Blue Star Museums in Wyoming and across the U.S. offer free summer admission to military families

On the steps of the San Diego Museum of Art, from L-R: Rocco Landesman, Lt. Gen. R.G. Milstead, Kathy Roth-Douquet, and San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders. Photo by Sandy Huffaker

On May 23, NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman and Blue Star Families Chairman Kathy Roth-Douquet announced the second annual launch of Blue Star Museums, a partnership with more than 1,300 museums across America to offer free admission to all active duty military personnel and their families from Memorial Day through Labor Day 2011. Leadership support has been provided by MetLife Foundation through Blue Star Families. See the complete list of participating museums. Wyoming museums are:

Campbell County Rockpile Museum

Gillette

Fort Caspar Museum
Casper

Grand Encampment Museum
Encampment

Hot Springs County Museum & Cultural Center
Thermopolis

National Bighorn Sheep Center

National Bighorn Sheep Center
Dubois

National Museum of Wildlife Art
Jackson

Wyoming State Museum
Cheyenne

The launch of the program was announced today at a press event on the steps of the San Diego Museum of Art hosted by San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders. Mr. Landesman and Ms. Roth-Douquet were joined by Lt Gen R.E. Milstead, Jr., Deputy Commandant, Manpower and Reserve Affairs, United States Marine Corps; Vicki Reed, Chair of the San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture; and representatives from San Diego's more than 150,000 active duty military personnel and the 17 San Diego museums participating in Blue Star Museums.

Read full press release at http://arts.endow.gov/news/news11/BSM-Announcement.html

Fractured Atlas visits the Wyoming Arts Council

Adam J. Natale from Fractured Atlas in NYC dropped by the Wyoming Arts Council this week. After a weekend on the road working with arts groups in Denver and Fort Collins, he decided to make the short drive up I-25 to Cheyenne.

As is the case with many artists, Adam found himself working in arts administration. After a five-year stint at the National Endowment for the Arts, he joined Fractured Atlas. It's a non-profit organization that helps artists and arts organizations with fund-raising, insurance, advocacy, technology and education, among other services.

It keeps overhead low with a heavy Internet presence. But Adam said that it's expanding its presence outside of the East Coast arts corridor, working with South Arts in Atlanta, the Utah Arts Council in Salt Lake City and Colorado Creative Industries in Denver. Organization staffers also work with individual artists all over the U.S.

Fractured Atlas provides helpful "pocket guides," such as "Insurance for Film Makers" and "Insurance for Dancers and Dance Companies." The user-friendly 12-page guides address insurance issues relating to liability, health care, disability, etc.

Wyomingarts thanked Adam for dropping by, and invited him to return to Wyoming for a presentation about his organization.

Meanwhile, check out the org's web site at www.fracturedatlas.org

Washakie Museum in Worland receives $10,000 grant from National Endowment for the Arts

Washakie Museum and Cultural Center. Photo by David Huber

The Washakie Museum and Cultural Center in Worland is the recipient of a $10,000 Access to Artistic Excellence grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

According to a May 17 NEA press release, the grant will “support a series of visual and performing arts presentations. Project activities will include traveling exhibitions of Norman Rockwell's Saturday Evening Post covers; American Legacy: Our National Parks, On Location with the Plein-Air Painters of America; Montana Repertory Theatre's performance of Doubt; and a music performance by mezzo-soprano Lindsay Craft with the Museum Singers Choir.”

FMI: www.washakiemuseum.org

Watch Wyoming's Sara Ellingrod in live webcast today for Poetry Out Loud semifinals in D.C.

Sara Ellingrod (center) receives her first-place award for the Wyoming Poetry Out Loud competition  March 1 from Secretary of State Max Maxfield (left) and Wyoming Poet Laureate David Romtvedt.

Sara Ellingrod, a ninth-grader at Arvada-Clearmont High School in Sheridan County, will be representing Wyoming in the national finals today in Washington, D.C. She will be competing against 16 other state champions from the Western states from 5-8 p.m. (EDT) at the historic Lincoln Theater.

Ellingrod will be one of the youngest competitors. She also comes from one of the smallest schools -- there are 23 students in grades 9-12 at Arvada-Clearmont. This is the second straight year that a student from her school has represented Wyoming at the national finals.

Poetry Out Loud is co-sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation. In Wyoming, the Poetry Out Loud program is administered by the Wyoming Arts Council. For more info, contact Linda Coatney at the WAC at 307-777-7742.

You can watch the semifinals and finals live by clicking here

FMI: http://nea.gov/national/poetry/index.html#

NEA Report: Declines in childhood arts education will have impact on the future of arts participation

The following conclusions were in National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Research Report #52, "Arts Education in America: What the Declines Mean for Arts Participation," by Nick Rabkin and E.C. Hedberg, NORC at the University of Chicago. For full report, go to http://www.arts.gov/research/2008-SPPA-ArtsLearning.pdf:

Long-term declines in childhood arts education have serious implications for the future of arts participation in America. 

•  The relationship between arts education and adults’ rates of arts participation has been consistently strong throughout the survey’s history.

•  By 2008, only half of all 18-yearolds (49.5 percent, or 2.6 million) had received any arts education in childhood—a decline of 23 percent since 1982.

•  According to long-term patterns of respondent recall, a “turning point” in national access to arts education likely occurred in the mid-1970s and early 1980s.  It seems reasonable to infer that the national declines in arts education rates, reported from 1982 to 2008, resulted partly from cuts in school based arts instruction.

•  From 1982 to 2008, Hispanics and African Americans accounted for a highly disproportionate share of all adults who reported not having received arts education in childhood.

Here’s an April 9, 2010, quote from Arne Duncan, U.S. Department of Education Secretary:

“In America, we do not reserve arts education for privileged students or the elite. Children from disadvantaged backgrounds, students who are English language learners, and students with disabilities often do not get the enrichment experiences of affluent students anywhere except at school. President Obama recalls that when he was a child ‘you always had an art teacher and a music teacher. Even in the poorest school districts everyone had access to music and other arts.’ Today, sadly, that is no longer the case.”

"Noises Off" makes some noise in Cheyenne starting April 8

"Noises Off," a play by Michael Frayn known as one of the funniest plays of the late 20th century, will open on Friday, April 8, 7:30 p.m., at the Mary Godfrey Theatre in Cheyenne. Performance dates are April 8-10 and 15-17. Director of this Cheyenne Little Theatre Players production is Jim Rolf. Wyomingingarts staffers will be looking for our SPCR colleague Mike Corso in the role of Tim Allgood.

A short description of the play:

This classic backstage farce, complete with slamming doors, sexual dalliances, confusions, and errant plates of sardines, follows a hapless acting troupe who prove that whatever can go wrong -- on stage or off -- during the course of a disastrous provincial tour, will.

Order your tickets online at www.cheyennelittletheatre.org

WAC Notes: The Cheyenne Little Theatre Players received an operating support grant from the Wyoming Arts Council to fund operations during the FY 11 fiscal year (July 1, 2010-June 30, 2011. WAC funding is provided by the Wyoming State Legislature and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Carolina Chocolate Drops and folk artists featured on National Endowment for the Arts blog

This comes to us from Victoria Hutter at the National Endowment for the Arts, the Wyoming Arts Council's federal partner:

In case you haven't had a chance to visit the NEA web site recently, I want to make sure you're aware of some recent podcasts and artist interviews that celebrate the folk and traditional arts. These items appear on the NEA Art Works blog:

*         Audio interview with the Carolina Chocolate Drops (available as a downloadable podcast)

*         Audio interview with NEA National Heritage Fellow and master basket weaver Mary Jackson (also available as a downloadable podcast)

*         Q & A with another master basket weaver, Jeremy Frey of Maine

*         Q & A with the director of the Anacostia Community Museum about their exhibition, "Word, Song, Shout"  about the Gullah culture

  

In addition, an article in the NEA magazine, NEA Arts explores California's Tamejavi festival at http://arts.gov/about/NEARTS/

Register now for the Wyoming Writers, Inc., conference June 3-5 in Casper

Don't miss the 2011 Wyoming Writers, Inc., Conference

Ramada Plaza Riverside Hotel and Conference Center along the North Platte River in Casper, June 3–5

Presentations, Workshops, Agent Pitch Sessions, Contest, Open Mic!

Presenters:
Author Lucia St. Clair Robson
Poet Chris Fischbach
Peter McCarthy, Vice President of Marketing at Random House
Editor Katie Dublinski, Graywolf Press
Agent Peter Steinberg, Steinberg Agency

FMI: http://www.wyowriters.org

Conference: bowercorner@juno.com
Contest: phdugan@silverstar.com

Supported in part by a grant from the Wyoming Arts Council, through funding from the Wyoming State Legislature and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Sara Ellingrod of Arvada-Clearmont H.S. named winner of Wyoming Poetry Out Loud competition

Sara Ellingrod, a ninth-grader at Arvada-Clearmont High School in Sheridan County, is this year’s winner of the Wyoming Poetry Out Loud finals held in Cheyenne on Monday.

As this year’s champion, Ellingrod receives an expenses-paid trip with a chaperone to Washington, D.C., where she will represent Wyoming at the Poetry Out Loud finals, April 28-29.

Ellingrod receives $200 and a poetry anthology. She also earned a $500 stipend for the purchase of poetry books for her school.

This is the second straight year that a student from Arvada-Clearmont High School has won the Wyoming competition. There are 23 students in grades 9-12.

Additionally, for the first time, two runner-up awards were presented. Receiving runner-up honors are Tyler Clementson of Shoshoni High School and Jon Adams of Cheyenne East High School.

Both Clementson and Adams receive $100 and a poetry anthology. Also, their schools receive a $200 stipend to buy poetry books.

The awards were presented Tuesday in a State Capitol Rotunda ceremony by Secretary of State Max Maxfield and Wyoming Poet Laureate David Romtvedt from Buffalo.

In addition to Ellingrod, Clementson and Adams, ten other students – the most ever for the competition – participated. Those students are Eddie Collins, Dubois; Alicia Juanita Sanchez, Ft. Washakie School; Pheonix Hardin, Whiting High School in Laramie; Bryce McKenzie, Buffalo High School; Hannah Hout, Star Lane Center in Casper; Marco Dominguez, Kaycee High School; Alyssa Prado, Cheyenne South High School; Raena Bush, Sundance High School; Maddison Nielson, Jackson High School; and Izzy Jack, Cheyenne Central High School.

Judges for this year’s competition were Maxfield; Sophia Puccini, poet and dancer from Saratoga; and special guest judge, Detroit writer and poet M.L. Liebler.

The Wyoming Arts Council invites high school students involved in creative writing, drama and speech and debate to encourage their teachers to sign up for next year’s Poetry Out Loud program. The WAC will send out registration information in September.

FMI: Linda Coatney at the WAC at 307-777-6393 or lcoatn@state.wy.us. For info Poetry Out Loud please visit www.poetryoutloud.org/ .

Americans for the Arts: U.S. House makes deeper cuts in Arts Endowment budget

From Americans for the Arts:

U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES MAKES DEEPER CUT TO NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS 

The U.S. House of Representatives recently passed H.R.1, a appropriations bill written to target at least $100 billion in domestic spending cuts in the current fiscal year. This legislation includes a $43 million reduction for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA)—from the current $167.5 million to $124 million. This represents the deepest cut to the NEA in 16 years. Representatives narrowly passed an amendment to the originally proposed appropriations bill on Thursday by a vote of 217-209, which increased an already dramatic cut to total the $43 million reduction. The Senate, which may be more supportive of the NEA, will begin its consideration of the appropriations bill starting February 28, following a week-long recess in observance of Presidents Day. For more information about the federal budget process, please contact Associate Director of Federal Affairs Gladstone Payton at gpayton@artsusa.org.

Liebler and Lewis perform in Cheyenne

Two Generations of Beats & Hippies from Motown to California

Barnes & Noble award winner and internationally known Detroit poet M.L. Liebler and Moby Grape legend Peter Lewis will perform in Cheyenne on Saturday, February 26 at the Atlas Theatre in downtown Cheyenne. Showtime is 7:30 pm. Tickets are $5 for general admission, $3 for students, seniors (that includes old beats and hippies) and military.

In addition, they will facilitate a workshop on Sunday, February 27 at the Laramie County Public Library from 2-4 pm. This event is free and open to the public.

These performances are being held in conjunction with Wyoming's Poetry Out Loud state competiton and awards ceremony. M.L. will also be a judge for the Wyoming Poetry Out Loud state competition which takes place on February 28 at the Atlas Theatre, beginning at 7 pm. Wyoming's own poet laureate David Romtvedt will also recite poetry and talk to the competitors before the competition kicks off. Other judges for the evening are Saratoga poet Sophia Puccini and Secretary of State Max Maxfield. Watch as high school students compete in three rounds of poetry recitation. Two outstanding Wyoming students will be selected as winner and runner-up. The winner receives an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington, D.C. to compete against 53 other state and territory winners for the grand prize of a $20,000 college scholarship. Other scholarship monies are awarded to the second and third place and district national winners.

Peter Lewis is undoubtedly one of the most underrated musicians and contributors to come out of the 1960's rock & roll generation. Lewis was born into a show business family, and is the son of a renowned actress, the late Loretta Young.


Along with Poet Laureate, writer, performer & teacher M.L. Liebler from Detroit, these two artists take their audience on a historical, cultural & literary journey from poetry to blues, folk and rock up to original contemporary compositions of both poetry and music. Together they blend words & music with beautiful harmonies, memories and the art of spoken word.

Peter Lewis was a founding member of Moby Grape - one of the most influential and sought after American bands of its time. Moby Grape released their debut album in 1967, and it is still to this day one of the most revered rock albums of all times according to Rolling Stone magazine and other cultural critics. The band's energetic and hyper-exciting combination of folk, blues, country was a unique sound to rock & roll. It was a new kind of American roots music but the band's career never took off the way it should have, due to personal tragedies. It took Peter Lewis a long time to shake off the troubled legacy of his band and begin to make his mark again with a stellar singer songwriting recording career. Don’t miss out on the chance to see this living legend perform.

M.L. Liebler has written several books of poetry including the 2001 Finalist for The Paterson Poetry Prize and winner of The 2001 Wayne State University Board of Governors’ Award. He has read and worked with Ed Sanders, Diane di Prima, Michael McClure, Allen Ginsberg, Ken Kesey, Timothy Leary & William Burroughs. In addition, Liebler has recorded his poetry with such musical legends as Al Kooper, Country Joe McDonald, Jorma Kaukonen, Mike Watt, The Magic Poetry Band and many others.

To learn more about Moby Grape & Peter Lewis:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17498799

Check out M.L. Liebler - http://www.mlliebler.com/

NEA awards $26.68 million in grants

National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Rocco Landesman today announced the latest round of NEA funding totaling $26.68 million awarded through 1,057 grants to nonprofit national, regional, state, and local organizations nationwide. This also includes the NEA's most recent class of Creative Writing Fellows.

Chairman Landesman said, "I continue to be impressed with the creative, innovative, and excellent projects brought forward by arts organizations across the country. Our grantees are not only furthering their art forms but also enhancing their neighborhoods by making them more vibrant, livable, and fun."

This round of funding is provided through three grant programs: Access to Artistic Excellence, Challenge America Fast Track, and Creative Writing Fellowships.

Access to Artistic Excellence grants support the creation and presentation of work in the disciplines of artist communities, dance, design, folk and traditional arts, literature, media arts, museums, music, musical theater, opera, presenting, theater, and visual arts. Projects include commissions, residencies, workshops, performances, exhibitions, publications, festivals, and professional development programs. This round of funding also includes grants to local arts agencies for multidisciplinary projects, such as community-wide festivals and public art commissions. Through the Access to Artistic Excellence category, 843 grants out of 1,524 eligible applications are recommended for funding for a total of $23.75 million. Please see the complete listing of projects at http://www.arts.gov/grants/recent/11grants/11AAE.php?CAT=Access&DIS=Artists%20Communities

Challenge America Fast Track grants offer support primarily to smaller and mid-sized organizations for projects that extend the reach of the arts to underserved populations whose opportunities to experience the arts are limited by geography, demographics, economics, or disability. In this funding round, 170 projects are recommended for support of $10,000 each for a total of $1.7 million. Please see the complete listing of projects at http://www.arts.gov/grants/recent/11grants/11cham.php?disc=Challenge%20America  

Creative Writing Fellowships encourage the production of new works of literature by allowing writers the time and means to write. The fellowships alternate annually between poetry and prose with poetry supported in this round. Panelists reviewed more than 10,000 manuscript pages from the 1,063 eligible applications submitted. The 42 poets who were recommended will receive a fellowship of $25,000 each for a total of $1,050,000. Please see the complete listing of poets at http://www.arts.gov/grants/recent/11grants/litFellows.php

Here in Wyoming, the Lander Children's Museum received a Challenge America Fast Track grant to support Lander Explores Termespheres - A Community Presentation of Arts, Geometry and Science. Artist Dick Termes, who paints in six-point perspective, will present an exhibit of his work and lead public workshops and classes for high school art and geometry students.

The Mayors' Institute on City Design releases "Creative Placemaking"

The Mayors' Institute on City Design releases "Creative Placemaking" Report focuses on how communities are using the arts and other creative assets to help shape their physical, social, and economic character.

National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Chairman Rocco Landesman, U.S. Conference of Mayors Executive Director and CEO Tom Cochran, and American Architectural Foundation President and CEO Ron Bogle are pleased to announce the Mayors' Institute on City Design's (MICD) most recent publication, Creative Placemaking by Dr. Ann Markusen, principal of Markusen Economic Research Services, and Anne Gadwa, principal with Metris Arts Consulting.

Creative Placemaking is a resource for mayors, arts organizations, the philanthropic sector, and others interested in understanding strategies for leveraging the arts to help shape and revitalize the physical, social, and economic character of neighborhoods, cities, and towns.
In the words of the report, "Creative placemaking animates public and private spaces, rejuvenates structures and streetscapes, improves local business viability and public safety, and brings diverse people together to celebrate, inspire, and be inspired."
NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman said, "Dr. Markusen's report lays out the elements, benefits, challenges, and how-tos of using the arts in smart and sustainable community design. Art works across America to help shape communities where residents want to live, work, and play."
Burnsville (MN) Mayor and U.S. Conference of Mayors President Elizabeth Kautz said, "As a mayor who has supported efforts to stimulate my city's economy through creative placemaking techniques, I believe this report will be valuable to mayors who want to learn about best practices that have worked in other cities that promote the arts and economic development."
Since 1986, the Mayors' Institute on City Design has helped transform communities through design by preparing mayors to be the chief urban designers of their cities. MICD organizes sessions where mayors engage leading design experts to find solutions to the most critical urban design challenges facing their cities. Sessions are organized around case-study problems. Each mayor presents a problem from his or her city for the other mayors and designers to discuss.
Creative placemaking is one of the tools that mayors can use to tackle their design challenges, whether it is building artist live/work spaces in abandoned warehouses, designing youth employment programs around mentoring relationships with artists, or curating a performing arts series in urban public places.
"Urban design is one of the tools mayors have used to create the environment for creative businesses to grow. The National Endowment for the Arts support of the Mayors Institute of City Design program for the past 25 years has been critical in allowing mayors to create opportunities for arts and cultural enterprises to flourish," said Charleston (SC) Mayor Joe Riley, who founded the Mayors' Institute on City Design.
Ron Bogle with the American Architectural Foundation notes, "AAF advocates for the power of the arts and design to transform communities. Dr. Markusen's report gives significant validity to this claim and inspires mayors and other civic leaders to incorporate design as a key driver for community development and an integral component in their leadership portfolios. "
"Mayors 'get it' when it comes to creative placemaking. As shown in this report, there are a number of examples where mayors have led the way in using the arts to rejuvenate neighborhoods and spark business development, " said Tom Cochran, U.S. Conference of Mayors CEO and Executive Director.
Creative Placemaking features sections on the:
* Challenges for creative placemaking such as clearing regulatory hurdles and developing evaluation metrics.
* Components of successful projects including mobilizing public will and designing around distinctiveness.
* Recommendations for integrating creative placemaking into public policies.


The report concludes with fourteen case studies from different communities across the country. Those case studies are:
Art-A Rural Community's Newest Crop: Arnaudville, Louisiana
After Autos ... Artists: Artspace Buffalo Lofts: Buffalo, New York
After School Matters in Chicago, Illinois
Community Developers Partner with Theaters: Cleveland, Ohio's Gordon Square Arts District
Art as Healing: Fond du Lac Reservation, Minnesota
Art Shores Up the Walk of Fame: Remaking Los Angeles, California's Hollywood
Chasing Artists, Not Smokestacks: Paducah, Kentucky Artist Relocation Program
Transforming Neighborhoods and Lives: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania's Mural Arts Program
Animating Infrastructure: Phoenix, Arizona Public Art Program
Building Community, Boosting Ridership: TriMet's Interstate MAX Public Art Program: Portland, Oregon
Mayors and Artists Spark a Renaissance: Providence, Rhode Island
Marrying Art to Technology: 01SJ Biennial: San José, California
Artists, the Third Leg of the Cultural Stool: Creative Entrepreneur Project, San José, California
Unusual Bedfellows Transform the City of Music: Seattle, Washington


This report is available http://arts.gov/pub/CreativePlacemaking-Paper.pdf  on the NEA's website along with other arts and community design resources including:
* Examples of creative placemaking projects through the MICD25 funding program http://arts.gov/national/MICD25/index.html MICD25 grants were awarded in July 2010 to 22 organizations that used the arts in innovative ways to improve their neighborhoods.
* Research reports such as Live from Your Neighborhood: A National Study of Outdoor Arts Festivals http://arts.gov/research/Festivals-Report.pdf  and The Arts and Civic Engagementm http://arts.gov/pub/CivicEngagement.pdf
* An archived webcast of a panel on creative placemaking http://arts.gov/av/video/creativeplacemaking/video/creativeplacemaking/index.html  featuring Dr. Markusen and author Richard Florida among others.
* Videos http://arts.gov/national/MICD25/index.html  about community design with NEA Design Director Jason Schupach.

The National Endowment for the Arts was established by Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government that has awarded more than $4 billion on projects of artistic excellence, creativity, and innovation for the benefit of individuals and communities. The NEA extends its work through partnerships with state arts agencies, local leaders, other federal agencies, and the philanthropic sector. To join the discussion on how art works, visit the NEA at www.arts.gov

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

What are your plans for National Arts & Humanities Month?

Each October, Americans for the Arts in Washington, D.C., asks arts communities nationwide to host arts events and make them part of National Arts and Humanities Month (NAHM) by posting events on its web site and sharing pictures and stories with peers nationwide. Add your event to the NAHM Calendar. Find out what arts groups and their partners are doing to celebrate and use other available NAHM tools to promote your events and to advocate for the arts at www.AmericansForTheArts.org/NAHM.

Planet Jackson Hole Weekly: "Arts huge in JH, arts council says"

Planet Jackson Hole Weekly's online edition carried an article Wednesday by Matthew Irwin, "Arts huge in JH, arts council says."

It focuses at the Wyoming Arts Council town meeting held on Monday, June 7, at the Teton County Public LIbrary in Jackson.

Here are the opening paragraphs:

Jackson Hole, Wyo. – Jackson may be one of the top arts towns in the U.S., according to Wyoming Arts Council board chair Bruce Richardson. Though the news may mean more funding will be available for local arts organizations, it likely will not result in additional grants for individual artists, Richardson said.

Perhaps earlier than WAC staff would have liked, Richardson mentioned recent reports on the arts that signal Jackson's prominence in a town meeting Monday with local artists and arts organizations. “We haven’t vetted the whole thing,” Richardson said in a phone interview Tuesday. “We’re not sure exactly what we’ve got, but there are a couple of pieces of evidence that Jackson is one of the leading arts towns in the U.S.”

Read the rest at http://www.planetjh.com/news/A_106220.aspx

NEA launches Blue Star Museums program

National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson is one of the Blue Star Museums in Wyoming

Just announced by the National Endowment for the Arts:

NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman and Blue Star Families Chairman Kathy Roth-Douquet announced the launch of Blue Star Museums, a partnership with more than 600 museums across America to offer free admission to all active duty military personnel and their families from Memorial Day through Labor Day 2010.

The launch of the program was announced today at a press event hosted by San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders. Mr. Landesman and Ms. Roth-Douquet were joined by Chairman of the San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture Colette Carson Royston, Rear Admiral Garry J. Bonelli, Deputy Commander of Naval Special Warfare, and Ellyn Dunford, spouse of Lt. General Joseph Dunford, Commanding General of I Marine Expeditionary Force, and representatives from San Diego's more than 150,000 active duty military personnel and the 14 San Diego museums participating in Blue Star Museums.

Following the event, Mr. Landesman, Ms. Roth-Douquet, and Mayor Sanders escorted six, local military families to visit the San Diego Museum of Art, the Museum of Photographic Arts, and, the Mingei International Museum. The five families represented the five branches of the military – Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Marines, and Navy - as well as our National Guard and reserve forces.

"America's museums are proud to join the rest of the country in thanking our military personnel and their families for their service and sacrifice," said NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman. "I cannot imagine a better way to do that than welcoming them in to explore and enjoy the extraordinary cultural heritage our museums present. The works of art on view this summer will certainly inspire and challenge viewers – and sometimes they will just be a great deal of fun."

"There have always been wonderful examples of partnerships between museums and military installations, but the scale of this gift from the museum community to military families is thrilling," said Blue Star Families Chairman Kathy Roth-Douquet. "Military families work hard for this country, and it is gratifying for us to be recognized for that. We anticipate that thousands of military families will participate in the program and visit museums this summer – many of them for the first time. Blue Star Families will work hard to help our military families make the most of these opportunities."

In addition to being Chairman of Blue Star Families, Ms. Roth-Douquet is married to a Marine Corps officer, who is currently deployed to Afghanistan. They have two children, and Ms. Roth-Douquet and the children plan to take a road trip this summer to visit Blue Star Museums up and down the East Coast.

"Part of being a military family means limited time together," added Sherri Brown, Marine Corps spouse and mother of two. "Blue Star Museums gives military families the chance at quality time together, that is both fun and educational without the worry of affordability. Summer can be a very long time with a parent away, and for those families, this will also help take their minds off what is going on overseas and make the time go faster."

"The Blue Star Museums program is an incredibly creative and thoughtful way to honor all the sacrifices of our troops and their families," said San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders. "And what better place to kick it off than San Diego, which has so many wonderful military families and so many world-class museums."

More than six hundred museums in all 50 states and the District of Columbia are taking part in the initiative. The American Association of Museums, the Association of Art Museum Directors, and the Association of Children's Museums each sent a letter from NEA Chairman Landesman inviting museums to participate in this program. In addition to thirty children's museums across the country, participating museums represent a broad range of art, history, science, and cultural topics, including the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Texas; the California Surf Museum in Oceanside, California; the Mission San Luis, a living history site and historic landmark in Tallahassee, Florida; the International Quilt Study Center & Museum at the University of Lincoln – Nebraska; the Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois; and the Seacoast Science Center in Rye, New Hampshire.

Wyoming Blue Star Museums:
Campbell County Rockpile Museum, Gillette
Fort Caspar Museum, Casper
Hot Springs County Museum and Cultural Center, Thermopolis
National Bighorn Sheep Interpretive Center, Dubois
National Museum of Wildlife Art, Jackson (see photo above)

FMI: www.bluestarfam.org

Newsweek: NEA Chair Rocco Landesman uses Broadway skills to promote the arts

This profile of National Endowment for the Arts Chair Rocco Landesman, "Medici in Chief," appeared more than a month ago in Newsweek. But it's worth reading for insights on new directions for arts funding across the U.S. As many of you know, the Wyoming Arts Council gets approximately 40 percent of its budget from the Arts Endowment.

Read the entire article at http://www.newsweek.com/id/233404.

Here's an excerpt:

The just-announced "Our Town" program will use small, targeted grants to help arts organizations revitalize their communities. It draws on research showing that investments focused narrowly at the neighborhood level can produce social ties and a healthier local economy. In next year's budget request, the agency asks for $5 million to start work in 35 or so locations around the country: developing arts districts, sponsoring festivals, and commissioning murals and sculptures.

While the unusually large 2010 budget of $168 million gives Landesman more funding options than any chairman has had in more than a decade, he still calls the level "pathetic" and "embarrassing"—language that risks insulting people in and around Congress who sweat to secure even that much. (It sure seems to unnerve the NEA staff. Landesman says he had to call a meeting recently to insist once and for all that he's not going to tone down his rhetoric. "I said, 'Look, get on the page with me, because I'm not getting on the page with you.' ") Beyond limiting how much Our Town and the agency's other grants can accomplish, the small budget doesn't suit someone with Landesman's rapid metabolism. His options, he told me, are "either to tilt against the windmills and try to get our budget expanded when everybody's been cut back because of the deficit—that's unrealistic—or just pad around the agency and decide that Pacific Opera should get X and New York City Opera Y. Anybody can do that. Don't you think there are a lot of people who could do that just as well?"

Details announced for 2011 U.S. arts budget

On Monday, the Obama Administration released the president's budget for Fiscal Year 2011. For information on the section that addresses arts funding, go to the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies web site at http://www.nasaa-arts.org

NEA Chairman announces a request for proposals for a new "Art Works" logo

Chairman Rocco Landesman wants the new logo to embody the three meanings of "Art Works."

During a visit to a graphic design class at the Design and Architecture Senior High school (DASH) in Miami ’s Wynwood/Design District on February 1, 2010, Chairman Landesman announced that the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) has released a request for proposals (RFP) for a new "Art Works" logo; the RFP is available at www.arts.gov/grants/apply/RFP/artworksdesign.html
　
The visit to DASH was part of the Chairman’s latest stop on his "Art Works" tour across America; h e was in Miami to see the role that design, architecture, and artists play in creating the greater Miami area we know today.
　
When used by the Chairman, the phrase "art works" has three meanings: "art works" are the plays, paintings, dances, films and the other works of art that are the creation of artists; "art works" describes the effect of art on audiences and viewers, art works to transport, transform, inspire, and challenge us; and "art works’ is a reminder that arts workers are real workers with real jobs who are part of this country’s real economy. The proposed logos should incorporate all three of the meanings of "Art Works" and tie them to the NEA in such a way that the proposed logo might be used alone or in conjunction with the NEA’s current logo.
　
Chairman Landesman said, "Those two words – "art works" – pretty much sum up everything we are about at the NEA, and I hope you will see them everywhere. Art, artists, and arts professionals work to change the communities they inhabit: they are placemakers and help create livable, sustainable, complete communities. I look forward to having a logo that conveys that."
　
Proposals are due by 5:00 p.m. EST on Friday, February, 26, 2010. Potential proposers must direct all inquiries to Latonca Harris at harrisl@arts.gov