts organizations before earning a Ph.D. in art education with an emphasis in community arts at the University of North Texas.
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images of architecture and stop at “Pirate’s Alley”, one of the few colorful prints in the exhibition. It is a red building located in the French Quarter. The woman tells me New Orleans was a special place for them. After a long-distance courtship, they married in New Orleans and eventually settled in Wyoming—the place they discovered together. That night, I head to a local spot, the Turf Bar. I was told they have great burgers. I meet more locals—a retired mechanic, a geologist, and a rancher. The burgers and company do not disappoint.
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Monday, October 22
No two communities are alike. Every time I visit a community, I learn something new. Coming from It’s 6:00AM. The sun isn’t up yet. I head to Moorcroft Texas, I have a great excuse to ask many questions from Sundance. I have been warned to watch out about life in each town. I want to know as much as for deer crossing the highway. I am meeting Cindy, I can, so I can find ways to engage in meaningful Moorcroft Branch Librarian at the high school. She dialogue about their world. Planning an Artmobile promises there will be plenty of help on hand and event with the host community is important. I work there is. Together with help from the art teach- closely with a community contact, whether it is a teacher, librarian, or er, ag teacher, and program coordinasome students, we tor, to co-construct manage to get everythe experience for thing onto the stage community audiencand the exhibition es. The contact reup. Later, the librarlays any information that may be helpful ian, teachers, and about their location students help me disand audience. They assemble, clean up, recruit volunteers to and pack up the van. help unload and load materials and supplies. Although I proMonday evening, vide curriculum and Artmobile Educator Sarita Talusani Keller with the instruction as part October 22 Ann Simpson Artmobile van. of the program, they After a full day of programhelp to shape curriculum ming, I have to get to the library in Sundance to set to meet the needs of their specific audiences. As an Artmobile Educator, I must listen carefully, observe, up the exhibition again for an evening open house. I am grateful for Kim, the Sundance branch librari- and be flexible enough to adjust plans in an effort to stay relevant for community audiences. an. In attendance is an older charming couple who serve on the library board. They look at all of the
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Tuesday, October 23 I am looking forward to spending a couple of days in Sundance. I notice a construction project next door and ask Kim. She tells me it’s the old high school, affectionately called “Old Stoney”. Architects are preserving the exterior and transforming the building into a history museum. Today I will work with K-12 classes at the library. I make a mental note to discuss Old Stoney. Students get a chance to survey everything in the exhibition, “Art and Architecture: Metaphors in Space”. I ask students to think like architects while viewing an image of a dark narrow alley lined with tall tenement style apartments. They discuss how they would renovate buildings to make them more inviting. They consider how architects create atmosphere and enable community through design. I tell elementary students they are architects. Their clients are pets. They must consider the needs and emotional well-being of their clients. I give them empty cardboard cartons as a base for their architectural model. Students use various papers and materials to transform boxes into model homes for piranhas, spiders, and kittens.
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Later, I follow high school students around and take mental notes of what work they gather around. They discuss how design choices evoke very different feelings. I break them up into design teams and ask them to think about public spaces they would like to see in their community. I mention “Old Stoney” next door. Several students chime in. The project has been generating a lot of buzz in town. Tomorrow they’ll have time to construct building models from various recyclable materials and present their proposals.
L On an Artmobile visit, the Artmobile Educator’s
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main focus is to facilitate a discussion about art from the exhibition. The discussion typically leads into an art making project but does not always. This depends on whether the art teacher or host coordinator shows interest; if so, it is typically decided during the planning phase.
L Tuesday, October 23 I walk to the Turf for dinner. I sit down to order. The retired mechanic is there with his friend. I learn the mechanic’s son is also a mechanic and owns a shop—Woody’s, across the street. I ask if they know about Old Stoney. A woman sitting with them says she thinks the project is too expensive. They should tear it down and design a new building. A school bus driver and her husband sit down at the bar. They love the idea of preserving the building. They think it’s going to be an amazing landmark in their town. The geologist is there too. I tell him I’ll be going to Hulett and will pass Devil’s Tower. He gives me a geological explanation about it and tells me Cezanne was inspired by geological formations.
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The exhibitions rotate on a 2-year basis. The Artmobile Educator curates the exhibitions, curriculum, and tailors the experience for each community audience. The current exhibition, Art and Architecture: Metaphors in Space will continue until the next exhibition debuts in Summer 2019. My plan is to develop an exhibition that addresses the theme of work.
L Thursday, October 25 Last day. Again, I drive in darkness. Hulett is a very small town. I’ll be setting up in the gym at the community center. I will see everyone from Hulett
Wyoming arts council
Artmobile Educator Sarita Talusani Keller working with students at the Boys and Girls Club of Cheyenne.
School. Nancy, the librarian is there to help me. I learn they would like a better ag facility, new rec center, and updated locker rooms.
L For the communities I visit, the Artmobile Program might easily be mistaken as a one woman show. The truth is there are many museum staff members that contribute to the success of the program. The preparators create the exhibition panels and develop a system for assembling the displays. They matte and frame all of the artwork and customize the traveling trunk to keep the artwork safe during transit. The Collections Manager ensures the art objects are safe for travel, handled properly, and everything is documented. I work closely with my supervisor and mentor, Katie—Curator of Education and Statewide Engagement, regarding most every aspect of my position. Currently, I am working with the Chief Curator to plan and develop the next Artmobile exhibition.
bill comes. The bartender says someone covered it. The mechanic says he saw me in the Sundance Newspaper. The geologist says he will be looking for that paper. The friends of the library couple are sitting at a table. They invite me over. I am moved by the kindness shown to a stranger from Texas. It was almost like a send-off. Before I leave, I am told of an alternate scenic route back to Laramie. The next day, I head to Lusk to see the barn quilt paintings and take the scenic route home. I think to myself, Wyoming is a small town with long streets and I am grateful to be a part of it.
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L That night I head back to Turf Bar, where I am greeted by everyone. I order an appetizer, but no
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PIATIGORSKY
Piatigorsky Tour visits Rock River By Mary Billiter, Arts Education Specialist ditorium filled with cheerful, energetic, good-humored kindergarten to high school aged students, who eagerly took their seats for the performance. The concert was sponsored by the Muriel & Seymour Thickman Family Charitable Foundation and The Wyoming Arts Council. And what a concert it was. From their first performance of Chopin’s Polonaise Brillante, Op. 3 to the active and engaged interaction Drachman had with the audience between classical pieces, the rural community of Rock River received an unparalleled taste of music at its finest. “So many small communities don’t get live concert hall music,” Drachman said following the concert.
Cellist Evan Drachman.
The forty mile drive from Laramie to Rock River showcased Wyoming on the cusp of winter. Remnants of an early frost iced the windows at Rock River School, which warmly welcomed the Wyoming Arts Council Board and staff members for the schoolbased performance of Cellist Evan Drachman and Pianist Doris Stevenson. Within minutes of arriving, Rock River school’s au-
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Evan Drachman with Wyoming Arts Council Board Chair, Holly Turner, and Vice Chair, Steve Schrepferman, following the concert.
Wyoming arts council
Cellist Evan Drachman and Pianist Doris Stevenson.
The Baltimore native and founder of The Piatigorsky Foundation devotes much of his time to performing recitals, concerti and chamber music through the United States and abroad.
entist for all the hours I’ve logged,” he said of his daily practice.
As Artistic Director of The Piatigorsky Foundation, Drachman’s name has become synonymous with charitable. As one of this country’s most respected authorities on classical music, he brings his musical talent to diverse audiences.
“When I am playing and I’m in the middle of a song, nothing else exists in the universe, it’s the greatest piece in the world,” Drachman said.
However, despite a respected reputation in music, the students at Rock River showed a lively interest in his cello. “How old is it?” one student asked, followed quickly by, “Where did you get it?” “This cello is 293 years old, before we were a country,” he said of the 1725 Stradivari cello, which his grandfather, cellist Gregor Piatigorsky purchased in 1947.
“What’s your favorite song?” a student asked.
The father of two sons, whose interests are in competitive swimming and musical theater, Drachman was quick to remind the school-aged audience that in respects to the arts, “Everyone has to find their own path.” Drachman appears to have found his path. His role in bringing live music to communities, like Rock River and Lander, is an investment in the arts that was nothing short of inspiring.
Antonio Stradivari handcrafted nearly 80 cellos in his lifetime. When my cello was made in 1725, Stradivari was 81 years old,” Drachman said. It is estimated that there are only 60 Stradivari cellos still in existence, which are owned by museums, musicians, and private collectors worldwide. It was his grandfather’s cello and musical talent that sparked Drachman’s pursuit into the musical arts. “I could be both a brain surgeon and a rocket sci-
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A Rock River welcome to inspirational cellist, Evan Drachman.
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Art is Everywhere
Wyoming Arts
Pictured clockwise from top left: Jackson Hole High School students work with local artists in Sinks Canyon State Park, outside of Lander, to explore nature, provided by Art pARTners; Young artist at work! Middle school screen-printing workshop offered by the Art Association of Jackson Hole; Missoula Children’s Theater returned to Pinedale to work with children in grades 1 – 8 for the musical theater production of “Robin Hood” provided by the Pinedale Fine Arts Council, Inc.
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Wyoming arts council
Pictured clockwise from top left: 15 year old, Atalie Thatch, confers with director Diane Springford for Henry IV for the Wyoming Shakespeare Festival Company; “Selfies in Ceramic”was an art medium taught during one of the two-hour classes offered for at-risk youth in Gillette provided by Youth Emergency Services, Inc.; Jackson Hole second grader, Henry learns how to sketch animals found in his community as part of an art project offered by Art pARTners; Zak Morgan led Lander second graders to write and record their own songs provided by Promoting Arts in Lander Schools.
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Wyoming Arts Council 2301 Central Avenue Cheyenne, WY 82002
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Cheyenne, WY Permit No. 7