Friday, September 28, 2007

Antarctica coming to UW Art Museum in October

Monday Night at the Museum at the UW Art Museum during October will feature programs on Antarctica. The first in a series of public programs will be held October 1.

Photographer Joan Myers is joined by photographer Martin Stupich for a Gallery Walk at 10 a.m. Myers will conduct an Open Forum in the museum at 2 p.m. and will present an Art Talk at 7 p.m. entitled Wondrous Cold: An Antarctic Journey. Joan Myers is a landscape photographer who has worked in the American Southwest and most recently Antarctica. "I don’t do portraits or social commentary," writes Myers. "What interests me is living – the way human beings affect the landscape in which they live. My job is to see clearly." Myers is one of seven artists in the current exhibition Antarctica, which celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Antarctic Artists and Writers Program and the 100th anniversary of the discovery and exploration of the Polar Regions.

The October 8th Art Talk, Science in cold/miserable places: geoscience at the poles of the earth, is presented by Neil Humphrey, UW Professor of Geology & Geophysics.

Laramie resident Jerry Bucher will present an afternoon travelogue of Antarctica, Saturday, October 20, beginning at 3 p.m. Join Jerry for an armchair tour as he discusses the trips he has taken and how others can participate in guided tours to this area.

On October 22nd, the UW MFA Creative Writing Program and the Art Museum host writer Christopher Cokinos who will read from his book, The Fallen Sky: A Private History of Shooting Stars, which is the culmination of his Antarctic trip in 2004.

Guy Guthridge, former director of the National Science Foundation ’s Antarctic Artists and Writers Program, will present the talk, ANTARCTICA: Artists, Writers, and the "Continent for Science" on October 29th. Immediately following, a pre-release screening of Werner Herzog’s newest film, Encounters at the End of the World (Discover Films) will be shown.

Antarctica and this series of programs have been funded in part by Richard and Judith Agee, the Guthrie Family Foundation, the National Advisory Board of the UW Art Museum, the Argosy Family Foundation and the UW Haub School and Ruckelshaus Institute of Environment and Natural Resources, the UW Program on Ecology, the Wyoming Council for the Humanities, and the Wyoming Arts Council through the Wyoming State Legislature and the National Endowment for the Arts which believes a great nation deserves great art. Each program is free and open to the public. Monday Nights at the Museum begin at 7 p.m.

Bringing the world of art to Wyoming, the Art Museum is located in the Centennial Complex at 22nd & Willett Drive in Laramie. Hours for the Museum and Museum Store are 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. Admission is free. For more information, please call the Art Museum at 307-766-6622 or visit http://www.uwyo.edu/artmuseum.