Congress votes for $12.5 million NEA boost

Thomas L. Birch, Legislative Counsel for the National Endowment for the Arts, forwarded this news to all state arts agencies today:

In back-to-back votes on October 29, both the House and the Senate passed the final version of the bill appropriating $167.5 million for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) in fiscal year 2010. The funding legislation agreed to by a House-Senate conference committee earlier in the week set the arts endowment budget for the year with an increase of $12.5 million above the 2009 level of $155 million.

President Obama had proposed raising the arts funding to $161.3 million, the same amount set in the Senate version of the legislation. The House had allocated $170 million for the arts endowment in the coming year.

The appropriations measure passed by the House and Senate also includes authority, requested by the president in the administration's 2010 budget, for the appointment of four additional members to the National Council on the Arts, returning the endowment's advisory body closer to the size it enjoyed before Congress decreased the board's membership several years ago.

The appropriations bill also includes a general provision prohibiting any agency, including the NEA, from any activity, publication or distribution of literature that "in any way [emphasis added] tends to promote public support or opposition to any legislative proposal on which Congressional action is not complete other than to communicate to Members of Congress. . . ." The bill urges the NEA to take immediate steps to ensure that all employees are aware of these provisions when conducting any activities funded by this appropriation. The legislative admonition is in apparent response to concerns raised in recent months by members of Congress and others over efforts by the Obama administration to engage in dialogue with various constituencies on issues of interest to the White House.

The Interior appropriations bill accompanies a continuing resolution to carry seven unfinished money bills through December 18 while Congress continues work to finish those remaining funding measures. The president is expected to sign the bill before the October 31 deadline when the current continuing resolution expires.

FMI: http://arts.endow.gov/

The Wyoming Arts Council receives approximately 45 percent of its annual budget from the NEA. The rest is provided by the Wyoming State Legislature. The WAC budget also includes a small amount of private funds.

Great food, great music, great cause

From a press release:

The Teton County Library and Library Foundation invite you to join in an elegant evening of delicious food, libations and live music by the Pam Drews Phillips Quartet at the Annual Library Benefit at Four Seasons Resort on Friday, December 4 at 7 p.m. in the Cottonwood Ballroom.

Tickets become available on Monday, Nov. 2, at the library’s Front Desk and online at www.TCLib.org/libraryparty. The $100 ticket not only provides a festive evening, it also supports an array of Library Foundation-sponsored events, programs and even green energy at the library.

Only 400 tickets are available for the evening, and Foundation Associate Director Pauline Towers-Dykeman urges everyone secure their ticket now.

“This extraordinary Benefit sells out every year, so please email, text or tweet your friends now, reminding them to get their tickets.”

Donations to the Library Foundation help fund library programs and projects, as well as live events with world-renowned authors. This year, the Page to the Podium speakers’ series presents a free talk with author Barry Lopez on Thursday, December 3 at 6:30 p.m. at the Center for the Arts. Tickets for Lopez’s talk will become available on Monday, November 16, with the presentation of a library card at the library’s Front Desk.

In addition to exceptional food and drink as well as the Four Seasons’ legendary hospitality, there will be opportunities to support the Library by purchasing raffle tickets to win a Kindle or by getting some holiday shopping done. “A ‘gift certificate’ telling someone you’ve made a contribution in their honor to the Library Foundation is always the right size and never goes out of style!” says Towers-Dykeman.

For the Library Benefit, a free shuttle will be provided for ticket holders from the Teton Village parking lot to the Four Seasons Resort from 6:45 to 11 p.m. Special overnight rates for partygoers are available. For more information on room rates, please contact the Four Seasons directly at 732-5000.

FMI: Pauline Towers-Dykeman, Library Foundation Associate Director at 733-2164 ext. 217.

State Museum sponsors Halloween for kids

From a SPCR press release:

Children can enjoy a safe and educational Halloween evening while meeting some of Wyoming’s most famous characters at the State Museum’s, “A Night at the Museum,” from 2 to 5 p.m., Saturday, October 31.

Children and their families will meet a variety of characters from Wyoming’s past while touring the State Museum’s galleries in Cheyenne.

Expected to be on hand during the festivities are a gold prospector and Butch Cassidy. You can also talk to William Ashley about a fur trade rendezvous and visit with many other historical Wyomingites.

During the afternoon, children will get a chance to visit with each character and ask them about their role in the history of the Cowboy State. Each child that talks to a character will receive a bag of Halloween Treats.

This event is for all ages and children must be accompanied by an adult.

For more information about this and other State Museum programs, please call 777-7022.

Florence McEwin integrates "the real, the interpreted and the imagined"

"Dancing Partners: Happy Feet," Florence Alfano McEwin, oils on canvas, 46.25” x 46.25”

Green River resident and Western Wyoming College art professor Florence Alfano McEwin is one of the six Wyoming artists featured in the Wyoming Arts Ciouncil biennial fellowship exhibition No.v 5-Jan. 9 at the State Museum in Cheyenne. Florence writes about her work in her artist statement....

Artist Statement: Florence Alfano McEwin

In my series, "The Adventures of Red Riding Hood," I work to integrate the real, the interpreted and the imagined. The works are metaphors of life, re-imagining a child’s tale through reality and humor.

Since coming to life in the interpretation of artist Charles Perrault in 17th-century France, Red Riding Hood herself is a universal image within a morality tale. The wolf is an archetypal element laden with associations and imbued with analogous interpretations from all societies in today’s Wyoming – the wolf is a part of the wilderness in conflict with encroaching development.

Ever present within this tale is the male-female dichotomy considered with a playful twist of angst.

The intaglio prints are produced in variable editions of five to ten using chine colle and collage to embellish and provide an interpretive context that is much like an adjective to a noun, allowing each print to be interpreted slightly differently. The visual source of media images is often the film still, altered and manipulated suggesting another layer of tale.

In the two works in the “Dancing Partners” group, the paintings are playful in application and double entendre.

Big Read applications accepted

The Big Read is accepting applications from nonprofit organizations to conduct month-long, community-wide reads between September 2010 and June 2011. Organizations selected to participate in The Big Read will receive a grant ranging from $2,500 to $20,000, access to online training resources, educational and promotional materials, inclusion of your organization and activities on The Big Read website, and the prestige of participating in a highly visible national program. Approximately 75 organizations from across the country will be selected by a panel of experts.

To download the Guidelines & Application Instructions visit The Big Read website.

The Big Read is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in cooperation with Arts Midwest.

"Noite Brasileira" set for Nov. 8 at UW

From a UW press release:

The University of Wyoming Luso-Brazilian Club will host "Noite Brasileira, An Evening of Brazilian Music and Dance" Sunday, Nov. 8, from 6-10 p.m. in the Wyoming Union ballroom.

Tickets, $10 for students and $15 for the public and are available at the Wyoming Union information desk. Tickets can also be purchased at the door the night of the event for $5 more. All proceeds will be donated to the Wyoming-Goias Partners of the Americas' Breast Cancer Project.

The night will feature Samba and Forro dance lessons with Gisele Dias and Afro Brazilian percussion by the group Bloco em Foco. Refreshments will be provided, and raffle prizes will be given out.

For more information, e-mail Dorly Piske at dorlypiske@hotmail.com.

Worland artist influenced by Norman Rockwell magazine covers and life in the Big Horn Basin

"Young American Girl & Her Old Habits," oil and enamel on panel, 24"x48"

The Wyoming Arts Council's biennial fellowship exhibit will be on display Nov. 5-Jan. 9 at the Wyoming State Museum in Cheyenne. Opening reception will be on Thursday, Nov. 5, 4:30-6:30 p.m. at the museum. The event is free and open to the public.

The opening is just a week away. Wyomingarts will feature artist statements and a sample of each artist's work. Today we look at Worland artist David Henderson.

Artist Statement: David Henderson

My work is the exploration of humankind’s inherent self-destructive tendencies and the manner in which we sublimate our violent nature. I am also interested in the laws of attraction and the symbiotic relationships between people and their possessions and their environments, from the absurd and mundane to the absolute and imperfect. It is with these interests that I’ve approached the historic theme of pursuing the American Dream in a continuing series of paintings.

Inspired by the nostalgic and iconic imagery of Norman Rockwell’s Saturday Evening Post cover illustrations depicting American life, I spent the summer of 2008 painting interpretations of the American Dreams of my Worland coworkers, friends, relatives and their children. Two of those paintings are “Self Portrait in Pursuit of the American Dream” and “Young American Girl & Her Old Habits.”

The process led me to this conclusion: For many Americans contending with the callous reality of such issues as economic recession, globalization, terrorism, foreign war, and wild technological advancements, the American Dream is an ethereal tool for survival.

I would like to continue this examination.

Oct. 29 "Stories of the Hunt" postponed

Another casualty of the unrelenting snowstorm:

"Art of the Hunt: Stories of the Hunt" has been canceled for tonight, October 29, 7 p.m. Guest speaker Jim "Tex" Garry made it safely (and smartly) from Cody to Cheyenne on Tuesday. But the Laramie County Library System closed for the day due to snow.

The program is rescheduled for Thursday, November 12, 7 p.m. Please join us then!

Anne F. Hatch, Folk & Traditional Arts Specialist, Wyoming Arts Council

Help wanted: Nicolaysen Art Museum

This announcement comes from the Nicolaysen Art Museum in Casper:

The Nicolaysen Art Museum and Discovery Center has an opening for a full-time Curator of Education. Duties include developing creative educational programming for all age groups of museum visitors inclusive of school groups, updating and maintaining the Discovery Center (hands-on studio art, 2600 square foot facility), docent recruitment, training, and evaluation, school tour development and coordination, supervision of the school district outreach program, budget management and grant writing. This position will also involve managing the student docent program, Pre-school Picassos, adult studio art workshops, summer art camp, and the Arts Cool after School for teens.

Additional duties:
Serving as the coordinator of the Education Committee, composed of Board members, museum staff, volunteers, and community members and reporting on their activities to the Board of Directors. Coordinating and creating programming related to exhibits, while assisting in their development and fabrication. Performs other related duties, such as service at special events, PR for programs, and exhibit openings, as needed or assigned by the Museum Director.

Qualifications:
Master’s Degree in Art Education, Art Museum Education or related field. Knowledge of curriculum and educational program writing as well as evidence of museum educational models, excellent written and verbal communication skills, a willingness to work evenings and weekends as needed, and the ability to work effectively in both team environments and in self-directed situations a must. A strong interest in Contemporary art, administrative and project management experience, computer proficiency to enable on-line delivery of educational programming for teachers, and the ability to manage multiple projects desired.

Compensation commensurate with experience, starting at $30,000. Interested candidates should mail or email cover letter, resume, and three references to:
Holly Turner, Museum Director, 401 East Collins, Casper, Wyoming, 82601 or hturner@thenic.org by November 30, 2009.

Washakie Museum & Cultural Center Events

Enter Laughing: A Comedy in Two Acts
Classic Comedy Dinner Theater
November 13 and 14, 2009, 7 p.m.
At the Washakie Museum, 1115 Obie Sue Avenue, Worland

Enter Laughing is a play by Joseph Stein and will be directed by Lew MarkleySet in the early days of the Depression, the story recounts the zany adventures of David Kolowitz, a delivery boy in a sewing machine factory, who decides his future is on the stage, despite his family's insistence that he become a druggist. David pursues his dream to an acting school run by a seedy old actor and his femme fatale daughter. The company makes him pay to act.
Based on the semi-autobiographical novel by Carl Reiner, it centers on the journey of young aspiring actor David Kolowitz as he tries to extricate himself from overly protective parents (who want him to be a married pharmacist) and too many girlfriends, while struggling to meet the challenge of a lack of talent in 1930s New York City.
After two previews, the Broadway production, directed by Gene Saks, opened on March 13, 1963 at Henry Miller's Theatre, where it ran for 419 performances. The cast included Alan Arkin, Vivian Blaine, Sylvia Sidney, Michael J. Pollard, and Alan Mowbray.
Arkin won both the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play and the Theatre World Award for his performance. Reiner wrote the screenplay for and directed a 1967 film version starring Reni Santoni, José Ferrer, Shelley Winters, Elaine May, Jack Gilford, Janet Margolin, Don Rickles, David Opatoshu, and Michael J. Pollard. Santoni appeared in Kolowitz role, but it did not prove to be as much of a career springboard.
Enter Laughing was revived as a musical in 2008 as an off-Broadway production for a limited run. The New York Times praised the revival as "hilarious."

Théâtre Sans Fil - The Hobbit
Saturday, November 21, 2009
3:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.
At Worland's Middle School Auditorium

Who hasn’t heard of the superb trilogy of “The Lord of the Rings”? And now, THÉÂTRE SANS FIL has brought to life the story where it all began – “The Hobbit” – the wonderful journey of Bilbo Baggins to a new level of wisdom. This award-winning Tolkien fantasy will have a new, larger-than-life look with THÉÂTRE SANS FIL’s highly successful adaptation that has received standing ovations throughout the world.

Tickets: All Children & Students(K-12) $8.00 Adults &12.00
Tickets are available at the Washakie Museum, Hedge Music, Rocky Mountain Framing, Blue Wire Alltel, Kennedy Ace Hardware, and Worland True Value. Or by phone 347-4102

www.washakiemuseum.org

Festival of Trees - Johnson County Arts and Humanities Council

The Festival of Trees and Live Auction will be held December 3rd at the Sheridan College facility in Buffalo. Donors may set up trees(full size or desktop)and wreaths starting on December 1st &2nd. The public may view the trees and wreaths from noon until 5 p.m. December 2 and on December 3rd from 9 a.m. until 6 p.m. There will be a social hour from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. with the live auction at 7 p.m.

Art Show by Tom Spence
At the Buffalo location of Sheridan College
December 3rd, 4-6 p.m. with a reception and book signing

Turned Antiques Etc. Upcoming Events

1 Lower Piney Creek Road, Banner, WY 82832

Enchanted Evening
Friday, November 6th 5 p.m. - 9 p.m. Wine and Goodies

A Magical Christmas Weekend
Saturday and Sunday, November 7th and 8th 9 a.m.- 4 p.m.

Open Every Saturday
9 a.m. - 4 p.m. starting November 7th until Xmas

Always happy to open by appointment!

307-737-2606
www.turnedantiquesetc.com
turnedantiquesetc@rangeweb.net

Stage III Community Theatre Upcoming Events

900 North Center StreetCasper, WY 82601 (307) 234-0946
www.stageiiitheatre.org

Leviathan 99 at the Casper Planetarium
STAGE III COMMUNITY THEATRE and the CASPER PLANETARIUMCELEBRATE HALLOWEEN WITH RARE SCIENCE FICTION WORK

Stage III Community Theatre and the Casper Planetarium will present their 7th annual Theatre of the Mind production for Halloween. Leviathan 99 is a space-going version of Moby Dick, adapted by the dean of American science fiction authors, Ray Bradbury. Performances are October 29, 30, and 31at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, Nov. 1, at 2 p.m. All shows are held at the Planetarium, which is also the outlet for advance tickets. Admission is $6 per person.

Although best known for his science fiction, Bradbury was also the screenwriter for the 1956 film version of Moby Dick starring Gregory Peck. After working on the filmscript, he was so fascinated by the story that he decided to adapt it to a science fiction setting. The result is the story of a spaceship captain obsessed with a giant white comet, Leviathan, which blinded him 30 years before. Convinced that the comet is returning on a collision course that will destroy the Earth, he sets out to intercept and destroy it. Bradbury wrote the story in two forms – a novella which he published, and a performance script which remained unpublished. The show has been performed only a few times since the early 1970’s.

Theatre of the Mind shows take audiences back to the days of live radio theatre – but they don’t have to rely entirely on their imaginations to envision the story. As actors speak from behind the dome, the Planetarium projects visual effects that suggest some of the key images. Student interns at the Planeterium have been working since early summer to create computer animations for the show. Live sound effects (“Foley”) and electronic sounds are also key elements of the performance.

The show is directed by Pat Greiner and features a cast of eight: Bob Price as the Captain, Troy Howe as Ishmael, Mike Baden as Quell, Dennis Rollins, Walter Hawn, and John Leader as the three ships mates, and Ron Richard and Lee Jones Mosser each playing several roles. LeAnna Crockett performs the Foley effects and Corryne Drake creates the electronic sound effects.

For tickets or information, call the Casper Planetrium at 577-0310. This production is funded in part by a grant from the Wyoming Arts Council. The show is approximately 80 minutes long, and is suitable for audiences of all ages.

Sherlock Holmes Returns!
A NEW SHERLOCK HOLMES MYSTERYOPENS AT STAGE III

Stage III Community Theatre invites audiences to match wits with the great detective as they present Sherlock’s Veiled Secret, opening on Friday, November 6. Written by K.C. Brown, the show is a new Holmes mystery that provides plenty of twists and turns, while remaining true to the spirit of the original stories by Arthur Conan Doyle.

At the opening of the play, Holmes is living quietly in retirement, but cannot refuse one last case, an incident of blackmail. He summons a young sculptress, Violet Sheridan, to assist him. What secret could be so dark, so deadly, as to rouse the indomitable Sherlock Holmes from his peaceful retirement in Sussex? And what do the old detective and young sculptress have in common that they should work together on this case? The show is directed by Stephen Grothe, assisted by Kelly Delap. It features Jim Gunderson as Sherlock and Jessie Speck as Violet, the artist with a mysterious past. Mandy George, Pamela RW Kandt, Rebecca Albertson, Sterling Hurvell and Matthew Stairs round out the cast.

Sherlock’s Veiled Secret is sponsored by Hilltop National Bank and produced with support from the Wyoming Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts. Performances are November 6, 7, 13, 14, 19, 20 and 21 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, November 15, at 2 p.m. The show is suitable for all ages. Tickets are $12 for adults and $8 for seniors and students, available in advance at Grant Street Grocery, Metro Coffee Company, and the Cadillac Cowgirl, and at the door beginning one hour before each performance.

Cheyenne Civic Center November Events

Camelot
November 7, 7:30 p.m.

Little Miss Laramie County Pagent
November 14

Mannheim Steamroller
November 20, 7:30 p.m. -Sold out

Lord of the Dance
November 21, 7:30 p.m. - Sold out

Cheyenne Christmas Parade Concert
November 27, 7:00 p.m.

Purchase Tickets: 307-637-6363
Box Office: 10-5 p.m. M-F, 510 West 20th
www.cheyenneciviccenter.org

Teaching Artist Survey

From the Association of Teaching Artists:

In response to concerns, discussions with teaching artists, and with input from beginning, mid-career and experienced teaching artists, the Association of Teaching Artists (ATA) announces a new ATA survey accessed on http://www.teachingartists.com/or
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=F_2bJJwetasGgrnMZUcqQ99g_3d_3d

ATA's focus in this survey is teaching artists' experiential knowledge. We ask teaching artists to share their knowledge, their stories, and what their experience has taught them.

WYO Theater November Events

Goodnight Moon & The Runaway Bunny
November 4, Wednesday, 7:00p.m.
$ 15 Adult/$13 Senior & Military/$8 Student/$15 12 and under

Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia will add to its acclaimed repertory of outstanding childrenís productions with an innovative double bill adaptation of Margaret Wise Brown and Clement Hurdís beloved bedtime classics, Goodnight Moon and The Runaway Bunny.www.mermaidtheatre.ns.ca

WYO Theater's 20th Birthday Party With
Riders in the Sky
November 10-11, Tues-Wednesday, 7:30p.m.
$27 Adult/$25 Senior & Military/$18 Student/$13 12 and under

The newly renovated WYO Theater reopened its doors on November 10, 1989. What better way to celebrate the 20th birthday than with cake and the superlative Riders in the Sky, appearing at the WYO for the 6th time since 1991. For thirty years Riders In The Sky have been keepers of the flame passed on by the Sons of the Pioneers, Gene Autry and Roy Rogers, reviving and revitalizing the genre. And while remaining true to the integrity of Western music, they have themselves become modern-day icons by branding the genre with their own legendary wacky humor and way-out Western wit.www.ridersinthesky.com

The Hobbit
November 19, Thursday, 7:00p.m.
$15 Adult/$13 Senior & Military/$8 Student/$5 12 and under

Theatre Sans Fil presents The Hobbit, a Giant Theatrical Puppet production based on the book by J. R. R. Tolkien. Who hasn't heard of the superb trilogy of The Lord of the Rings?And now, Theatre Sans Fil has brought to life the story where it all began, the wonderful journey of the hobbit Bilbo Baggins to a new level of wisdom. This award-winning Tolkien fantasy will have a new, larger-than-life look with Theatre Sans Fil's highly successful adaptation that has received standing ovations throughout the world.www.gardnerartsnetwork.com

BJ Tohmas
November 27, Friday, 8:00p.m. $30 Adult/$28 Senior & Military/$20 Student/$15 12 and under

During the four decades B.J. Thomas has performed, he has sold more than 70 million records, earned 2 Platinum records, had 11 Gold records, won 5 Grammy Awards, 2 Dove Awards for Gospel Recordings and 15 Top 40 Pop/Rock Hits including: Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head, Eyes Of A New York Woman, Hooked On A Feeling, Rock and Roll Lullaby, and I Just Can't Help Believing. Thomas has also had 10 Top 40 Country Chart Hits which include (Hey Won't You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song, Whatever Happened To Old Fashioned Love and Two Car Garage along with many other achievements. So get comfy and enjoy a nostalgic night with B.J. Thomas.www.bjthomas.com

Casper Artists' Guild - Upcoming Events

November 7th - Children's Art Workshop by Carolyn Rodgers & Sally Ellis
November 10th - All Membership Planning Meeting 7:00 p.m.
November 8-19th - Children's Art Show with Reception on November 14th
November 21st - Oil Painting Workshop by Ginny Butcher
December 12th - Indoor Garage Sale

For more information
http://www.casperartguild.org/
307-265-2655

U.S/Japan Creative Artists' Program

The Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission works cooperatively with the National Endowment for the Arts to sponsor The U.S/Japan Creative Artists' Program. The program provides support for up to five outstanding contemporary and traditional artists from the United States to spend a five-month residency in Japan to pursue their individual artistic goals. The next deadline for this program is February 1, 2010.
Eligible applicants are architects, choreographers, composers, creative writers, designers, media artists, playwrights, visual artists, or solo theater artists who work with original material (including puppeteers, storytellers and performance artists). Multidisciplinary artists and artistic directors of theater or dance companies are also eligible.

The U.S/Japan Creative Artists' Program is extremely competitive; applicants should have regional or national recognition and anticipate a highly rigorous review of their work. Artists should also present compelling reasons for wanting to work in Japan.

Selected artists will receive:
· A monthly stipend for living expenses and a housing supplement, as well as an allowance for professional support services
· Up to $6,000 for round trip transportation for the artist, domestic partner and/or dependent children, and a baggage/storage allowance
· A stipend for pre-departure Japanese language study in the United States

Additional information, including guidelines and the application, can be found at http://www.jusfc.gov/creativeartists.asp.

"Jentel Presents" at Davis Gallery Nov. 3

This comes from Lynn Reeves at Jentel:

Crisp, clear days and frosty nights have welcomed the new group of artist residents from around the country to the foothills in Banner. Jentel is pleased to present this month’s residents in an event open to the public. “Jentel Presents” will take place Tuesday, November 3, 5:30-7 p.m. at Davis Gallery, 32 Main Street, Sheridan. This month’s presenters include a printmaker, a fiber artist, a painter, a non-fiction writer, an installation artist and a novelist. “Jentel Presents” is a community outreach program that features visual presentations and readings by the visual artists and writers at the residency.

Presenters include: Nathan Abel, Casper, WY; A printmaker, Nathan is always searching for ways to connect with a past he doesn’t fully comprehend; Rachel Brumer, Seattle, WA; A fiber artist, Rachel did a short stint with Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey circus and now turns ideas of life into visual art; Lisa Hamilton, Mill Valley, CA; A non-fiction writer and photographer, Lisa focuses on food and agriculture, particularly the stories of farmers; Etsuko Ichikawa, Seattle, WA; An installation artist working in glass, paper and video, Etsuko is a Tokyo native transplanted to Seattle in 1993 and can’t live without making art; Barbara Mehlman, Woodland Hills, CA; A painter, Barbara is endlessly curious about people, thus she has been inspired to travel far, to listen hard and to paint; Alexi Zentner, Ithaca, NY; A novelist, Alexi’s first novel is set in the Pacific Northwest and centers around logging. He was born in Canada, educated in Iowa and lives in upstate New York.

For anyone looking for a stimulating evening, come join the crowd at Davis Gallery, Main Street. There is no admission charge for “Jentel Presents” and refreshments are available.

The Jentel Foundation offers dedicated individuals a supportive environment in which to further their creative development. While at Jentel, visual artists and writers have the opportunity to experience unfettered time to allow for thoughtful reflection and meditation on the creative process in a setting that preserves the agricultural and historical integrity of the land.

The Jentel Artist Residency Program accepts applications twice a year from visual artists in all media and writers in all genres for a one-month residency. A residency includes a comfortable accommodation; common living, dining and recreation areas; a private workspace and a stipend to help defray expenses during the program. For more information please visit http://www.jentelarts.org/ or call Jentel at (307)737-2311.

See the movie -- but read this book first

Now out in paperback (and just in time for the release of the movie Amelia):

Amelia Earhart: The Sky's No Limit by Lori Van Pelt of Saratoga, winner of a 2010 creative writing fellowship from the Wyoming Arts Council

One of three books in the nation named to the New York Public Library's "Best Books for the Teen Age 2006."

"Amelia Earhart: The Sky's No Limit should be on everybody's reading list, for it reminds us of just how brave America's 'Lady Lindy' was ... Lori Van Pelt succeeds in capturing Amelia's personality as well as those of the many celebrities who surrounded her. This exceedingly well-written tribute to Amelia Earhart portrays her as a true American Hero."
—Col. Walter Boyne (USAF, ret.), former director of the National Air and Space Museum, New York Times bestselling author.

Forge Books 0-765-31061-9

Miss V to perform on KUWR's "Morning Music"

Miss V, the Gypsy Cowbelle -- one of the Wyoming Arts Council's new 2009-2010 roster artists -- will be featured on Wyoming Public Radio on Tuesday, Nov. 3, 10 a.m. Miss V from Cora will be interviewed by Grady Kirkpatrick as part of the "Morning Music" show. She also will perform several of her songs. Hear a live audio stream at http://www.wyomingpublicradio.net/morningmusic.html

She will be in Laramie to present a showcase at the Wyoming Arts Alliance block-booking conference Nov. 1-3 at the UW Conference Center.

If you'd like to bring Miss V to your community for a performance or music workshop, apply for a WAC Arts Across Wyoming grant. Get more info at http://www.wyomingartscouncil.org/.

Now what? Fellowships for spiders?

A million spiders wove this tapestry. Go to http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113223398&sc=nl&cc=es-20091025

Oct. 30 is postmark deadline for Blanchan/Doubleday writing competition

Friday, Oct. 30, is the postmark deadline for the Frank Nelson Doubleday and Neltje Blanchan memorial writing awards.

The Neltje Blanchan Award, $1,000, is given for the best poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, or script which is informed by a relationship with the natural world.

The Frank Nelson Doubleday Award, $1,000, is given for the best poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, or script written by a woman author.

Judge for this year's competition is poet and novelist Aaron A. Abeyta.

A printable application is available on the WAC web site at http://www.wyomingartscouncil.org.

Applications must be mailed to the WAC or dropped off at our offices at 2320 Capitol Ave. in Cheyenne before 5 p.m. on Oct. 30. You cannot apply for this competition using the WAC's online grant program.

FMI: Mike Shay at 307-777-5234 or mshay@state.wy.us

Music Festival announces housing fund gift

Press release from Amanda Flosbach at 307-732-9957 or amanda@gtmf.org:

The Grand Teton Music Festival announced today that it is the beneficiary of pledges totaling $3.5 million for a Housing Fund. In making the announcement, Executive Director Tracy Jacobson said the new Housing Fund will enable the Festival to acquire ownership interests in housing for its participating artists and to stabilize once and for all the availability and cost of the single largest line item in the Festival's budget.

The pledges from anonymous donors make $3 million in cash available immediately as appropriate acquisitions become available. The Festival has made a good-faith commitment to raise another $1.5 million for the Housing Fund in gifts or pledges payable over five years. Gifts of real estate, condos, or fractional interests certainly are expected and will be welcomed.
Festival artists qualify for employee housing in Teton Village.

When the $1.5 million goal is reached, another cash gift of $500,000 from the original donors will top off the campaign.

"The ever-rising cost of housing a few years ago almost threatened to suffocate the Music Festival, and that experience created tremendous motivation to stabilize our housing permanently. We are very grateful for the generosity of these donors and their faith in our mission," said Jacobson. "With the Festival celebrating its 50th Anniversary in 2011, the Housing Fund is a fitting way to pay tribute to the musicians and other staff who come to our community every year to give us the Festival music experience, and will help to sustain its vitality for the next fifty years and more."

She added that the Festival is announcing the gift so that people with ideas for possible housing acquisitions by the fund or gifts for the Housing Fund will contact her at the Music Festival office at 307-732-9960 or tracy@gtmf.org.

Morning poetry

BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE: It’s likely that if you found the original handwritten manuscript of T. S. Eliot’s groundbreaking poem, The Waste Land, you wouldn’t be able to trade it for a candy bar at the Quick Shop on your corner. Here’s a poem by David Lee Garrison of Ohio about how unsuccessfully classical music fits into a subway.

Bach in the DC Subway

As an experiment,
The Washington Post
asked a concert violinist—
wearing jeans, tennis shoes,
and a baseball cap—
to stand near a trash can
at rush hour in the subway
and play Bach
on a Stradivarius.
Partita No. 2 in D Minor
called out to commuters
like an ocean to waves,
sang to the station
about why we should bother
to live.
A thousand people
streamed by. Seven of them
paused for a minute or so
and thirty-two dollars floated
into the open violin case.
A café hostess who drifted
over to the open door
each time she was free
said later that Bach
gave her peace,
and all the children,
all of them,
waded into the music
as if it were water,
listening until they had to be
rescued by parents
who had somewhere else to go.

American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation www.poetryfoundation.org, publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem reprinted from Rattle, Vol. 14, No. 2, Winter 2008, by permission of David Lee Garrison and the publisher. Introduction copyright © 2009 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction's author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.

Chris Amend: "A Study of Basic Form in Oils"

Chris is a WAC roster artist. Bring him to your community through an Arts Across Wyoming grant. Go to http://wyoarts.state.wy.us/Apps/Roster/

Congratulations to our fellow writers in Utah

This announcement comes from Guy Lebeda at the Utah Arts Council:

The Utah Book Festival presents the Third Annual Utah Literary Awards Ceremony, honoring winners of the annual Utah Book Award (Utah Center for the Book), the Annual Original Writing Competition (Utah Arts Council), the May Swenson Poetry Award (Utah State University Press), and the Agha Shahid Ali Prize in Poetry (University of Utah Press).

Who: Utah Book Festival, Utah Arts Council Literature Program, Utah Center for the Book, USU Press, U of U Press.
What: Third Annual Utah Literary Awards Ceremony
Where: Salt Lake City Public Library, 210 E 400 S, Salt Lake City
When: Thursday, October 22, 2009, 7 p.m.
Why: To honor Utah's finest writers and celebrate our state's literary culture.

For more info: Utah Arts Council's Writing Contest page: http://arts.utah.gov/funding/competitions/writing_competition/index.html
Utah Book Festival: http://www.utahhumanities.org/

NEA Chairman Landesman announces national tour of arts communities

Press release from the National Endowment for the Arts, the WAC's partner in Washington, D.C.:

Brooklyn, NY - National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Rocco Landesman delivered a keynote address today to close the 2009 national Grantmakers in the Arts conference: "Navigating the Art of Change." In his remarks, Chairman Landesman laid out the guiding principle that will inform his work at the agency, which can be summed up in two words: "Art works." Chairman Landesman explained that he means this in three ways:

"Art works" is a noun. They are the books, crafts, dances, designs, drawings, films, installations, music, musicals, paintings, plays, performances, poetry, textiles, and sculptures that are the creation of artists.

"Art works" is a verb. Art works on and within people to change and inspire them; it addresses the need people have to create, to imagine, to aspire to something more.

"Art works" is a declarative sentence: arts jobs are real jobs that are part of the real economy. Art workers pay taxes, and art contributes to economic growth, neighborhood revitalization, and the livability of American towns and cities.

Chairman Landesman announced that he will spend the next six months learning and highlighting the ways that art works in neighborhoods and towns across America. This national tour will begin on Friday, November 6, 2009 with a visit to Peoria, Illinois, at the invitation of Kathy Chitwood, executive director of the Eastlight Theatre, and Suzette Boulais, executive director of Arts Partners of Central Illinois. The Chairman's visit to Peoria will begin with a round table discussion about the impact of the arts that will be moderated by Carol Coletta, president and CEO of CEOs for Cities, and will include Peoria's political, civic, business, and arts leaders. It will also include a tour of Peoria's "warehouse district" and a performance of Eastlight Theatre's production of the musical "Rent."

The "Art Works" tour will continue on to St. Louis, Missouri, the week of November 23, 2009; to Memphis and Nashville, Tennessee, the week of November 30, 2009; and to other states, including California, Idaho, Kentucky, and Washington over the next months.

To help inform this tour, the NEA is hosting a blog at www.arts.gov where Americans can post examples and stories of how art works in their own communities. Chairman
Landesman will also post dispatches from the "Art Works" tour on the website, beginning after his visit to Peoria on November 6.

"In the coming months, I look forward to seeing downtown sculpture gardens, art walks along waterfronts, public performances and exhibitions, adaptive reuse of abandoned buildings, and subsidized work spaces for artists," said Chairman Landesman. "Despite the economic realities we are all confronting, art continues to work."

MEDIA CONTACT: Victoria Hutter: hutterv@arts.gov / (202) 682-5570

"Wyoming Working Girls" by Marette Nagel at Washakie Museum

Lecture/Book Signing
Thursday, October 22, 2009
7 p.m. FREE TO THE PUBLIC

At the Washakie Museum, 1115 Obie Sue Avenue, Worland
Introducing "Wyoming Working Girls: A Tribute to the Extraordinary Women of Wyoming”

"Wyoming Working Girls" is a 160-page black and white pictorial book. These women are hardworking, independent, courageous, full of true grit, and dedicated to what it takes to live and work in the harsh elements of Wyoming.

This book will give the reader a true and honest look to the faces and voices of women in their true everyday fashion, manure on their boots along with straw in their hair. These photographs and brief descriptions are as real as the lifestyle itself.

Photography by Marette Nagel

Proceeds from the sale of Wyoming Working Girls will be donated to: Children’s Tumor Foundation.

Calling all chefs! - Cheyenne Little Theatre Players Cookbook

Calling all chefs! Time to showcase your favorite casserole or Grandma's blue ribbon pie! Submit your favorite recipes for inclusion in CLTP's first annual "Class Act Cookbook"! Send recipes through the CLTP website or email to rbernhard@cheyennelittletheatre.org! Share with us your great aunt's stew or your Uncle's jerky, and they'll see their name in print when your present them with a cookbook as a holiday gift! Submission deadline is November 16! Have a recipe you'd like to share? Click here.

Calling All Chefs!
Submit your recipe(s) by November 16, 2009
1) Online: http://www.cheyennelittletheatre.org/recipe_submission.aspx
2) By email: rbernhard@cheyennelittletheatre.org
3) By U.S. Mail: PO Box 20087Cheyenne, Wyoming 82003
4) In person: 2706 E. Pershing Blvd.Cheyenne, WY 82001 Phone: 307-638-6543

Oil Painting Class with Chris Amend - AVA Community Art Center

A Study of Basic Form in Oils by Chris Amend Week 1"A Study in Basic Form in Oils" will combine correct drawing of a simple still life, then using in white, paynes gray and raw umber, learning the depths of light and dark, thinking seriously about form. Then moving forward to oil painting in color. Supply list available.

Date: 10/27/2009 - 10/28/2009
Time: 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Location: AVA Community Art Center
Contact: Sandi(307)682-9133
Charge: $75.00

Art Works for Wyoming - Guidelines for Second Deadline

Art Works for Wyoming
Guidelines for Second Deadline

Art Works for Wyoming (AWW) is a new Wyoming Arts Council (WAC) grant program. This is one time funding from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA)courtesy of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA). The guidelines established by the NEA for how this funding may be used are as follows:

● Salary support, full or partial, for one or more positions that are critical to an organization’s artistic mission and that are in jeopardy or have been eliminated as a result of the current economic climate.

And/or
● Fees for previously engaged artists and/or contractual personnel to maintain or expand the period during which such persons would be engaged.


Options for Receiving ARRA Funds
Applicants may receive one grant of ARRA funds from any source. Therefore, any applicant who was awarded funds from WAC’s first deadline, or from WESTAF of the NEA, may not apply. If an applicant applied and was not awarded funds in the first round, they may reapply to the December 2009 deadline.

Funds distributed directly from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Western States Arts Federation are no longer available.

Funding Amount and Match
Art Works for Wyoming will offer grants of up to $25,000 for projects that meet the above criteria. Projects may request either or both kinds of support. Grants do NOT have to be matched, although it is recommended.

Timeline
December 11, 2009 2nd deadline to apply for AWW funds
February 11-12, 2010 WAC Board meeting and 2nd Art Works for Wyoming Panel
February 19, 2010 Award letters for second funding deadline issued

Project Dates
Projects receiving AWW funds must fall within the time frame of March 1,2010 through June30, 2011. This includes applications from both deadlines.

Reporting
WAC and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) will require quarterly reports from organizations receiving AWW funds and may request monthly reports. By applying for AWW funds, the organization agrees to provide reports as requested.

Other Requirements
AWW applicant organizations must have been awarded a grant by the WAC in the last 4 years for which all reporting was successfully completed in a timely manner.If you have questions about whether your organization qualifies, please call WAC.

Applicant organizations must be 501(c)3 or government entities. No organizations using a fiscal sponsor may apply for AWW funds.

Organizations receiving AWW funding must do the following prior to receiving grant funding:
● Register for a D-U-N-S number from http://www.dnb.com/
● Register with the Federal Government’s Central Contract or Registry

Help wanted: Technical director for Cheyenne Little Theatre Players

Position: Technical Director
Reports To: Managing & Artistic Director

Basic Function:

Technical Director supervises all technical aspects of all Cheyenne Little Theatre Players productions and is responsible for the design and construction of all technical aspects of all productions as designated by the Managing & Artistic Director.

Duties and Responsibilities:

1.Oversight and accountable for supervision of all guest set, properties, costumes, lighting, and sound personnel and all technical volunteers.
2.Oversee the design and construction of all shows annually in a timely fashion and within schedules and budgets; includes the necessary plans, sketches, plots and technical production schedules to meet the requirements of the Managing & Artistic Director and Show Directors.
3.Responsible for all technical budgets for all shows.
4.Recruitment and training of all technical volunteers
5.Maintenance of inventory of all scenery, properties, tools, materials and equipment including lighting and sound devices.
6.Assistance with all technical requirements of all extra events and rentals related to theatre activities.
7.Basic maintenance or upkeep related to both theatre facilities.
8.Nurturing of professional contacts within the community that will benefit the technical operations of CLTP.
9.Supervise all technical aspects of all productions.
10.Selection and supervision of all technical production staff heads.
11.Supervision and maintenance of a neat, orderly, safe scene shop, stage and storage area on or off site.
12.Supervision of all costume shops and inventory.
13.Supervision of all make-up and inventory.
14.Maintenance of inventory of all scenery, properties, tools, materials and equipment; and maintenance of same.
15.Supervision of all maintenance and minor repair work to theatre buildings according to level of skills.
16.Search out and provide for materials and equipment donations or discounts.
17.Other duties as assigned by Managing & Artistic Director.
Qualifications:

1.BA/BFA in Theatre, Technical Theatre or equivalent experience.
2.Three years experience in designing and executing set designs for full scale productions.
3.Ability to organize and supervise technical volunteer work force.
4.Ability to work with all levels of volunteers, staff, patrons and management in a professional and diplomatic manner.
5.Ability to motivate and lead volunteers to achieve desired results willingly.
6.Possess strong time management and planning skills.
Application:

Submit a cover letter, resume and at least three references to Dr. Randall L. Bernhard, Managing & Artistic Director, Cheyenne Little Theatre Players. Email applications are preferred—send to: rbernhard@cheyennelittletheatre.org. However, materials may also be sent via U.S. Mail to:

Dr. Randall L. Bernhard
Managing & Artisitic Director
Cheyenne Little Theatre Players
P.O. Box 20087
Cheyenne, WY 82003

Application deadline is November 13, 2009. If you are selected for an interview, the Search Committee will ask that you present a portfolio representative of past work.

For more information regarding the Cheyenne Little Theatre Players, please visit our website at http://www.cheyennelittletheatre.org/.

State of the Arts Survey

Got an opinion? We’re collecting them!

WAC invites the public to give their opinion on the state of the arts in Wyoming via an online survey (paper copies are available on request). The information collected will inform the long range plan currently being developed for 2011-2016 by the Council board and staff. This long range planning process, mandated by the National Endowment for the Arts, guides the work and philosophy of the Council, so if you have thoughts on what we should be doing, or about the arts in the state in general, please share them!

Click Here to take survey

There is also a link on the front page of the Council’s website, wyoarts.state.wy.us.

UW Cultural Programs' Series Continues Oct. 23 with A Capella Group

The University of Wyoming fall Cultural Programs' concert series continues with The King's Singers, an a cappella ensemble, Friday, Oct. 23, at 7:30 p.m. This concert is being cosponsored by Laramie's Hilton Garden Inn.

Tickets for the performance, in the Fine Arts Center concert hall, cost $28 for the public and $24 for students and senior citizens. Tickets are available by calling the Fine Arts Center box office at (307) 766-6666 or at the Web site www.uwyo.edu/finearts.

"The King's Singers have an incredible, rich, ringing sound, achieved, in part, because of the configuration," says UW Cultural Programs Director Cedric Reverand. "Not bass, baritone and two tenors, but bass, baritones, tenor and countertenors."

Founded in King's College, Cambridge, in 1968, The King's Singers have released more than 80 CDs, 200 commissioned works and perform more than 120 international performances each year.

"Even though they've gone through several generations, they still sound like the King's Singers," says Reverand. "And they have an elegance and charm that seems to go along with that British accent."

To learn more about The King's Singers, visit their official Web page at www.kingssingers.com.

The fall concert series continues with Rebel (Nov. 13), a baroque ensemble, and concludes with Lisa De La Salle (Nov. 20), a pianist who will perform with the Boston Symphony before coming to Laramie.

ARTCORE November line-up

Jeremy Huck
November 1, 2009, Sunday, 4:00p.m.
Our Saviour's Lutheran Church

Scott Watkins
November 7, 2009, Saturday, 7:30p.m.
Durham Hall, Aley Fine Arts Center, Casper College

Men of Worth
November 9, 2009, Monday, 7:30p.m.
John F. Welsh Auditorium, Natrona County High School

Richard Turner & Friends
November 15, 2009, Sunday, 4:00p.m.
Our Saviour's Lutheran Church

Broadway Showstoppers: YOU RAISE ME UP!
November 20, 2009, Friday, 7:30p.m.
John F. Welsh Auditorium, Natrona County High School

University of Wyoming Dance: SIX SONGS FROM ELLIS
November 23, 2009, Monday, 7:30p.m.
FREE CONCERT! Kelly Walsh High School Auditorium

For more information: www.artcorewy.com

Halloween treats at Wyoming State Museum

The Wyoming State Museum is located at 2301 Central Avenue in Cheyenne. FMI: http://wyomuseum.state.wy.us/

Casper Chamber Music Society

All concerts will be held at : Shepherd of the Hills Presbyterian Church, 4600 S Poplar
Tickets are available at the door
Single Concert: Adults $8.00/Seniors $6.00/Students $2.00Season tickets: Adults $50.00/Seniors $35.00/Student $12.00

November 18, 2009, 4:00 PM
Lisa Rich, soprano

November 29, 2009, 4:00 PM
Fisch Stew, Buffet of Instruments, Joel, Mark, and Anna; perform a "family style" banquet of music

AVA Community Art Center November Schedule

509 West Second Street, Gillette, WY 307-682-9133

Grade School Kids Club Fall Session (Nov. 5, 12, 13)
Little Tikes(Nov. 6, 13, 20)
Parent and Child Class (Nov. 9,16)
Painted Floor Cloth Class(Nov. 10, 12)
Early Release Day (Nov. 11)
Mandala Painting (Nov. 11)
Photo Tile Making Class (Nov. 12)
WW11 Ring Class with Bob Trowe (Nov. 17)
November Artist Luncheon (Nov. 18)
Acceptance Notification for January Auction (Nov. 20)
AVA Annual Holiday Extravaganza (Nov. 27-Dec. 23)
AVA is filled to the brim with area and regional Artists works and crafts for sale during AVA's annual Holiday Extravaganza and Bake Sale. Open Saturdays to meet your shopping needs. FREE
http://www.avacenter.org/

Cheyenne Depot Visual Arts Series - Dave Rowswell and Joanie Micale

Please Join us for the opening reception for Dave Rowswell and Joanie Micale At the Cheyenne Depot
October 20th from 6:30 - 7:30

The show runs Monday October 19th through Friday October 23rd

GRANT WRITING WORKSHOP - Cody, Wyoming – December 3-4, 2009

Northwest College Center For Training and Development in partnership with GrantWriting Success is pleased to offer a two-day grant writing workshop for only $100 to allnon-profits, educators, public safety, faith-based and government entities.

This is a 75% discount from the usual price, $425. Seating is limited (maximum 25participants), so register soon!

TOPICS. The session is geared to beginners and semi-experienced grant writers. Itwill cover the grant writing process, start to finish: finding grant opportunities;deciphering grant applications; organizing and writing a grant proposal; understandingthe grant review process; resubmission; becoming a grant consultant; and more.

DATE/TIME. December 3-4; 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. (both days); lunch-break from noonto 1:30 p.m. (on your own).

TRAINING LOCATION. Northwest College Center For Training and Development1501 Stampede Ave, Cody, WY 82414

REGISTRATION.75% discount registration (steps):

1.Browse to www.grantwritingsuccess.com

2.Click “Cody, WY Dec. 3-4”

3.Click “Register Here!”

4.Enter your registration information.

5.At “Confirmation and Payment” you will see a box preceded bythese words: “If you have a discount code, please enter it here:”In that box enter the following discount registration code: 95J8

6. The charged amount will change automatically from $425 to$100.

7. Make your $100 payment.

That’s it. We will send you a confirmation letter. We will seeyou there!If you have any questions, please call Grant Writing Success Support Desk at: 435-262-0467. Grant Writing Success, Inc.

Traditions Art Show & Folk Festival - Old West Museum

Photo: Justin Richards, Popixel Bench
www.coroflot.com/jrich

Join us for the 4th Annual Traditions Art Show and Sale. Don’t miss this opportunity to experience a celebration of western folk life and fine western art demonstrated through arts, crafts and traditions learned by centuries of living off the land in the American West. Shop beautiful hand crafted jewelry, Native American Artwork, weavings, saddle blankets, leatherwork, basketry, pottery, fiber art, clothing and much more!

Opening Reception is Friday November 6th, 2009, from 5:30p.m. to 8:00 p.m. There will be live music, hors’ de oeuvres and admission is just $6.00 for this great event.

Join us for the FREE Folk Art Festival, Saturday November 7th and Sunday November 8th from 10:00 a.m to 4:30 p.m. Watch live demonstrations, listen to performers, storytellers and sample savory delights in a cafe setting!

The Traditions Art Show will be on display through January 3, 2010. For more information please call 307-778-7290.

Jim Brashear, Ceramics - Northwest College Galleries

An exhibit of pots by Alaskan ceramist Jim Brashear opens Tuesday, Oct. 20, with a 7:30 p.m. artist's reception in Northwest Gallery on the Northwest College campus.
"Jim Brashear: Ceramics" features current work by the artist, who has experimented most recently with forms and surfaces that are enhanced by the wood fire process. Brashear said he chooses to build pots primarily because "the vessel is timeless and universal."
His pots have been exhibited in 23 states from Alaska to Texas and California to Connecticut, most prominently in the permanent collection at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, Pa. Brashear has been featured in several ceramics journals and magazines, and photos of his work have been displayed on nationally distributed posters. He's won numerous national awards and received several grants, including an innovative teaching grant for kiln-building.
Brashear has taught art at the University of Alaska Fairbanks since 1997. He holds a master's degree from Louisiana State University and a bachelor's from Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
"Jim Brashear: Ceramics" is displayed at Northwest Gallery through Friday, Nov. 13. Located in the Cabre Building, the gallery is open from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. weekdays and from 7-9 p.m. Thursdays. Admission is free.

WAC Biennial Exhibit opening reception Nov. 5 at Wyoming State Museum

"Repose" by Matt Flint, oil, alkyd and pencil on canvas, 40"x34.5"

The work of six Wyoming artists will be featured Nov. 5, 2009, through Jan. 9, 2010, at the 2009 Biennial Fellowship Exhibition at the Wyoming State Museum Gallery in the Barrett Building, 2301 Central Ave., in Cheyenne.

An opening reception will be held on Thursday, Nov. 5, 4:30-6:30 p.m. at the State Museum. Fellowship judge Lawrence Argent, sculptor and art professor at University of Denver will speak. The public is invited to come out and meet the artists and see their work. Hors d’oeuvres and beverages will be provided.

The exhibit showcases the work of the 2008 and 2009 Wyoming Arts Council fellowship recipients: Matt Flint, Lander; Leah Hardy, Laramie; David Henderson, Worland; Ricki Klages, Laramie; Florence Alfano McEwin, Green River; and Doug Russell, Laramie.

Each year, the Wyoming Arts Council awards visual arts fellowships to three artists in the state. Every two years, the WAC honors its fellowship winners with an exhibition at one of Wyoming’s fine art galleries or museums.

The exhibition is a project of the Arts Council and the State Museum. The reception is co-sponsored by the Cabot Creamery Cooperative of Vermont.

The museum is open Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m., and Saturday, 10 a.m.-2 p.m.; closed on Sundays.

For more information on the WAC and fellowships for individual artists, contact Mike Shay at 307-777-5234 or go to the WAC web site at www.wyomingartscouncil.org.

"Humanities Matter!" conference schedule

The Wyoming Humanities Council presents
"Humanities Matter!"
Friday and Saturday, October 23-24, 2009
Central Wyoming College, Riverton

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2009

8:15 to 11:45 a.m.
Pre-conference tour – Wind River Reservation

11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Registration
Robert A. Peck Arts Center Gallery
Arts Center Building, Central Wyoming College

Noon to 2:00 p.m.
Luncheon and Welcome
Marcia Wolter Britton, Executive Director, Wyoming Humanities Council
Robert A. Peck Arts Center Gallery

Opening Remarks
First Lady Nancy Freudenthal

Introductions, Guest Speakers
Eric Sandeen, Wyoming Humanities Council Board Member and Director, American Studies Program,
University of Wyoming

Keynote Address: “What are the humanities, and why do they matter?”
Keynote Speaker: David Berry, Executive Director, Community College Humanities Association;
National Humanities Medal winner

Conversation Circles: “Revisited: What are the humanities and why do they matter?”
Introduction, Jenn Koiter, Conference Coordinator, Wyoming Humanities Council
Conversation Facilitators: Wes Connally, Central Wyoming College; Anne Hilton, Eastern Wyoming College; Lisa Arhart, Gillette College; Jennifer Sheridan, Northwest College; Chris Propst, Western Wyoming Community College; Nita Kehoe Central Wyoming College; Wayne Deahl, Eastern Wyoming College; Jim Johns, Laramie County Community College; Oona Doherty, Teton County Library; Maryanne Andrus, Buffalo Bill Historical Center

2:00 to 5:00 p.m.
Registration
Student Center Building, Central Wyoming College

2:00 to 3:00 p.m.
Technology and Learning Workshop: Humanities 2.0
Introduction, Jason Burge, Wyoming Humanities Council
Jason Thompson, University of Wyoming
Laura Crossett, Park County Library, Meeteetse
Lisa Arhart, Gillette College
Classroom Wing 104 (Computer Lab)

Where in the World is Wyoming? The Case for International Programs
Introduction, Jenn Koiter, Wyoming Humanities Council
Barbara Mueller, Casper College
Yarong Ashley, University of Wyoming
Candra Day, Vista 360
Little Theater, Student Center Building

Humanities for Everyone: Working with Targeted Audiences
Introduction, Sheila Bricher-Wade, Wyoming Humanities Council
Chris Propst, Western Wyoming Community College
Paul Bergstraesser, University of Wyoming
Dick Kean, American Heritage Center
Fremont Room, Student Center Building

3:00 to 3:15 p.m.
Refreshment Break

3:15 to 4:15 p.m.
Possible Worlds: Learning, Beliefs, and Instruction in Real and Virtual Worlds
Introduction, Jenn Koiter, Wyoming Humanities Council
Brock Dubbels, University of Minnesota
Fremont Room, Student Center Building

What Do We Mean, Public Humanities Scholar?
Introduction, Jenny Ingram, Wyoming Humanities Council
Rex Myers, Northwest College
Mary Humstone, University of Wyoming
Troy Rumpf, Laramie County Library
Maryanne Andrus, Buffalo Bill Historical Center
Main Hall133

The Humanities and Beyond: Working Across Disciplines
Introduction, Jason Burge, Wyoming Humanities Council
Bruce Richardson, Wyoming Arts Council
Mark Ritchie, University of Wyoming
Rebecca Laroche, University of Colorado
Little Theater, Student Center Building

4:15 to 5:15 p.m.
Humanities Hootenanny: Innovative Humanities Programs
5-minute presentations of successful humanities projects, followed by discussion
Introduction, Marcia Wolter Britton Wyoming Humanities Council
Pete Simpson, Moderator
Mary P. Sheridan-Rabideau, Teaching Creativity Conference (University of Wyoming)
Anne Hilton, Perspectives Series: Water Symposium (Eastern Wyoming College)
Wayne Turner, Place-Based Conference (Teton Science Schools)
Anne Hatch, Art of the Hunt (Wyoming Arts Council)
Mary Humstone, Tracks Across Wyoming (Partnership Consortium)
Dave Reetz, Heart Mountain, Wyoming Foundation (Heart Mountain Interpretive Center, Powell)
Fremont Room/Little Theater

5:45 to 7:30 p.m.
Reception
Feature presentation—“Migrations”
Geoff O’Gara, Wyoming PBS
Entertainment Room, Wind River Casino

8:30 p.m.
Open Mic Night: Open forum for sharing songs/rants/poems/prose/ideas
Holiday Inn, Riverton


SATURDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2009

8:00 to 8:30 a.m.
Registration/Coffee and Tea
Student Center Building, Central Wyoming College

8:30 to 9:45 a.m.
Workshop: Getting Started in Second Life
Introduction, Jenn Koiter, Wyoming Humanities Council
Brock Dubbels, University of Minnesota
Classroom Wing 107 (Computer Lab)

Workshop: Service Learning in the Humanities? Yes we can!
Introduction, Sheila Bricher-Wade, Wyoming Humanities Council
Gretchen Wheeler, Casper College
Bonnie Zare, University of Wyoming
Ebba Stedillie, Casper College
Fremont Room, Student Center Building

Integrating American Indian Content: How to Do It Right!
Introduction, Jenny Ingram, Wyoming Humanities Council
Caskey Russell, University of Wyoming
Sergio Maldonado, Central Wyoming College
Leslie Kedelty, Wyoming Travel and Tourism (check details on their website)
Little Theater, Student Center Building

9:45 to 10:00 a.m.
Refreshment Break

10:00 to 11:30 a.m.
Humanities Engaged: The Art of Regional Change
Introduction, Jenn Koiter, Wyoming Humanities Council
jesikah maria ross, ARC Director, University of California, Davis
Mike Ziser, English, University of California, Davis
Holly George, Plumas-Sierra County Cooperative Extension Director, University of California, Davis
Patsy Eubanks Owens, Landscape Architecture, University of California, Davis
Little Theater, Student Center Building

11:30 to 12:30 p.m.
Open Space Brainstorming: Humanities/Public Humanities Ideas, Grants, Projects
Moderated by ARC, University of California, Davis
Fremont Room, Student Center Building

Gallery Walk with Photographer Sara Wiles – Work from “Dreaming the West” and the “Northern Arapaho Photo Project”
Robert A. Peck Fine Arts Gallery, Arts Center

12:30 to 2:00 p.m.
Luncheon and Conversation: “Continuing the Conversation: The New Face of Wyoming Humanities”
Marcia Wolter Britton and Jenn Koiter, Wyoming Humanities Council
Robert A. Peck Fine Arts Gallery, Arts Center

Closing Remarks
Sara Needles, Administrator, Wyoming Cultural Resources Division

Call for Submissions - High Plains Register

High Plains Register, LCCC’s award-winning literary and arts magazine, is now accepting poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, musicand artwork for its 2010 edition. Those interested in this opportunity for publication should send submissions and cover letter with contact information before October 30th to Liz Jackson c/o LCCC Arts and Humanities, 1400 E. College Dr., Cheyenne, WY 82007 or e-mailljackson@lccc.wy.edu. Writers please send typed hardcopy or e-mail attached Word document(double space prose, please). Visual artists please send titled copies in print or on CD in jpg format and indicate medium. Musicians may maila CD or email mp3s.For more information search for HPR at www.lccc.wy.edu or look us up onFacebook!

Frolander open house rescheduled for 10/26

This news comes from Gaydell Collier in Sundance:

All are invited to a book signing and open house honoring award-winning Sundance poet Patricia Frolander on Monday, October 26, from 4-7 p.m. at the Community Room of the Crook County Public Library in Sundance. The event was rescheduled due to an earlier postponement.

Hosted by Bearlodge Writers and friends of the poet, the open house will debut Frolander's new chapbook, Grassland Genealogy (Finishing Line Press, July 2009).

Frolander is celebrating more than a new book. She was recently notified that her poem, "Father, when You call," was named the 2009 winner of the 17th Annual National Senior Poets Laureate Competition, sponsored by Amy Kitchener's Angels Without Wings Foundation. The competition drew over 700 entries from all over the United States.

Frolander also learned recently that U. S. Poet Laureate Ted Kooser (2004-2006) has selected her poem, "Denial," for use in his weekly column, American Life in Poetry, supported by the Poetry Foundation. Frolander's piece will appear in June 2010. Her work has been published in a number of anthologies and periodicals, and she gives readings and presentations around Wyoming and South Dakota.

Grassland Genealogy will be available for purchase at the signing. You may also pick up a copy from the author or your favorite local bookstore, or order it from Backpocket Books, 364 Farrall Road, Sundance, WY 82729 (307-283-2665) for $14 plus $2 shipping and handling. It is also available from the publisher, Finishing Line Press, at http://www.finishinglinepress.com

White House/White Cube — they’re one and the same for Obama

Ed Ruscha, I think I'll... 1983

In the past, presidents like Kennedy have always chosen antique portraits to decorate the White House. However, winds of change blow with Obama in the selection of works that will serve to embellish the presidential house.

The works, from Degas’s bronze dancer to Ed Ruscha’s word paintings, come from the National Gallery of Art, the Hirshhorn Museum, the Sculpture Garden and the Smithsonsian American Art Museum.

“The American President, Barack Obama, wanted some great works of modern and contemporary art,” said Henry Cooper, senior curator of the National Gallery, who has worked in collaboration with the White House’s curator, Bill Allman, to realize these important installations. The collection of works is focused on some big names of postwar American painting, from Rothko and Diebenkorn to Edward Corbett, or more contemporary artists like Ed Ruscha and Susan Rothemberg.

Works like I Think I’ll (1983) and Maybe no, maybe yes by Rushca are very important, because they represent this historical moment divided between hope and uncertainty.
Is Obama representing an important change? Well, at least he is for White House art.

From http://www.flashartonline.com/

Homare Ikeda "voicers"

Van Straaten Gallery

760 Santa Fe Dr. Denver, CO 80204

Opening Reception

Thursday October 22, 5-8pm

For more information

http://www.vanstraatengallery.com/

303-573-8585

Gallery Hours: Tues-Fri 10-6, Sat 11-5

Ceramic Show & Sale - Mugs, Bowls and Casseroles

Lincoln Center Galleries
417 W. Magnolia St., Fort Collins, CO 80521

Ceramic Show & Sale
Thursday, October 29, 6pm-9pm
Fiday, October 30, noon-9pm
Saturday, October 31, 10am-9pm

Fifteen local and regional potters share their wares. Unique, handmade functional ceramic objects are for sale with proceeds benefitting the Visual Arts program at Lincoln Center.

Heather D. Bartmann
Neil Celani-Morrell
Sandy Charles
Pat Dietemann
Dave Ellis
Jan & Hideharu Igaki
Donna Inscho-Hynes
Jim Klingman
Luke Langholz
Elizabeth Lazarus
Sharon Morris
Connie Norman
Cindy O'Neill
Jude Varnum
Nancy Zoller

For more information
www.lctix.com or 970-416-2737

Spencer Bohren returns to Casper 10/24

Casper native Spencer Bohren will perform on Saturday, Oct. 24, 7:30 p.m., at Kelly Walsh High School Auditorium in Casper.

Here's more info from the ARTCORE web site:

Born in wind-swept Casper, in 1950, Spencer's gospel-singing parents provided the foundation for a musical style and career that remain healthy after more than four decades. In the 1950s, with Hank Williams and Elvis Presley on the airwaves, Spencer’s family spent hours gathered around a piano. Spencer says, "My mother didn't have boys and girls. To her we were sopranos, altos and tenors.” Four decades as a "road scholar," concert performer and general fan of humanity have given Spencer Bohren much to share. No one was more surprised than Spencer when Jorma Kaukonen of the Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tune called to invite Spencer to teach at the Fur Peace Ranch, his guitar camp in Pomeroy, Ohio. He offers a veritable treasure trove of guitar technique, lapsteel tricks, and musical knowledge to enthusiastic students around the world.

Contemporary with his recent welcome into the academic world, Spencer has developed a performance/lecture, Down the Dirt Road Blues, which follows a single song's journey from 16th Century Africa through America's culture and history up through the Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan, utilizing appropriate vintage instruments.

Still actively touring in Europe, Spencer has recorded and released four CD projects with Germany's Valve Records. The second one, Southern Cross, displays a small gallery of Spencer's artwork. In recent years, he has performed in France, Belgium, Holland, Sweden, Switzerland, Spain and Italy, as well as Germany, and is gathering an enthusiastic following in England and Ireland as well.

While the horrific events resulting from Hurricane Katrina's devastating visit to New Orleans in 2005 have dramatically affected Spencer and his family, he, like so many others, has rebuilt his home and life. Spencer's inspired post-Katrina song, Long Black Line, became a post-traumatic touchstone for all of New Orleans, a guiding step in the recovery process.

Get tickets here

Postmark deadline draws near for WAC Blanchan & Doubleday writing awards

Reminder: The postmark deadline for applications to the Neltje Blanchan and Frank Nelson Doubleday Memorial Writing Awards is a little more than two weeks away -- Friday, Oct. 30, 2009.

The $1,000 Blanchan Award is given to a writer whose work, in any literary genre, is inspired by nature. The $1,000 Doubleday Award is given to the best manuscript submitted by a woman author.

To apply, you must be at least 18 years old and a Wyoming resident.The competition is sponsored by the Wyoming Arts Council and funded by artist and arts patron Neltje from Banner.

Judge for the competition is Aaron A. Abeyta, a poet, novelist and and professor of English at Adams State College in Alamosa, Colorado. His first poetry collection, Colcha, received both an American Book Award and the Colorado Book Award. His second poetry collection was As Orion Falls, published by Ghost Road Press in Denver. Abeyta’s first novel, Rise, Do Not Be Afraid, was published in 2007 by Ghost Road Press. He is the recipient of a Colorado Council on the Arts fellowship for poetry. He earned an M.F.A. in creative writing from Colorado State University.

Get a printable application and guidelines at the WAC web site, http://wyoarts.state.wy.us/. For more information, contact Michael Shay, 307-777-5234 or mshay@state.wy.us.

Cheyenne/Arapaho tribes in Wyo., Mont. and Okla. win preservation award

The Billings Gazette reports this:

The National Trust for Historic Preservation has presented its Preservation Honor Award to the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Montana, Wyoming and Oklahoma.

The award to the tribes was one of 23 bestowed by the National Trust during its 2009 National Preservation Conference in Nashville, Tenn.

On Nov. 29, 1864, U.S. military troops attacked a peaceful encampment of Cheyenne and Arapaho along Sand Creek in what is today southeastern Colorado.

More than 150 American Indians -- many of them women, children and the elderly -- were killed in the attack. Nearly four years later, Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer led a surprise dawn raid on a sleeping Southern Cheyenne encampment along the Washita River in western Oklahoma.

Today, more than 140 years after the carnage, both the Sand Creek Massacre Site and the Washita Battlefield are National Historic Sites, thanks in large measure to the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribe members who would not let their history be forgotten.

Along with the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes, co-recipients honored were the National Park Service; Steve Brady; Otto Braided Hair; Ben and Gail Ridgely; Lee LoneBear; Richard Williams; Gov. Darrell Flyingman; and Chief Gordon Yellowman.

Winners of the National Preservation Awards will appear in the ovember/December issue of Preservation Magazine and online at www.PreservationNation.org/awards.

New York Post profiles Wyoming cowboy poets

Mark Ellwood wrote the following piece, "Spoken word, the wild, wild west way," in the Oct. 12 New York Post. It features Carbon County WAC roster artist Chuck Larsen, his eight-year-old neighbor, Cora Wood; Cheyenne cowboy poets Michael Schroll and Dick Hart; and others. Wyomingarts tried to click on the link but it wouldn't work -- the story may have already been archived. So, for your reading and rhyming pleasure, here's the article in its entirety:

THOUGH she turned 8 only last July, Cora Wood is already a star. From her home in rural Wyoming, Cora’s been traveling round the West, performing as the youngest addition to the popular Cowboy Poetry circuit.

Dressed in classic cowgirl style — worn leather boots, blue jeans and pink checked shirt, her corn-blonde hair in neat braids — she’s part Carrie Underwood, part kiddie-pageant queen.

“In preschool, my teacher always read poems, and I thought that was kinda cool, so I started writing and doing poetry myself,” Wood explains over an iced tea in her rural back yard, 20 miles from the nearest town of Saratoga.

Wood and many others perform sold-out shows chronicling life in the West in verse: willful horses, wide-open spaces and whether there’s danger in birthing a calf (more on that later). The tradition in which they work is like C&W music without the fiddles and guitars. With its reassuring meter and playful rhymes, it’s unashamedly old-fashioned.

Such retro wholesomeness reflects on the endearingly articulate Wood herself, who offers sweet advice to any others who are keen to try.

“I’d tell them to perform in front of a mirror — you see yourself in the mirror that way,” she points out, with inscrutable 8-year-old wisdom.

“And if you have a brother or a sister, they can get behind you and dance around so you can practice concentrating.”

Though Cowboy Poetry might at first seem like just a twangier cousin to the urban-poetry slam, Wood’s live performances have none of the accompanying pretension you’d find in a Manhattan mecca like The Moth. Cowboy poets keep it clean and strictly G-rated, a wholesome tweak on stand-up comedy.

Cowboy Poetry’s heyday was the Wild West era, when chaps-clad ranchers would pass the long, boring fireside evenings telling stories and reciting verse at camp.

“In the 1860s and ’70s, guys on trails were so damn lonely, all they had to do was sit around the campfire, eating crappy meat and beans, so they came up with these huge stories,” one of the poets confides on condition of anonymity.

The last two decades, though, have seen an aggressive and enthusiastic revival of the genre. So much so, that 8,000 people attended the highlight of the circuit last January, the 25-year-old National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nev., where more than 50 people performed their verses (Miss Wood snagged a coveted spot for the 2010 event, to be held in January.)

Nevada’s Elko may be the most prestigious of the 200-plus annual Cowboy Poetry events. But it’s in towns and cities across Wood’s Wyoming, the state most synonymous with ranchers and rugged horsemen, where the revival has been most successful.

To find an impromptu fireside gathering of poets in action, take a trip to the Equality State — and try to make sure Chuck Larsen’s performing. Larsen is a neighbor of Cora’s and he’s a fan as well as a peer.

“Cora, living on a ranch, she’s unique — she knows from the core what it’s all about,” Larson raves.

Mustachioed and twinkly-eyed, Chuck is a formidable talent himself who’s been writing and performing for more than two decades. Larsen’s poems are waggish and winking, laced with double-entendres that stretch that G-rating; ‘Calving Out’ imagines what would happen if a pint-sized, know-it-all rancher reached inside a little too deeply when birthing a calf.

But they’re also wistful: ‘Blue Cowboy Moon’ is the story of a lifelong cowboy who realizes that modern economics have forced him to choose between his passion, ranching, and making enough money to support his family. Retro though the poetry movement might seem, Larsen’s work is a reminder that there’s a powerful contemporary resonance (and relevance) to much of the verse.

“The pain that cowboys felt when the fences were being put up to mark off the wilderness? That same pain is being felt now — the whole world is changing,” Larsen confides.

“People assume it’s just fluff, and a lot of it is, but it’s also truly felt and it’s how we can express the truth about a certain way of life,” says Michael Schroll, a poet and actor from Wyoming’s capital, Cheyenne.

Schroll says that what distinguishes his state’s poetry from the rest of the West’s is that it’s not afraid of being serious and addressing the sadness in life. He sees the revival as a back-to-the-land-like reaction to the tech-heavy life that’s taken hold.

“People are desperate to get back to some roots, they need something to grab hold of,” he says.

Artist Bob Coronato sees such venting as intrinsic to the idea of Cowboy Poetry.

“People grew up on ranches and wrote about that with humor to make light of the hard way of life,” he explains.

Coronato’s a New Jersey-born artist who moved to the tiny town of Hulett in northeastern Wyoming twenty years ago. Today, there’s a lasso in a case outside his gallery with a sign taped to the front: ”Break Glass in case of Tree Huggers, Limp Wristed Liberals, and all other Sissy Types!!!”

Fascinated by cowboys since a trip to the Garden State’s kitschy Wild West City theme park as a child, he was keen to chronicle the culture accurately and took a job ranching as a result.

Today, Coronato’s the unofficial Leonardo da Vinci of ranching life and an astute observer of the culture. He credits the Native Americans with helping to create and maintain Cowboy Poetry.

“The American Indian history is entirely oral — they’re the best at storytelling. Cowboys have always admired Indians and most cowboys today hang about in Indian bars. There’s a kinship, they’re cut from the same cloth,” he explains.

But as his paintings also show, there’s a finicky dandyism to cowboys — fetishizing the perfect boots, spurs or hat, for instance — that naturally encourages exhibitionism. Certainly, the charming ranchers like Larsen or Schroll who moonlight as western balladeers are all hammier than a pound of pork belly.

No one embodies that knowing peacockishness more appealingly than Dick Hart, a 70-something scientist in Cheyenne who calls himself the Rexall Wrangler (aka the Drugstore Cowboy).

Like Cora Wood, Hart’s interest in poetry was sparked by his grade-school teacher, and he learned his stand-up skills via a stint working in radio at college.

Blinged out in a heavily embroidered black shirt with a chunky belt buckle as big a rapper’s, he’s now slightly deaf but as cheeky and impish as ever.

“I’m a show-off. I’m not timid in front of an audience,” he chuckles, “I’m an actor — I try to use a classic Western accent when I perform, slow and ungrammatical.”

While others might see Cowboy Poetry’s origins in the Wild West or its revival as a tribute to a vanishing way of life, Hart has a different theory. He thanks Kanye and Co. for its newfound popularity. After all, urban artists, like cowboy poets, leaven a tough life with a creative outlet.

Rap, says Hart, is “in the tradition of Cowboy Poetry. It’s in the vernacular.”

Hart may be right — after all, T-Pain and Taylor Swift dueted happily at the CMT Awards. Perhaps Cora Wood should expect a call from Lil’ Bow Wow.

For more information about travel to Wyoming, visit wyomingtourism.org.

6 COWBOY POETS TO KNOW

The clearinghouse for all things Cowboy Poetry is cowboypoetry.com, where events and performers are comprehensively listed. There are also several radio programs which spotlight the scene, like Clear Out West (C.O.W.) Radio, hosted by Andy and Jim Nelson. Download episodes at http://www.clearoutwest.com/.

CORA WOOD
8-year old Wood yodels and recites poetry of her own. Listen to a sample.

CHUCK LARSEN
Waggish Larsen’s the ideal introduction to Cowboy Poetry. Listen to a sample.

STEVE MOULTON
Moulton runs the Grand Encampment Cowboy Gathering Outfit and is also a performer. Most of his poems are set to music, like “The Song of Wyoming.” Listen to a sample.

MICHAEL SCHROLL
The Cheyenne-based Schroll is a former actor — and so his delivery’s especially compelling. His book is “Where the Mustangs Show,” and comes bundled with a performance CD. Listen to a sample.

NONA KELLEY CARVER
Though she dresses primly, like a pioneer schoolmistress in a long skirt and blouse, Kelley-Carver has a wicked, raucous sense of humor. Read a sample.

DICK HART
One of his signature poems, “Let Go of the Rope” is a warning to green ranch hands with slower than average reflexes. His two books of collected poetry are “Rhymes of a Rexall Wrangler” and “Return of the Rexall Wrangler.”