Mike Corso recreates the past

Nice article in Sunday's Wyoming Tribune-Eagle about Mike Corso, our colleague in the Department of State Parks and Cultural Resources. By day, Mike manages all of our web sites and is building the WAC's new Online Artists Image Registry. In his free time, he dons the guises of Doc Holliday, Bat Masterson or Wyoming Territorial Governor John A. Campbell. Mike will play the part of Gov. Campbell today from 1-4 p.m. at the Wyoming History celebration at the Historic Governor's Mansion in Cheyenne. Read the article: Becoming part of the past - Wyoming Tribune Eagle Online

AIR brochures winging their way to you

New Artist Image Registry brochures are in the mail!

The AIR is an online database of Wyoming visual artists, a program of the Wyoming Arts Council.

There is no registration. All WY artists are eligible. Just fill out and sign the AIR form and return it to the WAC with a CD of up to five images of your work.

AIR is in the testing stage but will go public later this summer. Check out the test site at http://wyomingartscouncil.org/artists/airsearch.aspx

Attention artists and artisans -- check out the Wyoming Made program

You may have seen Annie Wood of the Wyoming Business Council on Channel 5's early morning show. She promotes the Wyoming Made program. Her office annually issues a spiffy full-color Wyoming Made Product Catalog. In it, you'll find well-known homegrown companies such as Chugwater Chili Corp., Coal Creek Coffee in Laramie, High Plains Press in Glendo and Roy Pilcher's Bears and Company in Devils Tower. There are makers of soy candles, bison jerky, natural soaps, furniture, clothes, etc. Many of those featured in the catalog are artists and artisans.

Here's some background info:

The Wyoming First Program is a way to identify and showcase great products made in Wyoming. All of the companies call Wyoming home and are proud of the quality they represent. All of the Wyoming First products are unique and made in Wyoming.

The Wyoming First Program is designed to assist Wyoming companies with the identification and promotion of their Wyoming Made products or substantially enhanced products and services. Membership allows Wyoming First participants to use the familiar "Bucking Horse and Rider" design stickers and hang tags on their products.

Wyoming First is a program of the Wyoming Business Council. The opportunities for Wyoming First Members include: the ability to use the Wyoming First Bucking Horse and Rider stickers and tags, notification of marketing opportunities, listing on this Web site, one free roll of 250 stickers with the option to purchase additional rolls, eligibility for Trade Show Incentive Grants, Wyoming First posters, and more!

FMI: Annie Wood, Senior Marketing & Attraction Specialist, Wyoming First Program Manager, Wyoming Business Council. Direct: 307.777.2844  Cell: 307.275.5298

On the web at http://www.wyomingbusiness.org/ or http://www.wyomingfirst.org/

Wyomingarts encourages the state's artists to contact Annie about becoming a member. There is a small fee but you get a lot for your money.

Wyomingarts met with Annie from Wyoming First and Anne Dramko of the Arts Alliance of Cheyenne on Wednesday morning. We talked about ways we can work together to promote creative work by Wyoming residents. The Arts Alliance of Cheyenne works with arts organizations and individual artists in Laramie County. The Arts Alliance's user-friendly web site features a calendar of events and a directory of links to local arts and cultural resources.

Anne is interested in working with the Wyoming Arts Council in promoting artists. The WAC is in the process of putting its Artist Image Registry on its web site. It's been a long process but we at the WAC plan to have the AIR up and running in June. It will be a database searchable by artist's name, medium(s) and location. The AIR will show up to five images from each visual artist along with web site and/or blog addresses and other contact info. This will be one more way that the WAC supports the state's individual artists.

Anne at the Arts Alliance of Cheyenne already is planning to link up with the AIR. Down the road, the WAC will encourage its arts partners around Wyoming to provide links to AIR and encourage their local artists to register with it.

Both the WAC and Wyoming First have a statewide mission but both know that arts happen at the local level. More and more communities are forging local partnerships among artists, arts organizations, arts councils, retail businesses, farmers' markets, local governments, civic and church organizations, etc. The WAC even has Community Arts Partnership (CAP) grants that provides funding and technical assistance for these community-based arts initiatives. Get more info from the WAC's Randy Oestman at 307-777-7742.

Wyomingarts will keep you posted on the progress of the AIR project. Meanwhile, we'll see you at your local arts events this summer.

Kennedy Center's ARTSEDGE offers arts education resources for educators and families

ARTSEDGE is the online arts education by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Since the Kennedy Center’s opening in 1971, schoolchildren, parents and educators have turned to us as the nation’s premiere cultural resource.  Embracing this responsibility, the Kennedy Center instituted ARTSEDGE in 1996 as its educational media arm, reaching out to schools, communities, individuals and families with printed materials, classroom support and Internet technologies.

The full impact of ARTSEDGE might be measured by considering that of the eleven million people who participate in Kennedy Center Education Department programming each year, four million do it through ARTSEDGE resources.

The site is visited each day by more than can be held if every theater in the Kennedy Center complex was filled to capacity.

In an education landscape that is evolving with new ideas of how, when and where we teach, learn and create, the ARTSEDGE team has revisited every part of what— and how—we offer resources.

We are expanding our content to serve a new definition of educators, encompassing classroom and out-of-school teachers, with the single-minded goal to support arts-based student learning, whether in the classroom or an informal learning environment, like the home.

We’re focused on ways to support innovative teaching with the arts, and meet changing trends in education and to accommodate the ever-evolving impact of technology in our lives. Our collection of free digital resources—including lesson plans, audio stories, video clips, and interactive online modules—has been streamlined for easier browsing and upgraded to leverage best practices in educational media and multimedia-supported instruction.

“The redesign is a wonderful extension of the original ARTSEDGE mission, set over 15 years ago,” says Darrell M. Ayers, Vice President for Education at the Kennedy Center, “to connect people to people, to provide arts-centered learning experiences, and to lead the way in digitally-supported arts learning for all citizens.”

Cheyenne artist donates to Handmade for Japan for earthquake and tsunami relief

Cheyenne artist and teacher Connie Norman sends this:

I’ve been asked to donate to Handmade for Japan at http://connienorman.com/blog/  I have more  info on my blog with images. It is a international fund raiser. The sale of donated items will go on sale March 18 – 20, on eBay. 

I will send you the link when the site is live, but in the meantime items up for auction can be seen at

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/handmadeforjapanauction?sk=wall .

This is their Facebook site announcing updates and donated artworks. 

I copied and pasted Handmade For Japan’s mission statement below. 

Handmade For Japan

eBay auction March 18-20 to help the victims of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami

Description Mission:
Handmade For Japan's mission is to raise money through an online auction on March 18-20 for relief efforts to assist the victims of Japan's catastrophic earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear emissions.

Handmade for Japan is an online auction of unique, handmade art donated by concerned, invited artists. One hundred percent of all net proceeds collected via the auction will be donated to the relief efforts in Japan.

Because of the urgency of the situation, the auction will begin on eBay on Friday, March 18th and end on Sunday, March 20th. The auction items will be listed under the "Handmade for Japan" seller ID.

Previews of the auction items will be available in English and Japanese through Facebook pages and Twitter updates. All inquiries in either language should be sent to handmadeforjapan@gmail.com.

Who We Are:
Handmade For Japan was borne out of concern for Japan's residents by Japanese-American ceramic artist Ayumi Horie http://www.ayumihorie.com. She, Ai Kanazawa Cheung, and Kathryn Pombriant Manzella have mobilized to solicit, promote, and auction handmade pieces of art generously donated by talented artists throughout North America and Japan.

FMI: http://www.connienorman.com

Online article: "How to Publish Your Own Kindle Book: Part I"

This looks like an easy tutorial for those writers in Wyoming interested in publishing a Kindle book. Go to How to Publish Your Own Kindle Book: Part I

New Arts Alliance web site offers "one-stop shopping" for arts happenings in Cheyenne

News from the Arts Alliance of Cheyenne:

Are you trying to find out what Cultural, Fine Arts, and Performing Arts events are happening in Cheyenne? 

The Arts Alliance of Cheyenne web site is one-stop shopping for all the music, theater, visual arts, museums, festivals, photography, film, folk, Western, Native American, and Hispanic cultural events in Cheyenne.   

Check out the new web site at http://artsalliancecheyenne.com/ 

A huge thank you to following businesses for donating their time to make this web site a reality:
Artiste Media:   Website design and development
Warehouse Twenty One:  logo design
Media Solutions:  Facebook and Twitter

Take a 3-D trip to "Wyoming Entrepreneur Island"

This info comes from Mark Atkinson, Regional Director of the Wyoming Entrepreneur Small Business Development Center in Rock Springs:

I am teaching two small business classes (seminars) in the 3-D virtual world, Second Life, at our facility called Wyoming Entrepreneur Island.

The first one will take place February 10th at 12 noon. This is a business startup class for starting a small business in Real Life, although the basic principles apply to a business in any environment.

If attending and you live in Wyoming, please register for the free event at http://www.wysbdc.org/workshop.aspx?ekey=10310001.

The second class will take place on March 3rd at 12 noon. This is an eCommerce class that teaches entrepreneurs how to sell online with a website.

If attending and you live in Wyoming, please register for the free event at http://www.wysbdc.org/workshop.aspx?ekey=10310002.

All are welcome to attend whether living in Wyoming or not.

FMI: (307) 352-6894 or (800) 348-5205

B.J. Buckley poems in HoboEye journal

Cheyenne native and Wyoming Arts Council creative writing fellowship recipient B.J,. Buckley has three poems featured on the online journal HoboEye. B.J. now lives in Lolo, Mont.


Read "Bitter," "Shakespeare's Monkeys" and "Cold Prairie" here.


Excerpt from "Bitter:"


Call it snow
but this dust from the moon’s basement
coats the windows of the
sky
until nobody can see out.

Scrooge's trial makes headlines in Sheridan

FMI: http://www.thesheridanpress.com/index.htm

Join today's conversation with The President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities

Today's Tuesday Talk from the White House features The President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities.

On the White House blog, Kori Schulman has the following info:

Join us for two talks on Tuesday, October 19:

•1:30 p.m. EDT: Talk with Austan Goolsbee, Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, on the economy.

•2:15 p.m. EDT: In celebration of National Arts and Humanities Month, talk about the arts and arts and humanities education with co-chairs and members of the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities (PCAH), including:

Chuck Close, Member and visual artist
Margo Lion, Co-Chair
George Stevens, Jr., Co-Chair
Damian Woetzel, Member and ballet dancer

Here's how you can participate:

•Ask your questions in advance on Facebook
•Watch the chat through www.WhiteHouse.gov/live
•Join the discussion live through the White House Facebook application

Link up by going to http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/10/15/two-tuesday-talks-austan-goolsbee-economy-president-s-committee-arts-and-humanities

Vote early for Hole Dance Films' "An After-Dinner Drink"

Kate Kosharek sends this:

Hole Dance Films (the production company that I co-direct here in Jackson) just recently finished its latest short film entitled, “An After Dinner Drink,” shot at local restaurant Rendezvous Bistro.

The true version is a whopping 7 minutes and I can't wait for you all to see it. BUT we have cut it down to 5 minutes in order to enter this Panasonic contest called Shoot it Share it.

Will you please help us win a camera by voting for the film?

We are so appreciative! Follow this link and let us know how you like it… most importantly, give it 5 stars. Go to http://www.shootitshareit.com/videos/viewvideo/329/comedy/an-after-dinner-drink.html

Look for it in the comedy category. Panasonic didn't make a dance film category... maybe next year...

We'll let you know when & where you can see the REAL version soonest!

Thank you so much for your vote!

FMI: http://www.holedancefilms.wordpress.com/

Brooks Reeves: "Why I Love Interactive Fiction"

At Wyomingarts, we know Brooks Reeves as a theatre guy. He's written plays and melodramas for the Cheyenne Little Theatre Players. One of his plays, "The City that Cried Wolf," was produced for the 59E59 Theaters in Manhattan and received a favorable review in the New York Times. He's acted in productions in Wyoming and Colorado, currently involved in a reader's theatre put on the Bas Bleu Theatre in Fort Collins.

He also participates in interactive fiction.

What is interactive fiction?

Since Wyomingarts bloggers know next to nothing about it (except what we read online), we shall let Brooks the blogger tell it at The Quiet Sunday: Why I Love Interactive Fiction

Writers "speed-date" Wyoming librarians, talk e-books

The Wyoming Library Association meets this week. During one of yesterday's sessions, an assortment of Wyoming writers "speed-dated" librarians, talking about their favorite writerly topics. Writers included Cat Urbigkit, Pinedale; John Nesbitt, Torrington; Mike and Kathy Gear, Thermopolis; and Mary Gillgannon, Cheyenne. Mary is writer and librarian and sees these topics from several angles. Here's the beginning of a post on her blog:

I spent last evening “speed dating” with Wyoming librarians. Six other authors and I went around the room and spoke to small groups of librarians about writing and publishing.  Since I don’t have a current book to promote, I mostly discussed e-books and changes in the market.

Read the entire post at http://marygillgannon.blogspot.com/2010/09/e-books-and-future-of-publishing.html

Julianne Couch essay in New West

Laramie's Julianne Couch teaches at UW, works as a free-lance writer, is a member of the Wyoming Arts Council artist roster and is a Wyoming Writers, Inc., board member planning the group's 2011 conference. She's also working on a new book. Whew! She notifies wyomingarts that she just published her first "official" piece in New West. Here are the opening paragraphs:

Shaded under a cluster of evergreens in the Medicine Bow National Forest, I watch the family of our friend Mark deliver part of him back to Wyoming from where he lived in Missouri, a few months after his death.

About 50 friends and family gathered to witness Mark’s wife and daughter scatter his ashes into a swift and shallow mountain stream. His dust the color of bentonite disappears like fiber powder into the waters of Douglas Creek. Part of Mark is bound for the Platte River, then will leave Wyoming for the Missouri River, then the Mississippi, then finally, the Gulf of Mexico and the ocean beyond.

You will want to read the entire essay at http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/a_western_sense_of_place_knowing_who_we_are_by_where_we_are/C39/L39/

UW Art Museum on YouTube: "Dufy on Design"

From the UW Art Museum blog:

The University of Wyoming Art Museum has added a new video to its uwartmuseum channel on YouTube. Dufy on Design is a walk through the exhibition, Dufy on Design: The Fabric Designs of Raoul Dufy.

Raoul Dufy (French, 1877-1953) has been recognized for his work as a Fauvist painter, known for bold color and strong lines. Dufy was also one of the great innovators of twentieth century textile design, an aspect of his work that has been relatively unknown. Dufy by Design: The Fabric Designs of Raoul Dufy, at the University of Wyoming Art Museum through August 21, 2010, explores Dufy’s collaborations with Parisian couture fashion designer Paul Poiret and the leading French silk manufacturer Bianchini-Frier. 100 original silk fabrics and fabric designs and thirteen dresses designed by Mongi Guibane and Christian LaCroix using Dufy fabric designs are included in the exhibit.

View the video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UWE_JfmcRc

FMI: http://uwartmuseum.blogspot.com/

Wyoming's Mark Spragg: "I write and I rewrite. I've found it never gets easy"

Lander's Susan Gray Gose profiles Cody author and screenwriter Mark Spragg in the latest issue of WyoFile.

Here's the opening paragraphs:

Casper— A middle-aged carpenter in Wind City Books peppers Wyoming novelist Mark Spragg with questions about writing. How do you get started? How do you keep at it? How do you get published?

Spragg, who is in the small bookstore signing copies of his new novel, Bone Fire, tugs at his gray-streaked red beard and answers the man honestly: “I’m starting my fifth book now, and you’d think I have a whole box of tools to draw from, but I don’t. I write and rewrite and rewrite. I’ve found it never gets easy.”

The carpenter frowns.

But Spragg, who was put to work on his family’s dude ranch at age 11 and paid $1 a day, is not one to say there’s an easy route to publishing success.

Read the rest at http://wyofile.com/2010/06/mark-spragg-the-useful-life/

Call for proposals: Wyoming Writers, Inc.

Four new Wyoming Writers, Inc., board members were elected at last week's 36th annual conference in Cody. They are Cindy Bower, Casper; Carol Deering, Riverton; Carol Eckhardt, Chugwater; and John D. Nesbitt, Torrington.

One of the new board's immediate tasks is to find people to do various tasks, such as bookkeeping, webmastering, and newsletter editing. WWInc is seeking proposals in which respondents indicate the tasks they could do for WWInc and what you’d like in return.

For more information, including detailed descriptions of these tasks, please contact board past president Joe Megeath at jmegeath@q.com. Proposals and supporting resumes are due by June 30. Winning proposals will be announced by July 31.

For more about WWInc, Wyoming's statewide writers' group, go to www.wyowriters.org

View great vids about "Wyoming Folks" on Facebook fan site

Watch Wyoming Folks: Are Afraid in Travel & Culture  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Dean Peterson, the talented videographer for the Department of Wyoming State Parks and Cultural Resources, let us know today about the new "Wyoming Folks" fan page on Facebook.

The page has links to the videos shot and produced by Dean. They include "Wyoming Folks: Are Afraid" (scary stuff) and "Wyoming Folks: Don't Hibernate" (The Great Outdoors) and other neat topics.

To become a fan, go to http://www.facebook.com/pages/Wyoming-Folks/308737917493?ref=ts

Call for entries: High Country News

Do you have an image that reflects a quintessential example of the West's intrinsic natural beauty?

Then the High Country News wants your photo.

Submission deadline is March 1, 2010. Viewers to the HCN web site then vote for their favorite images by March 15. Winners will be featured on he web site and will be considered for the print version of HCN.

FMI: http://www.hcn.org/40years/contests/the-natural-west