"Swing for Life" Jan. 18 features swing dance lessons and music by the UW Jazz Ensembles

This University of Wyoming event popped up on Facebook today:

Friday Night Fever is partnering with the Jazz Advocates of Wyoming, the Swing Dance Club, and ASUW to bring a Swing for Life event on Jan. 18 from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. in the Union Ballroom. 

There will be swing dancing lessons provided by the Swing Club and live ‘20s style swing music provided by the University of Wyoming Jazz ensembles. Free food will also be available at the event. The Jazz Advocates of Wyoming and the Swing Dance Club plan to give any optional donations collected at the event to I Love Life and The American Cancer Research Fund organizations.

Read all about it here. 

Encana purchases student-made glass art centerpieces featured at Feb. 24 Governor's Arts awards gala

Riverton High School Principal Joanne Flannigan (left) and arts teacher Marianne Vinich at Governor's Arts Awards gala Feb. 24 in Cheyenne.

From County 10 in Fremont County:

The art glass centerpieces at the 30th Annual Wyoming Governor’s Arts Awards held Friday night in Cheyenne came from the imagination of Riverton High School Art Students enrolled in the Glass Art Program there.

Eighty-seven centerpieces, including two set aside for Governor Matt Mead, were produced for the event under the guidance of art instructor Marianne Vinich. RHS Principal Joanne Flannigan and Vinich were recognized at the awards dinner for the students’ contributions. Each of the glass art discs were offered for sale at a suggested donation of $40 to help purchase new glass and supplies for the program, which is the state’s longest-running such class. However,  before any of the discs could be purchased, Encana Oil and Gas made an $80 donation per piece and gave each centerpiece away. It was up to each table as to who got claim the centerpieces.

Read the rest at http://county10.com/2012/02/27/rhs-art-glass-program-recognized-at-governors-arts-awards-encana-purchase-to-fund-supplies/ 

Contribution deadline approaches for Pipeline to Miami

From Sue Sommers in Pinedale:

I have been asked to send a reminder to you all about the deadline for Pipeline to Miami. I should have mentioned this in yesterday's email, so please forgive my cluttering your Inbox.

Today only three days are left in our Pipeline to Miami fundraiser. You have helped us raise $8650, which meets our minimum of $8000 and then some. United States Artists welcomes additional support to our maximum level of $14,300, up to the midnight Dec. 12 deadline.

When you support our project through United States Artists, you are also giving to an approved, innovative nonprofit that invests in accomplished artists all over the United States -- a unique, nationwide effort to grow the arts. Pipeline Art Project therefore feels that continuing to fundraise up to our deadline is (to borrow a phrase from Mary Chapin Carpenter), "too much to expect, but not too much to ask."

Our project page can be found at http://www.usaprojects.org/project/pipeline_to_miami for those who may be interested in supporting this ambitious venture before closing time!

One other reminder: Pipeline Art Project will present information resulting from our Miami trip, as well as a public art exhibit, at "CLICK! A Weekend for Wyoming Visual Artists" in Pinedale, Wyoming, the weekend of March 30 - April 1, 2012. This symposium will be a collaboration between the Wyoming Arts Council, UW Art Museum, Pinedale Fine Arts Council, and Sublette County Library.

Thank you all for spreading the word about Pipeline to Miami, and for believing in us. Because of you, we will keep moving forward with our mission of bringing Wyoming creative energy to the world outside our state!

Pipeline Artists' goal: "To live in a place we love and to have viable arts careers"

2011 Wyoming Art For The Cure artists' call



Bullish by Diane Kaysen
from 2010 Art for the Cure

 Wyoming Art for the Cure will be held on Friday, April 29, 2011. All money raised at this event goes to the Wyoming affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

Artists are invited to donate a piece of original art. Pieces can be donated "in memory of" or "in honor of" someone who has battled breast cancer. A special card will be placed with your art showing the dedication.

There are six categories -- oil, pastel or drawings, photography, water-based media, sculpture, and mixed media. Cash prizes are awarded in each category for 1st and 2nd places, and a Best of Show.

Go to the website for all info on donating as well as being able to look at past years' donated art work.
http://artforthecure.org/

University of Wyoming receives "largest estate gift in its history" from artist and arts patron Neltje

This just in from the University of Wyoming PR office:

University of Wyoming officials said today (Wednesday) the university has received the largest estate gift in its history, a bequest that will transform the university's role in the arts in Wyoming and across the United States.

The estate gift is from Wyoming artist, Neltje (shown in photo), a prolific abstract expressionist whose works have been described as an "exploration of making the sensed visible."

The gift includes all financial and land holdings save for those going to her children and a select few personal donations. Additionally, the gift includes a world-class collection of contemporary, tribal and ethnic arts collected by Neltje over a lifetime of travel across the globe.

"If ever there was tangible evidence of the power of philanthropy, this is it," UW President Tom Buchanan says. "We can't thank Neltje enough for her vision and her commitment to the university and to the arts in Wyoming. It is simply remarkable."

The gift will enhance the UW Art Museum and the university's visual and literary arts programs, and it will enable UW to provide talented students with once-in-a-lifetime arts education opportunities unmatched in the United States.

The gift was announced just as the university is breaking ground for its new $33 million Visual Arts Center  see previous wyomingarts post) next to the UW Centennial Complex on the Laramie campus, which is home to the Art Museum and the American Heritage Center. Neltje's gift, combined with the significant investment in the new Visual Arts Center, promises to forever change the landscape for the fine arts at UW.

When this gift is realized, her home will become the heart of the UW Neltje Center for the Visual and Literary Arts, a place to honor and showcase the contemporary visual and literary arts and an educational facility for residencies, workshops, symposia, conferences, art exhibitions and literary readings.

"My heart belongs to Wyoming," says Neltje. "The incredible and vast landscape and the independent people have given me the inspiration to become who I am. My gift to the University of Wyoming is a gesture of my caring for future generations."

The Neltje Center will be open for UW activities related to the arts and also to the public for special events, conferences and celebrations. It will celebrate an expansive, sophisticated awareness of the arts and includes both the literary arts as well as contemporary art.

The gift includes a partnership with Jentel, a private foundation established by Neltje in 2000 that is located adjacent to her home. Jentel provides on a working ranch a residency program for visual artists and writers from across the country. The foundation strives to protect the pristine natural environment of the Piney Creek Valley.

"Neltje's extraordinary gift will transform the arts at the University of Wyoming, creating research and educational opportunities at the future Neltje Center and supporting the creative work of artists internationally through the artist residency program at Jentel," Susan Moldenhauer, director and chief curator at the UW Art Museum, says. "It will advance the Art Museum's mission through new collections, exhibition opportunities and museum-based research and education initiatives."

"Jentel will create a synergy of purpose with the Neltje Center, and the university," adds President Buchanan. "It will cultivate creativity and collaboration among artists in the residency program, students and artists from the university, and the public drawn to the Big Horns and this special place."

Neltje was born in New York City and raised in Oyster Bay, Long Island. In 1980 she took a few classes at the New York Studio School of Drawing and from 1979-80 she took a few classes at the Art Students League in New York, N.Y. She is essentially self-taught.

In 2005, she was recognized as one of Wyoming's preeminent artists with the Governor's Arts Awards. She received an honorary degree from Rocky Mountain College in Billings, Mont., and is the founder and benefactor of the Neltje Blanchan Literary Award in memory of her grandmother [and Frank Nelson Doubleday writing award in memory of her grandfather]. She served on the Board of the Wyoming Arts Council from 1985 to 1988.

Neltje's work has been featured in collections at the Smithsonian, the Yellowstone Art Museum in Billings, Mont., the IBM Corporation in Denver and the Wyoming State Museum in Cheyenne, among others. In addition, her work is in private collections in California, Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania and Wyoming.

Call for entries: AVA Center Miniature Show

AVA Community Art Center in Gillette would like to invite everyone to be a part of its Miniature Show. This show is a chance for any local artist to show their talents in an art exhibition. All art forms and mediums will be accepted.

Bring in your submissions by Friday, September 17.

Your donation of art -- a 100% donation to AVA -- advances art in our community.

Best of show will receive $100.

All accepted artists will receive one ticket to the event.

FMI: 307-682-9133

Tim Sandlin: Donate before Sept. 17 to help Jackson Hole Writers Conference get matching funds from Old Bill's Fun Run

Tim Sandlin from the Jackson Hole Writers Conference sends this:

Dear Writers,

We are happy to report another superb conference in 2010. Our visiting faculty raised the stakes yet again by revealing, then prying, into the reasons why they write… the reasons why we all write. Once inside, they probed fearlessly. Ideas circulated fast.

We framed conversation in possibility. We heard harrowing stories of success. We teased our manuscripts with fine red ink. With heels digging in rich Wyoming soil we think everyone found enough honesty, encouragement, and inspiration to sustain them through the summer and perhaps the entire year. Our deepest thank you to those who came together in June to make all this possible. A howdy-hello to those of you who better be scribbling away and planning to join us again.

While the conference is our favorite four days of the year, we spend the other 361 days making sure it will happen. Knowing we’re off to the right start lets us plan big for 2011 – reach out to the most outstanding writers and teachers in the field, and give you a Conference to get excited about.

As part of our writing community, we’re asking you to go a step further this year and become part of our philanthropic community.

Now is the time when our fundraising means the most because every dollar we raise is matched by a percentage – over 50% last year – from The Community Foundation of Jackson Hole during Old Bill’s Fun Run. It is the most innovative fundraiser in the nation, and we invite you to participate. Making a donation before September 17, 2010 will ensure that we have another remarkable conference in 2011.

As many of you may know, The Jackson Hole Writers Conference is a non-profit organization. We are writers supporting writers. Most of us are volunteers. We do it because we believe in the written word, ideas, and communication. And we know you do too.

We value donations at every level. It’s the show of your support, your attention to this art, that we appreciate most. And donating through Old Bill’s is easy and rewarding. Learn more to donate here.

Thank you in advance for your support. And let’s be sure to keep in touch.

Very Best,

from all of us here at JHWC

Questions or comments: nicole@ and tim@jacksonholewritersconference.com

Wyomingarts reminds the state's writers that you can apply to the Wyoming Arts Council for an Individual Artist professional Development (IAPD) grant to help pay for conference costs and travel. FMI: http://www.wyomingartscouncil.org/

Wyoming Art for the Cure celebrates art & life

This exhibit will be held on April 23, 2010 at Little America Hotel and Resort in Cheyenne, WY! Since 2003, the organization has raised nearly $200,000 which goes directly to the Wyoming Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure. We invite all artists to donate an original piece of art for the event, and if you wish, you may donate "in memory of" or "in honor of" someone you know who has battled breast cancer. Categories for the 2010 Art for the Cure include oil, pastel or drawings, photography, water-based media, sculpture, and mixed (or other) media. By donating you will also be eligible for cash rewards! To participate, obtain and return a pink commitment postcard by Feb. 19th to PO Box 832 Cheyenne, WY 82003, and the donated artwork must be delivered to Deselms Fine Art by April 16th. For more information or questions, contact (307) 432-0606 or visit www.komenwyoming.org/wyomingartforthecure.

Legislative Artwork Donation Program Selection Committee meets Jan. 11

From a SPCR press release:

Members of the Wyoming Legislative Artwork Donation Program Selection Committee will meet to review seven artistic pieces donated during the past year for display in the State Capitol Building.

The meeting is scheduled for 10 a.m., January 11, in Room 302 of the State Capitol.

During the meeting, the Committee will review the artwork donated by five Wyoming artists and decide whether to formally accept the donations, attend to any framing or matting issues of the artwork, approve signage and determine the location where the pieces will be displayed on the second and third floors of the Capitol.

Additionally, the Selection Committee will review a proposed artwork donation schedule and establish a timeline for the next round of promotion and marketing for the program.

The goal of the Wyoming Legislative Artwork Donation Program is to acquire and showcase appropriate artwork that represents Wyoming. The artwork will be exhibited in the Senate and House of Representative chambers, the respective chamber lobbies and galleries, and possibly expanded to common areas on the second and third floors of the Capitol.

The artwork may be acquired for display through donation, temporary loan or direct purchase.

Selection Committee members are Senators Wayne Johnson and E. Jayne Mockler, Representatives Pete Illoway and Mary Throne, former Senator John Hanes, former Representative Pat Nagel, Wyoming Arts Council Manager Rita Basom and Wyoming State Museum Manager Manny Vigil.

For more information about the Legislative Artwork Donation Program, please contact Renee Bovee, Department of State Parks and Cultural Resources, 2301 Central Avenue in Cheyenne, 82002; 307-777-6312.

Art show at Margo's benefits Buffalo's Crazy Woman Square Project

Margo's Pottery and Fine Crafts in Buffalo is having an art show to celebrate the holidays and to benefit the Buffalo Development Association's Crazy Woman Square Project. A percentage of all sales will go to the Buffalo Development Association. "A Progression" is an installation by artist Haylee Bolinger, that celebrates her recent travels to India.

The free event will be held on Thursday, Dec. 3, 5-7 p.m., at Margo's Pottery and Fine Crafts, 1 North Main.

Makin' A List & Checkin' It Twice

Clay Paper Scissors Gallery & Studio invites you to see our new show, Makin' A List & Checkin' It Twice. The media includes jewelery, felting, clay, encaustic, painting, batik and more! Many small items ideal for gifts. 10% of the proceeds will be donated to Needs in honor of the season. Featured artists include:
Alberto Alcantara
Cathie Carr-Lundfelt
Crystal Lawrence
Ginnie Madsen
Jon Madsen
Sharon Mathiessen
Ila Miller
Paulette Rasmussen
Gretchen Reed
Meggan Stordahl

November 22-December 31, 2009.

Hours: Thursdays 4-7, Fridays 1-5, Saturdays 11-5, by appointment & serendipity!

1506 Thomes, Ste B. (facing the tracks on 15th)

307-631-6039

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.

"Michael Jackson Tribute" at dance recital

From writer/musician/dancer Karen Cotton in Cheyenne:

You're invited to the ACT II Dance Studios recital with a "Michael Jackson Tribute" on Saturday, Aug. 8, 6:30 p.m., at the Cheyenne Civic Center, 510 W. 20th St., Cheyenne.

Suggestion donation: $10 for adults, children and seniors $5 for children and seniors. Proceeds benefit Needs, Inc.

FMI: 307-637-5112 or http://blogs.wyomingnews.com/blogs/backstagepass/

Fund to Find Craig Arnold has hired independent search-and-rescue team

Here's the latest update from the FIND CRAIG ARNOLD Facebook page:

5/5 9:18 a.m. EST: Thanks to the money raised through The Fund to Find Craig Arnold, we have been able to engage the help of an independent search and rescue team (1SRG) who arrived at Kuchino-erabu yesterday afternoon. The local authorities brought the team up to speed, and they immediately began searching; they believe they have picked up Craig's trail. They will be on the island until the 9th, looking, though obviously we all hope Craig will be found before then. However, the official search for Craig has been called off by the Japanese authorities. We need everyone's help contacting their local congressional delegation and asking their assistance in encouraging the Fukuoka consulate to engage local US military/DOD assets on the ground in Japan. They have been thinking about it and we need them to move forward with that as quickly as possible.

Contribute to the search fund at https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=5149253

Concert to raise funds for Pinedale FAC

Poetry & hip-hop highlight women's issues

From a UW press release:

An evening of hip-hop, poetry and audience interaction, "Two Voices: Gender and Social Justice Through the Prism of Poetry," will be held Saturday, March 29, at 7 p.m. in the University of Wyoming College of Education auditorium as part of Women's History Month.

The event, free and open to the public, is sponsored by the Women's Action Network (WAN). Donations will be accepted to benefit Laramie Reproductive Health.

The evening, which celebrates the connection between art and social justice movements, will feature artists Adrian Molina and Day Acoli. It will also include spoken word poetry that reflects on issues of gender, race and social justice.

Rock Creek Wild! Concert and Art for the Earth

Inviting your creative participation is the Rock Creed Wild! Concert and Art for the Earth taking place in Sheridan at the Elks Lodge on April 19, 2008 from 7-11 p.m.

• Celebrating wilderness in honor of Earth Day
• Educating about the Rock Creek recommended wilderness area of the Bighorns
• Donate a minature work of art to support the Wyoming Wilderness Association
• Deliver art works to CVC, 171 N. Main, April 10 & 11, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. for preshow (4-14 -4-18
• For more information, call WWA at 672-2751 or Jenny Craft at 674-6446 x 4203
• e-mail at liz@wildwyo.org. Website at http://www.wildwyo.org/

Earth Day is coming up in April. As a part of the celebration, participate in the "Rock Creek Wild! Concert & Art", specifically the Miniature Earth Art Show and Silent Auction. Finished and framed miniature art pieces will be displayed at CVC Conference Room for a Preshow the week of April 14-18 and for the grand finale -- at the gala "Rock Creek Wild! Concert & Art" Saturday, April 19th. Celebrate the beautiful world around us and the need to build a wilderness constituency in our community.

The Concert will feature the Jalan Crossland Band, singer/songwriter Doug Andrews, Julie Szewc, Kyle Williams and Carl Maddox, all who have a passion for the mountains and wild nature. Their philosophy is "Working and playing together, we can make the Earth (and Sheridan) a better place to share with our children, families and friends through art, music and appreciation."

As a participant in the Miniature Art Show, create artwork in miniature of your own materials and donate the piece to the Silent Art Auction. The artwork may be 2D or 3D, but keep it within the dimensions of 5" x 7" x 7", and should be ready to hang or display.

As an Earth Day event, artwork could focus on Wilderness or Nature. Some fun suggestions are using recycled materials or materials directly from the Earth. Paintings of Rock Creek or other beautiful mountain areas will be favored, to be sure. Otherwise, artistic freedom is yours. Fun Earth friendly prizes will be awarded in the categories listed below to be decided by a panel of judges.

The finished artwork must be delivered between Thursday April 10 and Friday April 11, ready for display. Please deliver to the Center for a Vital Community (CVC) at Main Street campus--171 N. Street, Sheridan, WY 82801--between 9a.m. and 4 pm.

The art will be on display the following week, April 14-18 where the silent auction will begin. On April 19th the art will be moved to the Elks Lodge for the Concert and Art for the Earth which opens at 7pm. The Auction bidding will stop at 9pm. Prizes will be awarded for the Best of Show, Most Innovative Art, Best Recycled Art, Best Use of Natural Materials and Wildest Landscape. We were all so impressed by the talent, creativity, excitement and generosity of the contributing artists from the 2007 Art Show that we are encouraged that this could be the best event ever!

Visit the web site at http://www.wildwyo.org/ to learn more about WWA’s programs and the Rock Creek area. We are delighted to include Wyoming’s wonderful artistic community in our Rock Creek Wild! Concert & Art for the Earth.

Collecting and displaying Wyoming artwork

A new program is working to acquire a collection of Wyoming artwork for display in the State Capitol Building.

Through the Wyoming Legislative Artwork Donation Program, Wyoming artists can donate or loan pieces to be included in a collection for exclusive display in the Capitol. Senator Jayne Mockler, a member of the Legislative Facilities Committee, is a longtime advocate of the Capitol acquiring its own collection for exhibit in the Wyoming Senate and House of Representatives chambers and the respective lobbies and galleries.

Artwork donations may be made by, or on behalf of, a current or former member of the Wyoming Legislature, or any private citizen. Artwork can also be bequeathed to the program in a will or trust.

A Legislative Artwork Donation Committee comprised of legislators, State Museum staff and an Arts Council representative will meet annually to review and select artwork into the collection.

The preferred mediums for artwork are oil or acrylic, although other two-dimensional mediums will be considered. Artwork must relate to Wyoming or the Rocky Mountains West with Wyoming landscapes the preferred content. Other themes that represent the natural, social, cultural, political or economic history of Wyoming may also be considered.

Due to the large size of the Senate and House of Representative Chambers and lobbies, only larger two-dimensional work will be considered.

Guidelines are available at www.artsparkshistory.com or www.wyomuseum.state.wy.us, or by contacting Lili Francuz, Wyoming State Museum art curator, at lfranc@state.wy.us, or 777-7677.