Call for applications: Brush Creek Arts Foundation

Located on the historic Brush Creek Ranch, a 13,000-acre working cattle ranch and luxury lodge at the base of the Medicine Bow National Forest, Wyoming's Brush Creek Arts Foundation offers writers, visual and performing artists, musicians and composers from all backgrounds and levels of experience an unique opportunity of time and space to create.

Selected artists will receive housing, meals, exclusive studio access and use of the library, lounge and kitchen, which are all nestled in a meadow along the riparian corridor of Brush Creek. Seasonally based, two-week and four-week residencies will be offered beginning January 2012. A blind jury will choose residents based on work samples provided with application.

Applications for 2012 Winter/Spring Sessions are due September 15th. Click here for our Quick Facts (.pdf), Application Guidelines (.pdf), and Application form (.pdf) documents. For general inquires about the Brush Creek Arts Foundation or other program details, please email katie.christensen@brushcreekranch.com.

Duct Tape Fashion Show, outhouse races and street dance July 8-9 at Rawlins SummerFest

An artist's materials (Evan-Amos, Wikimedia Commons)

Rawlins' SummerFest, Rawlins Jam and Outlaw Show ‘N' Shine take place on the second weekend of July, which is July 8-9:

• Student Duct Tape Fashion Design Exhibition at Rawlins Main Street Gallery, Friday, July 8, 5-8 p.m.
• Student Duct Tape Fashion Show on Saturday, July 9, 3 p.m.
• Outdoor Movie Showing on Friday Night
• Two Poker Runs
• Activities Downtown each day including eating contests, games, vendors and more
• Motorcycle, Car and Truck Shows with Prizes
• Street Dance on Saturday Night
• Free Transport from Car Show at Fairgrounds to Downtown SummerFest Activities
• Outhouse Races

FMI: Rawlins Carbon County Chamber of Commerce at 307-324-4111 or Rawlins DDA/Main Street at 307-328-2099.

This event produced in cooperation with the Carbon County Visitors' Council. For more information on the diversity and beauty in our county, please visit www.wyomingcarboncounty.com.

Eat, shop and watch a cool movie tonight in downtown Rawlins

Rawlins DDA/Main Street has been working extremely hard the past few years on its downtown. Tonight, Rawwlins DDA/Main Street and the Carbon County School District #1 Rec Board present Downtown Moonlight Movies, a outdoor movie series showing four films June through September. Tonight’s show at Depot Park, 4^th and Front streets, is the animated feature “Despicable Me.”

This year's movie line-up is:
Despicable Me - June 24th
Back to the Future - July 8th
Jailhouse Rock - July 29th
Happy Gilmore - September 23rd

Movies will begin at dark, about 9:30 p.m. Come down early at 9 p.m. for the costume contest. Dress to the theme of the movie to win Main Street Money, gift certificates good at over 15 downtown businesses. 

Vendors selling food, drink, glow-in-the-dark items and popcorn will be present. 

July 8th's movie showing is in conjunction with SummerFest, Rawlins Jam and Outlaw Show N' Shine. For more information on this great weekend in Rawlins, visit www.rawlinsfest.com. 

September 23rd is in conjunction with state golf and will begin at 7 p.m.

Miss "V" on WPR's "Morning Music"

Miss "V" the Gypsy Cowbelle, member of the Wyoming Arts Council artist roster, is being interviewed right now on Wyoming Public Radio. Get the live feed at http://www.wyomingpublicradio.net/. She's performing at the Platte Valley Community Center in Saratoga tonight at 7 p.m.

Opening reception for "inside/OUT" exhibit set for April 8 at Rawlins Main Street Gallery

Rawlins Main Street Gallery is excited to present inside/OUT, an exhibition of paintings by Mike Karr. The exhibition is being held in commemoration of the gallery’s two-year anniversary. An anniversary celebration and opening reception for the artist will be held on Friday, April 8 from 5-8 PM at the gallery, and will introduce a number of new approaches to community art display in downtown Rawlins. 

For the first time ever, work by the gallery’s featured artist will be presented in a curated show that examines a specific theme. The event will also be the first at the gallery to offer guests beer on tap from Snowy Mountain Brewery in Saratoga. A selection of lounge music by artists on the label Cold Busted, owned and operated by Rawlins resident Derrick Daisey will be played throughout the evening. As always, the wine, non-alcoholic beverages and snacks gallery visitors have come to appreciate will also be served. This event is free and open to the public.

The exhibition will remain on view through early May. FMI: Rawlins Main Street

New library card makes debut at March 18 artist reception at Rawlins Main Street Gallery

From Rawlins Main Street: Last spring, the Carbon County Library System asked patrons to submit photos of their favorite things in Carbon County for our Picturing Carbon County Contest. Now, almost a year later the library system is unveiling the new card which features Dawn Munro’s photo of Lake Marie. To mark this occasion we are hosting an artists’ reception at the Rawlins Main Street Gallery on 4th and Cedar on Friday, March 18th from 5-8 p.m. Come meet the artists who submitted their work, enjoy some light refreshments, wine and a silent auction featuring 5 of our favorite photo submissions. You can even get a brand new library card! Click here for more information, visit www.carbonlibraries.org or contact Katie Bray at 307-328-2621.

Opening reception for Boys & Girls Clubs Regional Art Exhibit is Feb. 25 in Rawlins

Unveiling of Bill Gollings statue set for Oct. 15 at WAC

A bronze statue of cowboy artist William "Bill" Gollings, by Saratoga artist Jerry Palen, will be unveiled at the Wyoming Arts Council, 2320 Capitol Avenue, Cheyenne, on Friday, October 15, 11 a.m.

Bill Gollings was a Wyoming working cowboy and renowned artist. Four of Gollings' large oil paintings from 1918, hang in the Wyoming State Capitol Building: "Indian Attack on the Overland Stage", "Immigrants on the Platte," "The Smoke Signal," and "The Wagon Box Fight."

The statue was donated by Bill and Carole Ward, Wagonhound Land and Livestock, and Jerry and Peggy Palm, with the generous assistance of the Cheyenne Frontier Days Old West Museum.

This project is approved and acknowledged by the Capitol Complex Advisory Committee (CCAC) which exists to evaluate and make recommendations to the State Building Commission (SBC) regarding the location, purchase, donation, placement and maintenance of works of art, exhibits or displays, and memorials located within the Wyoming Capitol Building and Capitol Complex and to ensure the preservation of the historic character and architectural integrity of the Wyoming Capitol Building and Capitol Complex.

Bill Gollings statue unveiling Oct. 15 at WAC

The public is invited to the unveiling of a bronze statue of Elling William “Bill” Gollings, by artist Jerry Palen of Saratoga, on Friday, October 15, 11 a.m. The site is in front of the Wyoming Arts Council,
2320 Capitol Avenue in Cheyenne, across from the Wyoming State Capitol Building.

Bill Gollings was a Wyoming working cowboy and renowned artist. Four of Gollings’ large oil paintings, from 1918, hang in the State Capitol Building.

This statue was donated by Bill and Carole Ward, Wagonhound Land and Livestock, and Jerry and Peggy Palm, with the generous assistance of the Cheyenne Frontier Days Old West Museum.

Wyoming Film Festival Aug. 28-29 in Saratoga

Saturday, August 28th & Sunday, August 29th, Saratoga:

Wyoming Film Festival featuring cinema of the Rocky Mountain West. Platte Valley Community Center, 210 W. Elm Ave.

Lineup includes:

Friday, 8:00 PM: Wyoming Film Office Film Short Film Festival Winners: "Voices of the Platte" about people of the valley and their fish stories, "Absoraka" a western set in 1881, (winner of the 2010 Wyoming Film Office Short Film Contest); 8:30: "Ride The Divide" covers the world’s toughest mountain bike race, which traverses over 2,700 miles along the Continental Divide in the Rockies (http://www.ridethedividemovie.com/); 9:45 "Next Year Country" looks at the twenty plus years of drought and its impact on small family farmers (http://www.nextyearcountry.com/).

Saturday, 6:45 PM: "My Canyonlands: The Adventurous Life of Kent Frost" the last of the old time river runners, who helped create Canyonlands National Park and saw the the loss of Glen Canyon and changing perceptions of the land (http://www.sagelandmedia.com/); 8:00 "Oh, You Cowgirl!" World Premier documentary about unsung women ranchers and homesteaderswho worked the rodeos and were known as cowgirls (http://www.thecowgirlmovie.com/; 9:30 "Juni Fisher Concert" after a film in which she performs, last year she won the Western Music Association Female Performer of the Year and the 2009 Western Music Association Album of the Year (http://www.junifisher.net/).

Info: 328-9274, 321-7690, pvcc@carbonpower.net,  http://www.wyomingfilmfestival.org/.  

Cost: $6 Friday, $10 Saturday, $5/8 seniors.

Joy Keown exhibit opens Aug. 27 in Rawlins

Joy Keown, "Close Encounter," watercolor, 16 x 24 inches, People's Choice Award, 2009 Wyoming Watercolor Society Show.

Laramie artist Joy Keown sent wyomingarts an invitation to an opening reception for her exhibit of paintings from a trip to Africa. Reception is on Friday, Aug. 27, 5-8 p.m., at the Rawlins Main Street Gallery at 4th and Cedar in Rawlins. The artist will be showing a Powerpoint presentation at 5:30 p.m., featuring digital images of the Africa trip.

Joy was invited to be the guest artist at the Rawlins Gallery following her presentation at the UW Art Museum/Wyoming Arts Council 20:20 event last fall.

FMI: 307-721-4922, mailto:joykeown@hotmail.com..

See her work at www.joykeown.com or http://joykeown.blogspot.com

Read an article about the show at http://rawlinstimes.com/articles/2010/08/25/news/doc4c748e6106e8d113691713.txt

King Coal Days in Hanna July 30-31

King Coal Days takes place during the last weekend of July in the historic Carbon County mining town of Hanna. For more information, please contact Jerry Leturgey at the Hanna Recreation Center at 307-325-9402.

While in town, visit the Hanna Basin Museum. Located in the old Community Hall building, it is listed on the National Registry of Historic Places. Originally constructed as a saloon in 1890, the hall has served many purposes in the Union Pacific Coal Company Town. Sharing the Front Street site is The Miner’s Cottage, a
restored exemplary Two Town House. The Hanna Basin Museum is an active participant in the Carbon Cemetery Restoration and Preservation Project. The Museum houses the Carbon archive, resources revealing life and death in the first coal camp (1868-1902) along the original line of the Union Pacific Railroad.

The museum is located at 502 Front Street and provides a wonderful historical background for the town of Hanna. You can also pick up information about lesser known area points of interest including the ghost town of Old Carbon at the Hanna museum.

Dan Hayward photo exhibit opens in Rawlins July 13

"Birdhead Rock: Vedauwoo" by Dan Hayward

The Rawlins Main Street Gallery, 4th and Cedar in downtown Rawlins, features Laramie photographer Dan Hayward July 13-Aug. 24. Reception will be held on Tuesday, July 13, 5-8 p.m., in conjunction with "Markets, Movies and More."

FMI: 307-324-8874.

Visit Dan Hayward's web site at http://www.haywardphoto.com/

Dan is on the WAC's artist roster. Bring him to your community for a presentation or workshop with an Arts Across Wyoming grant. Go to http://www.wyomingartscouncil.org/

Susan Gibson on stage in Centennial, Saratoga

Americana/folk musician Susan Gibson performs at 9 p.m. tonight (June 18) at the Friendly Store in Centennial and at "Music on the River" on Saturday, June 19, at 110 S.E. River St., Saratoga. Listen to some of Susan's songs at http://www.myspace.com/susangibson

John D. Nesbitt of Torrington wins two Spur Awards from WWA

This news from Western Writers of America came out last week but it's worth repeating because writers from Wyoming fared so well.

Here's the WWA press release:

Western Writers of America announced the winners and finalists of its annual literary contest Saturday, March 20, during the National Festival of the West in Scottsdale, Ariz.

John D. Nesbitt of Torrington (shown in photo dueing book signing at Cheyenne's City News) won two Spurs, claiming his second consecutive Spur for Best Original Mass Market Paperback Novel with “Stranger in Thunder Basin” (Leisure Books) and for Best Western Short Fiction Story, “At the End of the Orchard” ( Hardboiled Magazine).

Winners and finalists will be honored at the WWA Convention, June 22-26 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Knoxville, Tennessee.

The complete list of winners and finalists:

Long Novel -- Winner: Robert Flynn, “Echoes of Glory” (TCU Press). Finalists: Bob Cherry, “One-Eyed Jacks” (Cicada Wing); Mary E. Trimble, “Tenderfoot” (Treble Heart).

Short Novel -- Winner: Robert Olmstead, “Far Bright Star” (Algonquin). Finalists: Sandi Ault, “Wild Sorrow” (Berkley Prime Crime); Robert Greer, “Spoon” (Fulcrum).

Mass Market Paperback -- Winner: John D. Nesbitt, “Stranger in Thunder Basin” (Leisure). Finalists: Lyle Brandt, “Hanging Judge” (Penguin/Berkley); William Blinn, “A Cold Place in Hell” (Pinnacle/Kensington).

Nonfiction-Biography -- Winner: David C. Humphrey, “Peg Leg” (Texas State Historical Society). Finalists: Clyde Milner and Carol O’Connor, “As Big as the West: The Pioneer Life of Granville Stuart” (Oxford University Press); Polly Aird, “Mormon Convert/Mormon Defector: A Scottish Immigrant in the American West (Arthur H. Clark).

Nonfiction-Historical -- Winner: Douglas C. McChristian, “Fort Laramie” (Arthur H. Clark). Finalists: William B. Schillingberg, “Dodge City: The Early Years, 1872-1886” (Arthur H. Clark); Paul Horsted, Ernest Grafe and Jon Nelson, “Crossing the Plains with Custer (Golden Valley Press).

Nonfiction-Contemporary -- Winner: Charles H. Harris III and Louis R. Sadler, “The Secret War in El Paso: Mexican Revolutionary Intrigue, 1906-1920” (University of New Mexico Press). Finalists: Katherine Benton-Cohen, “Borderline Americans: Racial Division and Labor War in the Arizona Borderlands” (Harvard University Press); Timothy Egan, “The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire That Saved America” (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt).

Short Nonfiction -- Winner: Roger Di Silvestro, “Teddy’s Ride to Recovery” (Wild West). Finalists: Kerry Oman, “Rejoicing in the Beauties of Nature: The Image of the Western Landscape During the Fur Trade” (Great Plains Quarterly); Michael A. Amundson, “These Men Play Real Polo: An Elite Sport in the Cowboy State, 1890-1930” (Montana: The Magazine of Western History).

Short Fiction -- Winner: John D. Nesbitt, “At the End of the Orchard” (Hardboiled Magazine). Finalists: Matthew Mayo, “Half a Pig” (Express Westerns); J.J. Clark, “As Is” (High Desert Journal).

Juvenile Fiction -- Winner: Johnny D. Boggs, “Hard Winter” (Five Star). Finalists: Victoria McKernan, “The Devil’s Paintbox” (Knopf); Melodie Cuate, “Journey to Goliad” (Texas Tech University Press).

Juvenile Nonfiction -- Winner: Nancy Plain, “With One Sky Above Us” (Mondo Publishing). Finalists: Annica Benning, “Arizona: Nations and Arts” (Walnut Canyon Press); Charles C. Mann, “Before Columbus: The Americas of 1491” (Atheneum/Simon & Schuster).

Storyteller -- Winner: Sandra Day O'Connor (author) and Tom Pohrt (illustrator), “Finding Susie” (Random House); Finalists: Joe Gribnau (author) and Adrian Tans (illustrator), “Kick the Cowboy” (Pelican); Vaunda Micheaux Nelson (author) and R. Gregory Christie (illustrator), “Bad News for Outlaws: The Remarkable Life of Bass Reeves, Deputy U.S. Marshal” (Lerner Publishing).

Documentary -- Winner: Candy Moulton, “In Pursuit of a Dream” (Boston Productions Inc.). Finalists: Ric Burns, “We Shall Remain: Tecumseh’s Vision” (WGBH); Lyman Hafen, “Born to Ride” (Southern Utah University).

Poem -- Winner: Paul Zarzyski, “Bob Dylan Bronc Song” (Two Medicine). Finalists: David Memmott, “Where the Yellow Brick Road Turns West” (Wordcraft of Oregon); Larry D. Thomas, “Glass Mountains” (Southwestern American Literature).

Audiobook -- Winner: Gary McCarthy, “River Thunder” (Books in Motion). Finalists: Monty McCord, Mundy’s Law (Books in Motion); Phil Mills Jr., “Where a Good Wind Blows” (Books in Motion).

Song -- Winner: Wylie Gustafson and Paul Zarzyski, “Hang-n-Rattle: (Two Medicine Music/Bucking Horse Moon Music). Finalists: Steve Moulton, “Steamboat” (Butch Hause/The Ranger Station); Daron Little, “Pete French” (self-published).

"Ductogami" at Carbon Co. Library in Saratoga

Arts in the Wyoming Legislature this week

The Wyoming Legislature will be getting a double dose of homegrown arts this week.

On Thursday, March 4, Wyoming Poet Laureate David Romtvedt of Buffalo will read his work in each chamber. David is a member of the Wyoming Arts Council artists' roster. Find out more by going to http://wyoarts.state.wy.us/Apps/Roster/Results.asp.

Saratoga's Cora Wood, the youngest perfomer at this year's Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nevada, will perform at the Legislature on Friday, March 5. For more info about Cora, go to www.cowboypoetry.com/corawood.htm

In memoriam: Sally Jo Rogers

Former Wyoming Arts Council board members Sally Jo Rogers, 61, died Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2010.

She was born Nov. 7, 1948, in Topeka, Kan., the youngest of three daughters born to Merlin Charles “Babe” and Winifred Anne “Peg” Rogers. After brief transfers to Omaha and Denver, the family moved to Cheyenne in 1951 and then to Rawlins in 1955.

During her senior year in high school, she joined the international cast of Up With People and spent the year traveling with 150 young adults from multi-national and cultural backgrounds. The group’s goal was to make the world a better place by reaching across borders with gestures of peace, love, honesty, purity and unselfishness.

Ms. Rogers attended the University of Tulsa and University of Wyoming and graduated from California State University Long Beach.

She briefly taught school and had a long career selling real estate in Jackson Hole. She was the executive director of the Silver Buffalo Club, major gifts manager at Wyoming Public Radio in Laramie and was the vice president of Business Development at Rocky Mountain Bank for the last four years.

Sally was appointed to the Wyoming Arts Council Board of Directors. She served as president of the Teton County Republican Women, secretary of the Albany County Republican Central Committee and vice president of the University of Wyoming Alumni Association. She was a member of the Off Square Theatre Board, St. John’s Hospital Auxiliary, Rotary Club of Jackson Hole and charter member of the Presbyterian Church of Jackson Hole.

She was honored by the Rotary Club as the November 2009 Citizen of the Month.

Her interests included making friends all over the world, music, her friends and family, dancing, Wyoming and being a University of Wyoming Cowboys fan.

She is survived by her son, Chris Pierce; sister, Nancy and husband Larry Harris; niece, Valorie and husband Butch Smith; nephew, Sean Harris and companion Tamar Kummel; great-nieces, Annie and husband Dylan Cooper and Erin Brown; sister, Mary Kay Carr; cousins, Mary Ann Hille, Sid Moyers and wife Lynn, Leslie and husband Mark Hamrick, Sheila and husband CJ Laquerica, Maggie and husband Kajeer Yar and Shirley Moyers; and her best friend, Donn Dorsett.

A memorial service will be conducted at 2 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2010, at the St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Rawlins. A reception will follow immediately at Rawlins Elks Lodge No. 609.

Lori Van Pelt in new anthology w/update

Saratoga's Lori Van Pelt joins Sue Grafton, Phillip Lopate, Kim Stafford, John Dufresne and Dorianne Laux as contributors to the new book "Writers and Their Notebooks." Lori's essay in the book is entitled "The Icebreaker." She won a 2009 poetry fellowship from the Wyoming Arts Council.

The book is being published Jan. 26 by the University of South Carolina Press. Hardcovers are $49.95 and softcovers, $24.95. Order from yoru favorite bookseller.

Lynn Z. Bloom, author of "The Seven Deadly Virtues" and "Other Lively Virtues," said this: “Writers and Their Notebooks is a lively collection of informal writings about journal-keeping. Its intimate glimpses of writing processes, travel, survival–and life itself–will give would-be writers a jump-start."

FMI: http://www.sc.edu/uscpress/

UPDATE 1/25/10: wyomingarts forgot to mention that Diana Raab is the editor and compiler of this collection. She also wrote the introduction. Diana will be panel moderator for “Writing Biographies: Making Someone Else’s Story Your Own” April 8 at the AWP Conference at the Denver Convention Center. Panelists include some of the contributors to "Writers and Their Notebooks." Get more info on Diana at http://www.dianaraab.com/

Updated air times for "Cowboys & Outlaws"

Saratoga's Lori Van Pelt, 2010 WAC creative writing fellowship recipient, sends this update:

Just wanted to let you know that the History Channel's "Cowboys & Outlaws" series will be broadcast on Saturday, Dec. 5 in the 9 p.m. to 12 a.m. EST time slot. Our episode, "Range War," wherein I discuss Cattle Kate, etc., will be in the 11 p.m. to midnight (EST) slot. Check at www.history.com for listings/updates.

The other episodes will be "Lonesome Dove," and "Frontier Hitman" (10 p.m. EST), which focuses on Tom Horn. Some of the footage for the Horn episode was also filmed here at the Walck Ranch.