Gillette's April 21 Prairie Wind Culture Festival celebrates the region's "rich cultural diversity"

The Prairie Wind Culture Festival (PWCF) will take place in Gillette on Saturday, April 21. Sponsors include the Wyoming Arts Council.

Here's a description from the web site:

PWCF was started in 2004. It is an all volunteer, non-profit, secular organization with one goal: to celebrate the rich cultural diversity that exists in northeastern Wyoming.

The PWCF is an annual Festival that is free and open to the public. As with any culture, the three main elements of the Festival are food, music and art! This unique event brings people together to celebrate their differences while discovering the many ways in which we are all related.

By creating an environment where people can be proud of who they are and that teaches respect for all people, we hope to strengthen our community and avoid cultural divisions.

Start planning now to attend the 30th annual Plains Indian Museum Powwow in Cody

30th Annual Plains Indian Museum Powwow
High Energy, History, and Fun!

June 16 – 17, 2012

Joe Robbie Powwow Garden
Grand Entries: Saturday, Noon & 6 p.m. and Sunday, Noon

Take part in the dancing, music, and energy of the Plains Indian Museum Powwow. Dancers, drum groups, and artists gather from across the Northern Plains to celebrate the vibrant cultural traditions and histories of the people of the Plains that are still present today. Our Powwow is not a demonstration but a competitive event that brings in talented dancers and drum groups who will show you what a Powwow is all about.

A popular educational program is the Powwow Learning Tipi. Gloria Goggles, a Lakota educator from Ethete, Wyoming, invites visitors to discover the traditions of powwow. Young visitors have the opportunity to try on different types of powwow clothing. The tipi provides a relaxed atmosphere to explore different powwow dance styles and their origins.

Over forty Native artists will have booths on the Powwow grounds, along with fry bread vendors and a grill menu and beverages in the concession stand.

Curious about the history of powwows and powwow dance styles? Our website is just the beginning to your powwow experience...

Admission Prices and Schedule

Gate opens to the public at 9:30 a.m. Admission is good for one day of the event, please check the event schedule, which is a general guide and subject to change due to weather and number of participants.

·                   $7 for adults (18 and older)

·                   $3 for youths (7 – 17)

·                   Children 6 and under are free

·                   Tickets may be purchased at the gates only

·                   No senior or group discounts

·                   Press passes are available with prior arrangements

·                   BBHC Members receive $1 discount on admission price each day with a valid membership card

Visitors are welcome to bring chairs or blankets for our outdoor, grass ampitheater. Please—no pets. For travel and lodging information contact the Cody Chamber of Commerce. For questions about visiting the Buffalo Bill Historical Center contact Nancy McClure at 307.578.4102, email nancym@bbhc.org.

For Our Dancers

2012 officials and invited drums will be announed in the spring. Dancers and their families recieve a free pass to the Buffalo Bill Historical Center exhibits at dancer registration. Registration 8 a.m. – noon Saturday; late registration or for specials on stage both days. Contact: Rebecca at 307.578.4049, email rebeccaw@bbhc.org.

Dance Categories and Schedule of Events

Competitive dance categories include men's and women's traditional and fancy, women's jingle, men's grass, and men's and women's golden age. Several special are yet to be announced.

·                   Adults (18 – 54) & Golden Age

·                   Teens (13 – 17)

·                   Boys & Girls (7 – 12)

·                   Team Dancing Special

Vendor Information

The Powwow welcomes vendors who are selling arts and crafts made by enrolled members of North American Indian tribes and Nations. No food booths please. For more information on vendor spaces, e-mail Rebecca West or call 307.578.4049.

"Fusing Arts, Culture and Social Change" report asks some tough questions -- and provides some answers

http://www.giarts.org/article/fusing-arts-culture-and-social-change

Holly Sidford writes on the Grantmakers for the Arts site about the new report she authored, "Fusing Arts, Culture and Social Change: High Impact Strategies for Philanthropy," for the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy. Sidford is a strategic planner, program developer and fund-raiser with 30 years experience with cultural organizations and philanthropy. Here's her intro:

Every year, approximately 11 percent of foundation giving – about $2.3 billion in 2009 – is awarded to nonprofit arts and cultural institutions. The distribution of these funds is demonstrably out of balance with our evolving cultural landscape and with the changing demographics of our communities. Current arts grantmaking disregards large segments of cultural practice, and by doing so, it disregards large segments of our society.

Food for thought for all of us who work in the arts-funding biz. 

Central High School student named "November Artist of the Month"

NASAA guidebook shows ways to engage adolescents in the arts

From NASAA (National Assembly of State Arts Agencies) Notes:

Meaningful engagement in arts education can have a life-changing impact on teens. An initiative and guidebook from the National Guild for Community Arts Education, Engaging Adolescents: Building Youth Participation in the Arts outlines a holistic approach that integrates arts learning with principles of youth development. It is designed to help staff and faculty develop new programs and services for teens or to rethink and strengthen programs they already offer.

UW Shepard Symposium presents "A Slice of Rice, Frijoles and Beans" April 7

The theme for this year’s Shepard Symposium on Social Justice at the University of Wyoming in Laramie is “CREATE: Activism Toward Social Justice.”

The Shepard Symposium entertainment will be provided by "A Slice of Rice, Frijoles and Greens," from 8:30-10 p.m. Thursday, April 7, in the UW Education auditorium.

"A Slice of Rice, Frijoles and Greens" is a multicultural extravaganza that brings together African American, Latina and Asian American artists for a program of spoken word, music, movement and song. The artists open windows into their own worlds through personal tales. Though each "slice" may be different, "rice, frijoles and greens" makes a statement that entertains as it enlightens, taking audiences beyond cultural borders.

Paulina Sahagun performs excerpts from "Nahuatl - Now What?" her Hi-Tech Aztec-in-Gringolandia Self-help Extravaganza. From the mercado in Guadalajara to bad-hair days in LA, there is only one question: Does she know how to make tortillas? 

Dan Kwong performs "Birth Interview" and "Song for Grandpa," stories of growing up in Los Angeles in a Model Minority family gone haywire. 

Chic Street Man, singer/songwriter and blues guitarist, brings it all home with his acoustic ballads, funky rhythms and jazzy upbeat originals.

For a complete agenda for the symposium, visit the Shepard Symposium website at http://outreach.uwyo.edu/conferences/justice/ .

Nominations due Aug. 2 for Gene D. Cohen Award for Creativity and Aging

From the Montana Arts Council blog (thanks MAC):

The Gene D. Cohen Award, sponsored by the National Center for Creative Aging (NCCA), recognizes and honors the seminal work of Dr. Gene Cohen, whose research in the field of creativity and aging has shifted the conceptual focus from a problem paradigm to one of promise and potential. Dr. Cohen has inspired us to approach longevity asking what wonders can be achieved, not in spite of age, but because of age. The award is presented annually to a professional whose research in the field of creativity and aging demonstrates these positive attributes.

Deadline for Nomination
Monday, August 2, 2010

Requirements
• A formal nomination letter
• A brief statement (maximum 500 words) detailing how the nominee meets the
criteria of the award
• Research Abstract
• Peer review articles or other related documents
• Up to 2 letters of support

In order to nominate someone for the Gene D. Cohen Award in Creativity and Aging, please send your nomination packet to awards@geron.org This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it with the subject of “Gene D. Cohen Award Nomination – NOMINEE NAME HERE.” Please remember to substitute your nominee’s name in the subject.

Visit the GSA Website at: http://www.geron.org/ or the NCCA Website at: http://creativeaging.squarespace.com/gene_cohen_award or contact info@creativeaging.org for more information.

Wyoming Philanthropy Days June 16-18

New mural in Laramie celebrates history of Latinos and Latinas in Wyoming

On Saturday, May 1, Paredes Hablando - Walls That Speak, will be unveiled by La Radio Montenesa Voz de la Gente KOCA in Laramie. The mural by Stevon Lucero commemorates Latinas and Latinos in Wyoming.

There will be an 11 a.m. luncheon followed at 1:30 p.m. by the unveiling of the mural, with an Artist's Talk by Stevon Lucero, “The Unyielding Process of Chicano Art.” All events at the Alice Hardy Stevens Center, 603 E. Ivinson Ave., Laramie. At 5 p.m., there will be a screening of a film by Yolanda Cruz, 2501 Migrantes, about a population of a town in Mexico that has been forced to leave to find work.

Info: Connie, 742-2842 cocaj58@aol.com

Random Acts of...Life

The Creative Arts Center at Ark Regional Services presents Random Acts of...Life, November 18-21 at 7:30 p.m., 1174 N. 4th Street, Laramie, WY.

To reserve tickets call 307-742-6641, ext 333 or email tickets@arkregionalservices.org.

Photo class holds opening reception tonight

The students in the Youth Alternatives/Special Friends photography class will be featured in an art show opening reception on Monday, Aug. 10, 6:30 p.m., in the Cheyenne Frontier Days Old West Museum's youth room. The museum is located in Cheyenne's Frontier Park.

The event includes light refreshments, an awards presentation and a special presentation.

FMI: Karen Cotton, Youth Alternatives/Special Friends photography class instructor/volunteer, cotton.karen@gmail.com.

Grants available for cultural exchange projects with Mexico and Central American countries

The National Association of Latino Arts and Culture is offering a new grant program for nonprofit organizations.

The Transnational Cultural Remittances Grant Program will support exemplary cultural exchange projects that use grassroots artistic practices to strengthen social networks across national boundaries in migrant communities. Applications, due July 24, must demonstrate an ongoing connection between two or more of the following countries: Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama and the United States.

More from YouTube

Here's something fun to watch.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgHmSdpjEIk

VSA arts seeks proposals, entries

Seeking proposals for art exhibitions:

VSA arts is seeking proposals for art exhibitions for production in 2009-10. Deadline for receipt is February 20, 2009

VSA arts is committed to expanding the understanding, development, and appreciation of contemporary work by artists with disabilities. VSA arts produces exhibitions that provide exposure and opportunity to emerging and established artists. Exhibitions offer a familiar and approachable setting for the public to discover and reflect on issues of disability within a contemporary art context.

VSA arts encourages curators and researchers from the cultural, university, and museum communities, including those with disabilities, to incorporate the work of artists with disabilities into their exhibitions. Individual or group proposals are acceptable. This call invites a progressive dialogue by nurturing the curatorial voice from the perspective of disability. We welcome proposals that address, challenge, and expand the discussion about disability and culture. If selected, proposed exhibitions will be produced in partnership with VSA arts to include shipping, installation and deinstallation, collaterals, marketing, publicity, and events.
A disability is defined as an impairment that substantially limits a major life activity. For more information about disabilities, please review the VSA arts’ Disability Awareness Guide, located under Resources at http://www.vsarts.org/.

Call for entries

VSA arts is seeking visual artists who are interested in participating in the VSA arts International Festival to be held in 2010. Revealing Culture will be the most comprehensive survey of international artists with disabilities brought to the United States.

Applicants from a wide range of artistic practices are encouraged to apply. Disability is a requirement for eligibility, but will not be disclosed during the jury process. Artists will be selected on the aesthetic merits of their work. Artists are asked to consider the theme Revealing Culture as it relates to their submission, but a relationship to the theme does not have to be explicit or obvious in the work itself.

VSA arts will use the exhibition to consider the influence of disability: What connections are established between the artist and the local disability community? How has the experience of disability shaped the artistic process or resulting work—if at all? These influences in conjunction with artists’ responses will help to further refine the theme of the exhibition, as well as exploring how artists negotiate the sometimes competing claims of responsibility to art and to self-identification. Revealing Culture will also examine the unique attributes of a community to disability in the artists' respective countries.

Revealing Culture will be the most comprehensive survey of international artists with disabilities brought to the United States.

The call for entries dead line is April 30, 2009, midnight (MST). Go to www.vsarts.org/ to find out more.
The exhibition will include approximately 50 artists from around the world and will be showcased at the International Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution.

"Festival of Cultures" at Sheridan College

Sheridan College will celebrate a "Festival of Cultures" on Monday, April 21, and Thursday, April 24. The festivities will begin on Monday with a lecture highlighting global education and then continue on Thursday with a Native American dance and Japanese Taiko drum performance.

On April 21, Everett McGlothin, executive director for the Association for the Advancement of International Education, will talk about the opportunities and impacts of global education. McGlothin has lived and worked abroad for twelve years and has traveled extensively. The lecture will take place from 7-8 p.m., in the CTEL Presentation Hall at Sheridan College. A Q&A session will follow his presentation.

On April 24, “Drumbeats: Celebrating Diversity,” kicks off with a Native American Dance/Drum performance at 7 p.m. in the college's Golden Dome. Native American performers from Wyoming, South Dakota, and Montana will take the stage and showcase a variety dances, including the Pow Wow dance. At 8:15 p.m., One World Taiko from Seattle will put on a presentation of contemporary Japanese drumming. Each performance will feature special audience participation activities. Both events are free and open to the public.

Pilot program helps Wyoming veterans

From Mike Shay:

The following isn't primarily an arts issue, but it is one that affects us all. Art and art therapy are playing a big part in mental health issues. The Cheyenne V.A. Hospital runs an annual arts competition and exhibition. The National Endowment for the Arts sponsors Operation Homecoming, a program that offers writing workshops for soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. There are similar programs all over the U.S.

I've served on the Governor's Mental Health Planning Council. Writing poetry or painting a picture can't begin to address the many mental health challenges facing the state's citizens, in general, and returning combat veterans, in particular. But it can play a part. See the links on the right sidebar for arts resources in your community.

Larry D. Barttelbort, executive director of the Wyoming Veterans Commission, sent out this press release today:

A joint venture pilot program between the Wyoming Military Department, Wyoming Veterans Commission, and the Wyoming Department of Health will ensure Wyoming Veterans are connected with state and federal resources. This pilot program is based on a recommendation from Wyoming's Veterans Mental Health Task Force. We have combined end-of-biennium funds to hire two contract Veteran's Advocates. They will link our Wyoming Veterans, their families, and their employers directly with state and federal resources. We will use Wyoming Military Department federal resources to assist with scheduling, data collection and reporting.

This program will help Veterans overcome the stigma of seeking help and help them connect with these wonderful resources. The advocates will meet with the Veteran, the family, and the employer to ensure the Veteran is using all the resources available to them.

Wyoming is also blessed with two of the finest VA Medical Centers in the U.S., at Sheridan and Cheyenne. The VA's Community Based Outpatient Clinics (CBOC) in Casper, Gillette, Green River, Newcastle, Powell, Riverton and Rock Springs provide outstanding care. The Vet Centers in Cheyenne and Casper provide confidential mental health counseling and also provide contract services in some outlying areas.

If you are approached about a Wyoming Veteran experiencing problems with readjustment issues at home, with friends, or at work don't hesitate to call one of our advocates or the VA resources.

Veteran's Advocates:
Leon Chamberlain (307) 359-2430 (Northern Wyoming)
David Hall (307) 631-3736 (Southern Wyoming)
VA Health Information 1-877-222-8387

FMI: Larry D. Barttelbort, 307-772-5016

Arts Access hits the Superbowl

Amid the wall-to-wall sound during next Sunday's Super Bowl, one commercial from PepsiCo could send some viewers grabbing for their remotes to check whether they'd accidentally hit the mute button. The pre-game advertisement features a joke that originates from the deaf community and will play out on screen over 60 seconds of total silence, a veritable eternity when it comes to the noisiness of Super Bowl ads."It's a popular story and we just turned it into an advertisement," said Clay Broussard, a supply and logistics manager at PepsiCo who proposed the idea for the ad. "This is the PepsiCo flavor of that joke."

The joke goes like this: Two guys are driving to their friend Bob's house to watch the Super Bowl. Once they get to Bob's street, neither knows which house is his. They sit in the car, arguing, until one of them has an idea. He starts laying on the horn, and one by one, the houses light up and dogs start barking. One house stays dark and quiet: It's Bob's.

Deaf people will be falling out of their chairs in disbelief, National Association of the Deaf president Bobbie Beth Scoggins wrote in an e-mail response to questions. Hearing people, Scoggins wrote, will stop what they're doing to see why there are no sounds. She believes it's an historic first for an ad featuring American Sign Language to get such prominent play. "I was glad to see this part of deaf culture awareness shared in a most clever way," Scoggins, who is deaf, wrote by e-mail as she was traveling. Broussard, who plays Bob in the commercial, has worked for PepsiCo in Dallas for 27 years. He got involved in the deaf community through a church he and his wife attended, where the services were conducted entirely in sign language. Broussard is not deaf. The two actors who play Bob's friends - Brian Dowling and Darren Therriault- are also PepsiCo employees, and are deaf. Dowling works for Frito-Lay in Arizona, and Therriault works for PepsiCo in Chicago. Broussard worked on the ad concept on his own time. He said, "This was all extra credit." It was 18 months before he showed it to senior managers, who decided they wanted it for the Super Bowl.

Watch the ad at http://www.pepsi.com/bobshouse/