Powell student wins "Best of Show" in Wyoming Junior Duck Stamp Contest

Fifteen-year-old Sierra Morrow of Powell, Wyo., is “Best of Show” winner of the Federal Junior Duck Stamp Contest for Wyoming. For the eighteenth consecutive year, the National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson Hole serves as Wyoming host for the contest, a national art competition for K-12 students. Sierra’s winning drawing, titled “A Dip in the Evening,” will be on display as one of the top 36 ribbon winners for the state – out of a total of 691 Wyoming entries – for the museum’s annual Federal Junior Duck Stamp Exhibition, May 3 through August 5, 2012.

Sierra’s drawing will represent Wyoming at the Federal Junior Duck Stamp contest scheduled for April 20, at the Patuxent Research Refuge in Laurel, Md. The winner of the national competition receives $5,000, a trip to our nation’s capital with a parent and the art teacher. The artwork is also used to make the 2012-2013 Junior Duck Stamp. Proceeds from the sale of the $5 stamps support conservation education.

Sydney Nate, an eight-year-old from Cokeville, Wyo., was this year’s Betty Nelson Artistic Promise Award-winner for the best art in the youngest age group. The Betty Nelson Artistic Promise Award was established 12 years ago to recognize the artistic accomplishment of K-3 students and to honor the late Betty Nelson, a generous supporter of the Junior Duck Stamp program.

The Jr. Duck Stamp exhibit will travel to the Wyoming State Museum in Cheyenne after it closes at the National Museum of Wildlife Art, and winners will be honored at a September awards ceremony at the Wyoming State Museum. The 1st- through 3rd-place Wyoming winners of the contest can be viewed on the museum’s website beginning in early May at http://www.wildlifeart.org/,  and information for next year’s contest will be posted on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service website at http://www.fws.gov/juniorduck. For a complete list of the 2012 Wyoming ribbon placers, visit http://www.wildlifeart.org/Learn/FedJrDuckStamp.

A complete schedule of exhibitions and events at the National Museum of Wildlife Art is available online at http://www.wildlifeart.org/. The museum is also active on Facebook at wildlifeartjh and on Twitter at @wildlifeartjh.

WAC announces winners of creative writing fellowships

The Wyoming Arts Council is pleased to announce the recipients of this year’s creative writing fellowships in fiction.

They are Kathy Bjornestad of Sundance, Samuel Western of Sheridan and Stefani Farris of Lander. They each will receive a $3,000 award plus a $500 stipend to travel to Casper to read their work at the annual fellowship Sept. 22-24 at the Casper College Literary Conference. They will be joined at the reading by fellowship judge Pam Houston, a fiction writer and essayist from Creede, Colo.

Honorable mentions in this category go to Diane Panozzo, Tie Siding, and RoseMarie London, Laramie.

This is the 26^th year for the creative writing fellowships sponsored by the Wyoming Arts Council. Next year’s category will be poetry. Applications will be available in spring 2012.

For more information, contact Michael Shay, WAC individual artist programs specialist, at 307-777-5234 or mike.shay@wyo.gov.

To see the full lists of WAC creative writing fellowship winners and Blanchan/Doubleday writing award winners, go to http://wyoarts.state.wy.us/Artists/Literature.aspx

Call for entries: Sheridan Artists' Guild Juried Art Show

The first Sheridan Artists’ Guild, Et. Al., Juried Art Show will be held in Sheridan during the month of June 2011.


Submission deadline is April 1!


The show will be on display at the Historic Train Depot. The artists’ reception and presentation of awards will be on Friday, June 24, from 5-7 pm, also at the Historic Train Depot located at 201 E. 5th Street. The juror for this show is Phil Starke, an extraordinary artist from Tucson, Arizona.


Click here to download a prospectus or email Karen at artinsheridan@hotmail.com

Wee Gallery's artist competition and exhibition

Wee Gallery of Fine Art in Scottsdale, AZ, is hosting their 1st Annual International Artist Competition and Exhibition, seeking out the greatest Artist from around the world to compete for gallery representation, ribbons, and $5000 cash and prizes.

July 15, 2011 - Deadline for entry (Entries must be postmarked by this date).

For questions, (480) 323-9100 or weedeekang1234@hotmail.com or go to the website for a downloadable registration form and submission requirements.  

There will be Magick in Memphis!

From the Wyoming Blues and Jazz Society:

 We're proud to be sponsoring a band in the International Blues Challenge, for the first time in our history. The “IBC” is a very prestigious competition for the top, not yet professional, musicians around the world. Another Kind of Magick from Cheyenne will be competing in the Youth Challenge, as they are all still teenagers, and will compete in the band competition open to all ages.

This talented group will be performing Saturday, Nov 27 in the Parkway Ballroom, in Casper, with special guest Erica Brown lending her support. The concert is free and open to all ages to attend and enjoy. A $5 donation at the door would be much appreciated, as all proceeds go to help finance the trip to Memphis in February. The concert will start at 7:30 PM, and the Parkway will be offering a Memphis theme buffet for only $10 from 7 until 8, in the ballrooms. Buffet tickets must be purchased in advance at the Parkway front desk, or at Platte River Music, 134 S Center. Bring the entire family down after the Christmas Parade and enjoy the music of these talented teens, while helping them get to Memphis to represent Wyoming.

This year’s recipient of the Ray Patterson Memorial Scholarship will also be announced that night. A deserving music major at Casper College will be awarded $500 towards next semester’s expenses. Please come and support Wyoming’s representatives in this major endeavor. The Wyoming Blues and Jazz Society- “Keepin’ the music ……LIVE” for over 10 years. Contact Lou 259-8725, or email wybluelou@hotmail.com with any questions.

Call the Parkway 235-1777 for a special room rate that night of just $55.00. Sponsored by the Parkway Plaza, Poor Boys and the WonderBar.

Cody's Shirley Barhaug will judge Rocky Mountain Regional Juried Exhibition

From the Carbon County Arts Guild in Red Lodge, Mont.:

Apr 1-30: Rocky Mountain Regional Juried Exhibition. This annual competition is open to artists in 7 Western states. Artists compete for entrance to the exhibit then vie for cash prizes once accepted into the show. Judge and juror this year is Cody, Wyoming artist and President of the Cody Country Art League, Shirley Barhaug. Exhibit is free and open to everyone during normal Arts Guild hours. For more information on the competition, call the Arts Guild in Red Lodge at (406) 446-1370.

Apr 9: Rocky Mountain Regional Juried Exhibit Reception and Awards Ceremony. Join the artists who have artwork entered into the competition for an early evening reception from 4-6 pm at the Arts Guild in Red Lodge. Awards will be announced at 5pm. Refreshments will be served. Open to everyone. Free. For more information, call the Arts Guild at (406) 446-1370.

Call for entries: "Mugs, Bowls, Casseroles"

The Lincoln Center in Fort Collins, Colo., will present “Mugs, Bowls, and Casseroles” on the weekend of October 30–November 1. All ceramic artists are encouraged to apply to this juried show of mostly functional pottery. Accepted artists will have work on display in the galleries, and all work will be available for sale.

The application for submitting artwork for jury can be downloaded from www.lctix.com -- click on Galleries, then click on Opportunities for the artist application. The due date for entries is Friday, July 31.

FMI: Jeanne Shoaff, 970-416-2737 or jshoaff@fcgov.com.

Apply now for 2009 creative writing fellowships

Printable applications for the Wyoming Arts Council's 2009 creative writing fellowships in fiction are available at the WAC web site. Go to wyoarts.state.wy.us and scroll down to the "News" section. Click on the first link, "Apply now for 2009 creative writing fellowships." This will take you to a four-page pdf document that includes a bio of the judge, Laura Pritchett, guidelines, and the application itself. Print it out, fill it out, and mail the completed application with your manuscript to the WAC. Postmark deadline is June 20, 2008.

The judge will select up to three winners who will each receive a $3,000 prize. They also will receive a stipend of $500 to travel to the Equality State Book Festival Sept. 18 for the annual WAC fellowship reading.

Laura Pritchett, of Fort Collins, Colo., is the author of the novel Sky Bridge (2007) and the 2001 collection of short stories, Hell’s Bottom, Colorado, both from Milkweed Editions. She is also the editor of two collections: The Pulse of the River: Colorado Writers Speak for the Endangered Cache la Poudre and Home Land: Ranching and a West that Works. Her third collection, The Gleaners: Eco-Essays on Recycling, Re-Use, and Living Lightly on the Land, is due out in spring 2009. Her work has also appeared in numerous magazines, including The Sun, Orion, High Country News, Colorado Review, 5280, and the book Comeback Wolves: Western Writers Welcome the Wolf Home and Social Issues Firsthand: The Environment.

For more about Laura Pritchett, go to www.laurapritchett.com.

For more information about the fellowships, contact Michael Shay, 307-777-5234 or mshay@state.wy.us.

14th Annual Bookmark Contest Winners

Wyoming Agriculture in the Classroom is pleased to announce the eighteen (18) winners and nine (9) honorable mentions, from over 1700 entries, of our 14th annual Bookmark Contest. For the past fourteen years, Wyoming Agriculture in the Classroom and the Wyoming Weed and Pest Council has hosted the agriculture and natural resource Bookmark Contest for 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students. The contest is designed to increase awareness of agriculture, noxious weeds, and natural resources. This year a new addition to the program included a new category topic, predators. This category is sponsored by the Wyoming Animal Damage Management Board to raise awareness of predator prey relationships and the interactions they have with agriculture and wildlife in the west.

To honor the winners, Wyoming Agriculture in the Classroom along with the Weed and Pest Council, Wyoming Beef Council, EnCana Oil and Gas USA, (Inc.), and the Wyoming Animal Damage Management Board will be holding an Awards Ceremony on May 9, 2008 at the Emerson Auditorium for all bookmark winners and honorable mentions. Governor Freudenthal, Director of Agriculture John Etchepare, and elected officials will be present to honor the students in this special ceremony. The students, their families, and their teachers are invited to this prestigious event.

Please go to http://www.wyomingagclassroom.org/ for a complete list of all of the winners and the subject of their bookmark artwork.

Above are some of the winners from last year's contest.

Lorian Hemingway Short Story Competition

$2,000 Awaits Winners of Lorian Hemingway Short Story Competition

Entries are now being accepted for the 28th annual Lorian Hemingway Short Story Competition, created to recognize and encourage the efforts of writers who have not yet achieved major-market success. Writers will compete for a $1,000 first prize, $500 second prize, and $500 third prize in this internationally acclaimed competition. Several honorable mentions are also awarded each year.Stories in all genres of fiction are welcome. Maximum length is 3,000 words, and writers retain all rights to their work. The final deadline is May 15, 2008; winners will be announced at the end of July. For complete guidelines, please visit www.shortstorycompetition.com, e-mail to shortstorykw@aol.com, or send an SASE to the Lorian Hemingway Short Story Competition, P.O. Box 993, Key West, FL 33041.

Artists competition

Agora Gallery of New York City is pleased to announce its 23rd juried competition. Awards totaling Thirty Eight Thousand dollars ($38,000) will be distributed as follows: exhibition at the Chelsea gallery, cash awards, Internet exposure and publicity in ARTisSpectrum magazine.

The exhibition will take place in Chelsea, New York City. The gallery/artist split will be 50/50. In the spirit of giving, Agora Gallery will split its share of artwork sales resulting from the competition exhibition with Art Start, an innovative program that brings art and artists to homeless children.


Visit http://www.agora-gallery.com/2008 to enter online or download the submission form. Deadline: March 7, 2008.