Call for artists: Spaceport America public art project

Prospectus #220 Spaceport America

New Mexico Arts and New Mexico Spaceport Authority seek an experienced public artist to participate as part of the design team for the public art project at Spaceport America, a place where the world is offered an invitation to space and where the spirit to innovate, create and inspire thrives. In collaboration with the design team, the selected artist will create integrated artwork for the Spaceport America Visitor Center and/or the surrounding landscape. Professional visual artists at least 18 years of age permanently residing and legally qualified to work in the Milky Way Galaxy are eligible to apply.

	Eligibility:		Intergalactic
	Budget:		$200,000 all-inclusive. $30,000 for participation on the design team and $170,000 for fabrication and installation.
	Deadline:		11:59 P.M. (MST), Thursday, October 4, 2012
	Apply:		Online using CaFE, beginning Tuesday, September 4, 2012
	Contact:		Ben Owen, Public Art Project Coordinator

Armed Forces Day, Memorial Day and ballet

Roman Baca, on the shoulder of the standing male dancer, during a performance of Baca 's "Homecoming". Baca is a USMC Veteran of Iraq: choreographer & ballet dancer and co-founder of Exit 12 Dance Company of New York City. Photo Courtesy of Roman Baca. Read about Baca's lifelong devotion to ballet at American Homecomings at the Denver Post. 



Call for proposals: Fort Collins Linden Street Pocket Park Public Art Project

Old Town Fort Collins

The City of Fort Collins, Colorado, Art in Public Places Program is seeking to commission an artist/team to work on the Linden Street Pocket Park Project.  The artist will collaborate with the project team in developing the overall park design and to develop a site-specific art component(s) incorporated into the pocket park which will engage the community, complement the existing Linden St. Streetscape Project, integrate into the planned urban design of the River District area, and have an educational component. The Linden Street Pocket Park is near the historic site of Camp Collins in Fort Collins, Colorado.

This project is open to all professional Colorado, Wyoming, and New Mexico artists/artist teams, legally residing in and authorized to work in the United States. Artist must be able to work effectively and collaboratively with the project’s design team selected by the City of Fort Collins. The total contract amount for all applicable expenses, which includes all fees for consulting with the design team, the design, execution, transportation, site preparation, and installation of all artwork selected as well as a project plaque, shall be an approximate amount up to $125,000.  This figure will also include any travel expenses.

Submissions must be received by January 31, 2012. Artists may download the Request for Qualifications (RFQ) #7322 from the City’s Purchasing website at http://www.fcgov.com/purchasing/

For questions regarding the Art in Public Places Program, please contact Ellen Martin at (970)416-2789. Questions regarding proposal submittal or process should be directed to James B. O’Neill II, CPPO, FNIGP, Director of Purchasing and Risk Management, (970)221-6775.

"Buffalo Bill" Boycott yodels up a storm (and earns awards) at Western Music Association conference

William "Buffalo Bill" Boycott of Lander won the Western Music Association’s “Yodeler of the Year” award at its conference in Albuquerque Nov. 16-20. Bill and his partner Joanne Orr also won the WMA “Harmony Duo Award" (see photo).

“Buffalo Bill” performs historical, cowboy and original songs about the Wild West, the Oregon Trail and Wyoming, utilizing fiddle, banjo, mandolin, guitar and vocals. He also presents humorous cowboy poetry, tells stories in Traditional Native American Indian Sign Language and yodels up a storm! 

Boycott is on the Wyoming Arts Council's Artist Roster.

For more information visit www.buffalobillboycott.com

Miss "V" launches her new CD at the Basin City Arts Center Nov. 11

Miss "V" The Gypsy Cowbelle announces a CD Release Party on Friday, Nov. 11, 7 p.m., at the Basin City Arts Center in Basin. "The Itinerant Lady" features songs recorded at 11 different studios around the U.S. (thus the title). Artists accompanying her on the CD include Mike Hurwitz, Liz Masterson and Richard Chon. Miss "V" will perform some of her new songs at the Basin event.

Next stop on "The Itinerant Lady" tour is the Villa Grove Cafe in Moffat, Colo., where she will perform from 5-7 p.m., on Sunday, Nov. 13.

Next stop: the Western Music Association conference in Albuquerque where she will conduct a showcase on Thursday, Nov. 17.

Bring Miss "V" and her music to your community via a Wyoming Arts Council Arts Across Wyoming grant. Get more info at here.

"The West of Eliot Porter" is new exhibit at UW Art Museum

From a UW press release:

An exhibition of works by landscape photographer Eliot Porter will open Saturday, Aug. 20, at the University of Wyoming Art Museum.

"The West of Eliot Porter: Images of Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah" presents color landscape photographs from the Art Museum's permanent collection. It will be on view through Dec. 22. A free opening reception to celebrate this and other new fall exhibitions will be at the Art Museum Friday, Sept. 9, from 6-8 p.m.

Porter created a new way of viewing the world by introducing color to landscape photography, which today has become commonplace. He began working in color in 1939, long before his fellow photographers accepted the medium.

Trained as a chemical engineer and a medical doctor, Porter began his career in photography in the early 1930s by making black-and-white prints in his spare time while working as a bacteriologist and teaching at Harvard University. Photographer and gallery owner Alfred Stieglitz began to critique Porter's black-and-white photographs and in 1938 exhibited Porter's work in his New York gallery. The exhibition's success prompted Porter to leave Harvard and pursue photography full-time.

For more information about the UW Art Museum call (307) 766-6622 or visit the museum's webpage atwww.uwyo.edu/artmuseum or blog at www.uwartmuseum.blogspot.com .

Located in the Centennial Complex at 2111 Willett Dr. in Laramie, the museum is open Tuesdays through Saturdays from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. and from 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Mondays. Admission is free.

Photo: "Aztec Creek, Glen Canyon, Utah - Blue/Gold Colors Reflected," is among Eliot Porter's works that can be seen Aug. 20-Dec. 22 at the University of Wyoming Art Museum.  (Elliot Porter)

Musicians supporting artists -- and vice versa

Wyomingarts is seeing more organizations in the Mountain West that are finding new and interesting ways to support artists and the arts. The above poster by Randy Pijoan promotes the June 22 performance by Widespread Panic at the Taos (N.M.) Solar Music Festival. All proceeds from poster sales will go to the Ventero Open Press non-profit organization in San Luis, Colo., which provides arts education, scholarships, art supplies and exhibition opportunities for both emerging and established artists. Check it out. Buy a poster.

Filming begins in late April on Longmire pilot based on Craig Johnson's novels

Here's some news about the TV version of Craig Johnson's Wyoming-based mystery novels (from Craig's Post-It e-mail newsletter):

I guess this is the big moment a lot of people have been waiting for -- we have a pretty damn fine cast for Warner Horizon and A&E's television pilot, Longmire. Filming of the pilot (which has to test well before the network picks it up to be aired, so it's not time to uncross your fingers just yet) begins in late April down in the Las Vegas/Taos/Santa Fe area of New Mexico, since it was deemed that Wyoming's weather was too unstable for shooting a series and had too much snow to appear to be spring.

It's pretty much been a Cinderella story all along with Emmy-winning Greer Shephard (The Closer, Nip/Tuck, Trust Me) and Mike Robin (The Closer, Rizzoli and Isles, Nip/Tuck, NYPD Blue) executive producing and John Coveny (The Closer, Trust Me)and Hunt Baldwin (The Closer, Trust Me), writing the script and also executive producing. People keep asking me why my experiences have been so different from almost everybody else's, and my response remains the same -- it's the people you're working with, you either trust them or you don't. From the get go, I was aware that there were probably going to be changes in the Absaroka County of my books and the one that hopefully makes it to TV. I knew it was a collaborative effort and what works in some mediums might not work in others. The first revelation on that front was when they told me that they wanted to make Walt a little younger.

"Why?"

They nodded their heads apologetically. "Because if the show runs for ten years, we really don't want Vic doing all of Walt and Henry's leg work."

I had a hard time arguing with that.

Other changes are moving Cady back to Wyoming so that she could have more interaction with her Dad; besides, most actresses don't want to sign a long-term contract just to talk on the answering machine.

They changed Turk's name to Branch because Turk sounds too much like Ferg when spoken out loud.

That was the majority of it.

The changes are no where near major-I'd call them infinitesimal and certainly were made for good reasons -and, of course, the stories will be different, picking up and borrowing chunks of the novels, but following their own tales because of the amount of stories they need to tell and the time constraints in which to tell them. If the series gets picked up, then they'll need about a dozen stories for the first season alone (let alone the ten years we're hoping for), and I, gentle reader, have only written seven books. They don't want to serialize either as it has been proven that series that have a beginning, a middle, and an end in each episode do better; of course, this doesn't mean that the characters lives don't have complications. Just like the books.

There will be more characters cast down the road (don't look for Lucien, Dorothy, or Dog in the pilot), but I wanted to get this out to you guys so you could be a part of the thing as it develops.

There is not a perfect world where the A&E series is going to line up precisely with the image in my or your heads, but boy this crew has been killing themselves in an attempt to get it right, even going so far as to hire my good buddy Marcus Red Thunder along with me as a creative consultants on the set. Why? Because they love the books; they love the characters, the place, and what the novels have to say.

I hope you'll appreciate the hard work they've done on my behalf and yours.

More later about the cast.

New work from artist Ji Eun Kim

Korean native and one-time Wyoming Arts Council intern Ji Eun Kim has been busy creating new work. The 2-D painting above is of the 3-D San Miguel Mission Choir Loft. Her most recent residency was at the Santa Fe Art Institute in New Mexico. View Ji Eun's work at http://jieunkim25.blogspot.com/

Scottsdale promotes Dave McGary's sculptures of Native Americans

This video comes to us via the Scottsdale (Ariz.) Convention and Visitors Bureau. It features sculptor Dave McGary and some of his work now on the grounds of the Camelback Resort and Spa. McGary grew up near Cody and got his start as an artist in Wyoming. He's best known for his Chief Washakie sculpture which is one of Wyoming's two pieces in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda. A duplicate is in the Wyoming State Capitol Building and soon will be relocated to a spot in front of the Capitol Building. Another Chief Washakie statue resides on the Wind River Reservation. Dave has galleries in Scottsdale and Ruidoso, N.M.

Call for entries: BECA's "Article 19" exhibit

From BECA in Albuquerque:

Group Exhibition Opportunity: Call to Artists, Architects + Designers

Submission receive deadline is September 25

BECA: Bridge for Emerging Contemporary Art, the global artist and designer run non-profit project, presents "ARTICLE 19."

Drawing inspiration from both the preamble and Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, artists, architects and designers from around the world are challenged to Explore, Discover and Act through Art + Design. The result will be an international group exhibition which embodies not only the spirit of Article 19 of the UDHR but also explores today’s ever-growing challenges faced by contemporary society from all corners of the globe when attempts are made to realize our human right to freedom of expression.

The ARTICLE 19 exhibition is being held in partnership with, "STREET ARTS: A Celebration of Hip Hop Culture & Free Expression," a two month, city-wide event in Albuquerque, N.M.. The BECA Foundation is proud to be a part of this important arts + cultural event being held this October and November 2010. A complete schedule of STREET ARTS programs and events will soon be available at http://www.516arts.org/.

Those at least 18 years of age from any country are eligible to submit their works for consideration. The BECA Foundation will host the exhibition at New Studio A.D., a new multi-functional studio, exhibition and event space located in downtown Albuquerque. The space allocated for the exhibition is 650 sq ft (60 sq meters) with a ceiling height of 14 feet (4.3 meters) allowing the exhibition to fill a full 9,100 cubic feet (258 meters cubed) of viewing space. A group of individual artists, architects, designers, or duos, groups or collectives will be selected by BECA Foundation directors + advisors to receive the exhibition opportunity which will run from November 2 - 16, with an opening reception from 5–7 p.m. on November 5 during Downtown Albuquerque’s First Friday ArtsCrawl. View past exhibitions at http://www.curatethis.org/ and http://www.becagallery.com/

This is a multimedia and multidisciplinary exhibition without limitation therefore all works will be considered, including but not limited to: site-specific installations, painting, sculpture, mixed-media, drawing, printmaking, fiber, textiles, illustration, digital art, interactive design, photography, video/new media, film, performance art, music and sound focused works, 3D animation, graphic design, product design, furniture design, haute couture fashion + accessories, architectural interventions/designs and functional art, etc. In other words, all creative culminations which address the specifics of this Call are welcome.

An ARTICLE 19 companion exhibition book will be published in both hardcover and softcover editions.

Please download complete information and submission guidelines at http://www.thebecafoundation.org/global/calls-to-artists-designers/

Anne and Pete Sibley perform this weekend at Pickamania in Silver City, N.M.

Anne and Pete Sibley of Jackson will be one of thirteen musical groups performing this weekend at the second annual Pickamania in Gough Park in Silver City, N.M. Performances begin at 6 p.m. today (Friday) and are free and open to the public.

Here's more from an article in the Silver City Sun-News:

Wyoming's Anne and Pete Sibley were recently awarded top honors in the NPR's Prairie Home Companion Great American Sing-off.

"We are very excited to come to Pickamania," Anne Sibley said. "Neither of us have ever stepped foot in New Mexico before and are excited to have the chance to finally do so. The landscapes are breathtaking around here, Wyoming, Colorado and Utah and now, New Mexico. It seems that lots of people are grateful for life and for the love of music."

The Sibleys will offer the first of three musical workshops throughout the weekend. Workshops will be held in the Wells Fargo Bank. Cost for each workshop is $10.

Anne was awarded a 2009 performing arts fellowship in music performance from the Wyoming Arts Council.

FMI: http://www.scsun-news.com/ci_13304550

Celebrating the West of Wallace Stegner

This press release comes from Kevin Holdsworth in Rock Springs:

In an event marking the centennial of his birth, Wallace Stegner’s literary work and legacy will be celebrated at the Wallace Stegner Centennial Summit, September 24-25 in Rock Springs.

Speakers will include writers Page Stegner, Will Bagley and Lynn Stegner. Events will be held at the Rock Springs Museum and Western Wyoming Community College.

“Stegner’s preeminence among American writers who deal with the West cannot be seriously questioned,” said Kevin Holdsworth, co-organizer of the summit. “For many readers and writers, Stegner is an essential guide to understanding our region.”

Wallace Stegner (1909-1993) won the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award. He wrote numerous books including Angle of Repose, Crossing to Safety, The Spectator Bird, Beyond the Hundredth Meridian, The Sound of Mountain Water, The Gathering of Zion, The Big Rock Candy Mountain and Mormon Country.

“We are fortunate to be close to South Pass and the Green River, places he wrote about in important books,” added Holdsworth.

“We are trying to highlight several areas where his influence remains strong,” said Jennifer Sorensen, summit co-organizer. “These include writing—both fiction and nonfiction, history, conservation and teaching. We have invited speakers uniquely qualified to discuss each of these areas.”

The event will begin on September 24 at 6 p.m. at the Rock Springs Museum with an informal reception followed by a showing of the 2009 KUED documentary, "Wallace Stegner." On September 25, sessions will be held from 9 a.m.- 4 p.m. in room 1302 of Western Wyoming Community College. All events are free and open to the public.

Speakers include writer/teacher and WAC fellowship recipient Holdsworth, who will open the sessions with remarks about Stegner as a mentor and note different types of political change in the West. Historian Will Bagley is set to address the historic and cultural importance of South Pass and propose ways to maintain it as “a good place to sit on a rock and feel history.” Linda Baker of the Upper Green River Valley Coalition will discuss issues related to resource development in Sublette and Sweetwater Counties. Mary Lynn Worl, chair of Citizens United for Responsible Energy Development, will talk about returning to her hometown of Pinedale and organizing citizen involvement to achieve healthier air quality.

In the afternoon sessions, writer and teacher Jennifer Sorensen will discuss her own relationship to the places Stegner writes about and reflect on her experiences in teaching his work. Writer and teacher Lynn Stegner will provide an appreciation of Wallace Stegner’s fiction. Writer Page Stegner will relate anecdotes and challenges involved in the process of collecting and editing his father’s correspondence for The Selected Letters of Wallace Stegner.

The Wallace Stegner Centennial Summit is made possible by grants from Chevron and the Sweetwater Board of Cooperative Educational Services. Other sponsors include the Rock Springs Museum, the Sweetwater County Historical Museum, and WWCC’s Western American Studies program.

FMI: Kevin Holdsworth at (307) 382-1724 or Sorensen at (307) 382-1716 or email kholdswo@wwcc.wy.edu

Call for entries: Albuquerque Fiber Arts Fiesta

The deadline is March 1 for the Albuquerque, N.M., Fiber Arts Fiesta Expo set for May 21-23, 2009. This is the seventh biennial show dedicated to fiber arts education and to the display of fiber-related artwork.

Hosted by the Albuquerque Fiber Arts Council, Inc. (AFAC), the Fiesta includes both juried and judged works organized by 16 co-sponsoring New Mexico fiber arts guilds. Over 500 juried and judged exhibits will be displayed in this show.

The Council accepts submissions in all fiber media and mixed media. A maximum of six works may be entered but no more than three within one division. Each area is a separate exhibit at the fiesta, hosted by one or more fiber guilds. All submissions are juried. Fee: $5 per entry.

FMI: http://fiberartcalls.blogspot.com/2008/11/albuquerque-fiber-arts-fiesta.html

Craig Johnson remembers Tony Hillerman

This remembrance of Tony Hillerman comes from one of our own, mystery writer Craig Johnson of Ucross:

There was an owl on one of the teepee poles at my ranch last night and, if you're lucky enough to live adjacent to Indian Country, you pay attention to such things. The Cheyenne see the owls as messengers from the other side, and I couldn't help but wonder who it was that was sending something a little more than special delivery.

I always thought he looked a little like an owl, even before I met him. The way the tufts of hair perched up on his head and the pointed nose -- but most of all it was the eyes; not so much the eyes of an eagle because those carry a self-concern, but more like the eyes that see past self-interest.

He was 83, and he lived in Albuquerque with, in his own words "now-and-then rhematic arthritis, in-remission cancer, a minor heart-attack, a mediocre eye, one tricky ankle and two unreliable knees." He began teaching at the University of New Mexico in 1967 and, with a wife and six children, he struggled to make ends meet. The story goes that he was typing away in his office late one night and an associate enthused, "You must be the hardest working professor we have here at the University."

He looked up with the twinkle his eyes always carried, his glasses perched at the end of his nose. "Actually, I'm writing a book."

Undaunted, the woman remarked. "How wonderful, what's it about?"

"It's a mystery."

She was crest-fallen. "With all your knowledge of Navajo art, culture, society and history-why are you wasting your time writing a mystery novel?"

His response, like the man, was eloquent and authentic. "Because I want someone to read the darned thing, that's why."

I was fortunate enough to win a short story award in combination with the writing conference that is named after him and Cowboys & Indians Magazine. He'd written seventeen books in his series when I met him, was a New York Times Best-selling fixture, and had won every award you can imagine. I'd written one novel and was facing the daunting task of trying to write my second, so I asked him how you keep it fresh. He smiled the small grin that reflected the admiration, adoration, and respect that everyone had for him. "At the risk of sounding like a bad sports analogy, you gotta write 'em one at a time-and just remember to tell a good story." It is invaluable advice.

At a time when you usually have to beg most big-time authors to remember what it was like when they were climbing up the ladder, he wrote me a blurb for not only my first novel, but my second, because he said he'd enjoyed them so much. I still have the voice message on my answering machine where he read the jacket quote because his email was on the fritz. "Umm, Craig, I can't get this email thingy to work, so I thought I'd just call you and tell you what to put on your book."

One of the last times I saw him was when he was being feted at the Los Angeles Times. They gave him their Life Achievement Award, and the hall where he was interviewed was standing room only, and the line to have him sign his books was about a mile long. He was a storyteller whose owl-like eyes saw further than the genre and farther than himself.

Perhaps the best words to describe his legacy are those of his protagonist Jim Chee, "Everything is connected. The wing of the corn beetle effects the direction of the wind, the way the sand drifts, the way the light reflects into the eye of man beholding his reality. All is part of totality, and in this totality man finds his horzo, his way of walking in harmony, with beauty all around him."

Tony Hillerman, 1925-2008

High school string players gather in Greeley

This comes from a University of Northern Colorado press release:

The University of Northern Colorado School of Music is proud to announce the 25th Annual Western States Honor Orchestra Festival (WSHOF) will be held November 6-8.

Established at UNC in 1983, this annual "Weekend for Strings" provides three days of intense musical training to advanced high school string players. Musicians are nominated by their directors and private teachers, then selected for the event through a rigorous audition process. Festival participants come from all states in the Rocky Mountain West – Colorado, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.

This year’s festival will feature guest artists RACHEL LEE and WILLIAM PREUCIL. Other guest artists and clinicians include Doug Kershaw, "The Ragin’ Cajun;" conductors Sergio Espinosa and Russell Guyver; alternative music/improvisation specialist Julie Lyonn Lieberman; and UNC string faculty members Richard Fuchs, Juliet White-Smith, David Chew, Jim Vaughn and Kathy Moore.

The three-day event opens Thursday, Nov. 6, at 8 p.m., with a concert by the UNC Symphony Orchestra. Soloist Rachel Lee will perform Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto. Ms. Lee will also perform the "Bach Double," more formally known as the "Concerto for Two Violins," by J.S. Bach with UNC violin professor RICHARD FUCHS. The program will also feature "Capriccio Espagnol" by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov, "An Orkney Wedding with Sunrise" by Peter Maxwell Davies and the "Mamou Two-Step" by Doug Kershaw.

The festival concludes with a concert by Western States Honor Orchestra Festival participants on Saturday, Nov. 8 at 4 p.m.

Led by Sergio Espinosa, the WSHOF Symphony will perform "Sinfonia #2 in D" by Felix Mendelssohn and "March and Scherzo" from "Love of Three Oranges" by Sergei Prokofiev. Following the Symphony’s performance, Russell Guyver, UNC’s resident orchestra conductor, will lead the WSHOF Chamber Orchestra in a performance of "Introduction and Allegro" by Edward Elgar and Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto with William Preucil, soloist.

Tickets for the 25th Annual Western States Honor Orchestra are now on sale.

Tickets for Rachel Lee’s concert with the UNC Symphony Orchestra on Thurs., Nov. 6 are $12 (adults) and $5 (students).

Tickets for William Preucil’s Saturday concert with the Western States Honor Orchestra are $15 (adults) and $10 (students).

FMI: 970-351-2200, 970-356-5000 or 800-315-ARTS. Online at http://arts.unco.edu/music/strings/weekendforstrings/default.html.

Kennedy essay in fall issue of Puerto del Sol

A new essay by Laramie's Jeffe Kennedy, "Hemlock & Mistletoe," will appear in the fall issue of Puerto del Sol magazine, published by New Mexico State University in Las Cruces.

Here's an excerpt from Jeffe's website:

For the first time in my life, I could not decorate for Christmas. It almost makes me weep to type the words, yet I could not bear to pull out one strand of lights. Once David convinced me to cancel our annual extravagant party, because I was too fragile for the additional pressure of cleaning and decorating and cooking, I had thought I might do simple things as the mood struck me. Perhaps I'd decorate our six-foot bougainvillea with some of the pearl lights our guests admired every year, perhaps add the clear glass balls I bought just a few weeks ago, with an eye towards replacing the tatty gold and red satin ones. But I couldn't do even that little. Our friends are
understanding of our canceled party - even the ones to whom I'd given invitations already, then reneged. They're disappointed - "You know your party is the event of my Season," said one - but supportive. I feel like I've let my neighbors down, with our dark house and invisible trees. But all you have to tell people is that your dad - though they may know the relationship hasn't always been an easy one - is dying and they forgive you any breaches.

But I have a Christmas secret I dare not speak aloud: Leo has chosen to die. He picked out the date.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Jeffe is a recipient of a WAC creative writing fellowship and a Blanchan/Doubleday writing award. She's also featured on the WAC Artist Roster. You can bring her to your community for a reading, workshop or presentation through an Arts Across Wyoming grant. FMI: http://wyoarts.state.wy.us/artistroster0809/artistroster.htm#kennedy

Dominguez exhibit at Wyo. State Museum

In conjunction with Cheyenne’s Cinco de Mayo celebration, the Wyoming State Museum will have on display the artwork of Eddie Dominguez, who’s ceramic sculpture and prints incorporates the rich cultural heritage of his Hispanic background.

The exhibit opens May 1 and will be on display through June 13. Dominguez will speak at the State Museum from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. on May 2, with a reception lasting until 6:30 p.m.

A native of Tucumcari, N.M., Dominguez creates artwork on the theme of his home environment, nostalgia and ideas of the culture. He attributes the influence of his aunt, who filled her house with quilts, doilies, crocheted curtains, braided rugs and shrines with his decision to become an artist.

"Art was my next-door neighbor making a quilt; it was my aunt crocheting, or my mother making a dress," Dominguez said. "The most honest influences that I have had can be found in the little things of my home."

Dominguez creates sculptures whose roots derive from familiar functional items, such as dinnerware sets that tread the boundaries between art, craft and kitsch. He has been doing the dinnerware sets for the past twenty-five years. However, his most recent works includes large-scale work such as rosaries and torsos. The lower portions of the torsos appear to be landscapes, the upper portion, skies or flowers growing. Dominguez relates the torsos to highway memorials.

Dominguez has a degree from the Cleveland Institute of Art and New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. In 2006 he was awarded the New Mexico Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts for his innovative work in ceramics and as an educator and role model for youth. He is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and sits on the Boards of the Roswell Museum, the Georgia O’Keefe Foundation and the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts.

He has also received public art commissions in New York, Maine, New Mexico, Texas, Arizona, Nebraska, Massachusetts and Wisconsin.

His work is in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., the Cooper-Hewitt Museum in New York, the Museum of Fine Arts in Santa Fe, the Sheldon Art Gallery in Lincoln, Nebraska, the Cleveland Institute of Art, the Phoenix Airport, U.S. West Corporation and Hallmark Cards Corporation.

Dominguez is currently assistant professor of ceramics at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln.

The Wyoming State Museum is located in the Barrett Building, 2301 Central Avenue in Cheyenne.

FMI: State Museum, 307-777-7022, or http://wyomuseum.state.wy.us/

Joy Harjo and Larry Mitchell to visit Northwest College

Joy Harjo and Larry Mitchell will be performing at Northwest College's Annual Native American Heritage Month Celebration and Feast. The activities begin at 10 a.m. on Nov. 8, and includes a library display presentation by Harjo. Harjo and Mitchell will have lunch with the Writing and Literary Guild (a student club), and then visit selected classes on the NWC campus. At 5 p.m. the Buffalo Feast dinner takes place in the DeWitt Student Center Lounge. Harjo, the guest speaker will discuss the significance of Native American Heritage Month and the Buffalo Feast. 7:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. is the writer's series presentation in the NPA Auditorium, where Harjo will read poetry, followed by Harjo and Mitchell giving a musical performance. Following this performance, Harjo and Mitchell will be signing books and their cd and will have one-on-one discussions.

Joy Harjo was born in 1951 in Tulsa, Oklahoma as a member of the Muscogee Tribe. She studied at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico, at the University of New Mexico, earning her B. A. She then attended the Iowa Writers Workshop, earning her M. F. A. Her books include How We Became Human: New and Selected Poems (2002); A Map to the Next World (2000); The Woman Who Fell from the Sky (1994); In Mad Love and War (1990); Secrets from the Center of the World (1989); She Had Some Horses (1983); and What Moon Drove Me to This (1979). Along with Patricia Blanco, Beth Cuthand, and Valerie Martinez, Harjo edited Reinventing the Enemy's Language: Contemporary Native Women's Writings of North America (1997).

In addition to working with Native American issues, Harjo shares concerns with indigenous and Third World people globally. Her love of jazz led her to the alto sax and the forming of her band Poetic Justice. She has recorded three CDs of her work: Letter from the End of the Twentieth Century (1997); Native Joy for Real (2004); and She Had Some Horses (2006).

Harjo has won the American Indian Distinguished Achievement in the Arts Award, the Josephine Miles Poetry Award, the Mountains and Plains Booksellers Award, the William Carlos Williams Award, and fellowships from the Arizona Arts Commission, the Witter Bynner Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. As a teacher, Harjo has been a frequent leader of workshops and has taught at the Institute of American Indian Arts, the University of Colorado, and the University of Arizona. She divides her time between Honolulu and Albuquerque.

Larry Mitchell has performed with a wide range of artists; his latest collaboration before working with Joy Harjo was with Native American artist Shelley Morningsong. In 1986 and 1987 Mitchell won the New York City Limelight guitar solo contest. In 1988, he toured with Spanish/Italian artist Miguel Bose. He's toured and worked with Folk pop singer/songwriter Tracy Chapman, T. M. Stevens, and Sandra Bernard. Other notable performances include the Jon Stewart show with Coolio, Montel Jordan, Pete Rock, and C. L. Smooth. He's also won a vast range of awards, including his most recentm with the New Mexico Music Awards.

Quilters' work displayed at State Museum

From a Wyoming State Museum press release:

“Elements from the Front Range Contemporary Quilters,” a temporary exhibit on display at the Wyoming State Museum, is a dazzling survey of some of the most innovative quilt work currently produced. The exhibition is on display Sept. 10-Oct. 5.

Many of these contemporary quilt artists, including Cheyenne’s own Do Palma, incorporate highly unconventional materials in their work, such as paint, paper, beads, metal and wood. Today’s art quilts show a wide range of creativity that melds ideas of home and hearth with cutting-edge technologies of the digital age.

Juror Robert Shaw, author of “The Art Quilt,” has selected 40 new works for this exhibition from members of the Front Range Contemporary Quilters, one of the oldest art quilt guides in the United States.

Front Range Contemporary Quilters is made up of artists, both men and women, from Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico and Kansas, and has sponsored annual juried exhibitions since its inception in 1988.

The members of Front Range Contemporary Quilters share a common interest not only in the art of quilting, but also in a prevailing theme surrounding the elements themselves. Weather, water fluctuations, wildfires, and expanding population, among other challenges, heavily impact the Front Range area. The natural elements—earth, air, fire, and water—intertwine with the locality and geography of the group to provide both poetic and practical subject matter. “Elements from the Front Range Contemporary Quilters” is curated by Lorri Flint and showcases the guild's dedication to promoting innovative quilt making and fiber art.

FMI: Manny Vigil, Wyoming State Museum, 307-777-7025.