Rock Springs hosts "International Day" July 9

Red Desert Rendezvous and Art Show June 17-19

Photo by Ken Driese

From the Wyoming Association of Churches:

We welcome your participation at the Red Desert Rendezvous and Art Show scheduled in and around Rock Springs for June 17-19.

The Rendezvous will offer people an opportunity to come and experience the Red Desert first hand with tours and an evening educational session on June 18. The goal of our collective effort for Red Desert Week and the Red Desert Rendezvous is to focus attention on this spectacular and mostly unknown piece of Wyoming's landscape and to do what we can to protect this important part of our heritage. Many in our coalition of Red Desert supporters would love to see the best parts of these lands designated a National Conservation Area while others would be content to see responsible federal and state agencies work to protect its unique features.

For a guided tour, you must sign up in advance.  There are four tour options. The tours are limited to 20 each per BLM requirements.  Registration will be on a first come, first serve basis.  Travel costs for gas will be shared.  You will be contacted to confirm your reservation and for specific directions. 

For the dinner, we also need advance registration and payment by June 13th. The Red Desert Rendezvous dinner is on Saturday, June 18, 5:30 pm at the Young at Heart Senior Center, 2400 Reagan Avenue, Rock Springs.  The dinner is $16 per person payable to the Wyoming Association of Churches on line at the link below or by check sent to:
Warren Murphy
50 Diamond View Drive
Cody, WY 82414

All other events are free – Also at the Young at Heart Senior Center, Saturday, June 18
Reception with an art show, 3 – 5:30 pm
Key note speaker and panel, 7 pm

Ecumenical Service for the Earth on Sunday, June 19 at 1 pm, at an outdoor site yet to be selected.  Plan to be there by 12:30 and bring a picnic lunch!

Overnight camping is allowed in the Red Desert.

A small block of rooms for June 17 and 18 are being held until June 15 at the new Comfort Inn & Suites in Rock Springs at 2622 Commercial Way. Call 307-362-9100 and ask for the BOCES block.  The cost is $99/night and includes breakfast.

Click here to Register

Reception tonight at CFAC for art exhibit by Rock Springs High School seniors

During the past four months, the Community Fine Arts Center in Rock Springs has been showcasing the creative efforts of the students of Sweetwater School District No. One. The series wraps up with an exhibition by 20 seniors at Rock Springs High School. The exhibit will be open through May 21. The reception is on Wednesday, May 11 (tonight!), 6 p.m., at the CFAC, 400 C St., Rock Springs. FMI: 307-362-6212.

WY SPCR Commission meets May 12-13 in Rock Springs

Members of the Wyoming Department of State Parks and Cultural Resources Commission will meet in Room 1309, Western Wyoming College in Rock Springs, May 12-13.

The Commission will meet from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on May 12; and tour the Piedmont Kilns and Lincoln Highway Bridge on May 13.

During the meeting, the Commission will receive divisional updates and discuss a variety of State Parks and Cultural Resources issues, including a Glendo State Park flood update.

The Commission has advisory responsibility for both divisions of the department – State Parks, Historic Sites & Trails and Cultural Resources -- which involves the planning, acquisition, development and management of all state parks, state trails program, state recreation areas, state historic sites and archaeology sites. The Commission also advises the Wyoming State Museum, Wyoming Arts Council, the official State Records Center and Archives, the Office of the State Archeologist, historical research activities, the State Historic Preservation Office and the management of the Cultural Trust Fund.

Members of the Commission are: President Ernie Over, Pavillion; Dan Barks, Gillette; William Vines, Wheatland; Mary Hawkins, Devils Tower; Dudley Gardner, Ph.D, Rock Springs; Chuck Engebretson, Lost Springs; Carolyn Buff, Casper; Karen Haderlie, Thayne; and Barb Vietti, Thermopolis.

Deadline approaching for 2011 Western and Wild Horse Art Show and Sale in Rock Springs

The 2011 Western and Wild Horse Art Show and Sale will be held July 8-9 at the Community Fine Arts Center in Rock Springs.

Application deadline is April 15.

This show has been held the past eight years with the assistance of the CFAC, Rock Springs Chamber of Commerce, Rock Springs Historical Museum and Sweetwater Travel and Tourism Board and the Wyoming Arts Council.

Get more info at www.rockspringsartshow.com 

Author Karen Brennan reads from her work March 25 at WWCC in Rock Springs

Karen Brennan, author of five books of fiction, non-fiction and poetry, will read from her work on Friday, March 25. The event will take place at Western Wyoming Community College in Room 1302 at 7:30 p.m. It is free and open to the public.

Brennan’s books include The Garden in Which I Walk, a collection of stories published by University of Alabama Press in 2004; The Real Enough World, a collection of poetry from Wesleyan University Press in 2006, and the memoir Being With Rachel: A Story of Memory and Survival, published by WW Norton in 2002 and nominated by the publisher for a Pulitzer Prize. Her fiction, poetry and nonfiction have also appeared in numerous anthologies and journals.

Of the stories in The Garden in Which I Walk, writer Kevin McElvoy says, “They are ten triumphs in a single volume. Karen Brennan's jazz-infused fiction demoniacally crashes us into our delusions, our states of despairing satiation and of happy hungering.”  A reviewer for The Compulsive Reader adds, “Her constant question is ‘where do men and women go when they have reached the end?’ The answer may be bleak but there is no doubt about the seriousness of the quest or the authority with which the writer describes it.”

Brennan’s memoir, Being with Rachel, recounts her daughter’s efforts, with her own devoted help, to recover from a brain injury suffered in a motorcycle accident. According to writer Antonya Nelson, the book “advocates illustrates and demonstrates the superhuman power of family, its ability to triumph in the face of worst-case scenarios, institutional aloofness, bad luck, and the evil influence of conventional wisdom.” Charles Baxter praises it as a book that explores “the mystery of an unbreakable love between a mother and her daughter.”

In a review of The Real Enough World, Brennan’s most recent book of poetry, Sue Butler of Poetry Salzburg Review writes, “This is a compelling book that mines the hurt of human life to great effect. It contains tragedy and irony, splashes of humor, failure, love, insight and song…but mostly it contains bravery.”

Brennan comments on the diverse nature of her work thusly: “I am a believer in hybrid forms, fictions that shade into nonfiction, poetry that becomes story or essay. What's exciting to me is working in-between genres, not being ‘trapped’ in one genre with all its conventional expectations. I like to think that my teaching liberates my students to try new things, to find their own paths to their very distinctive and idiosyncratic materials.”

Karen Brennan holds a PhD from University of Arizona and an MFA from Goddard. She is a Professor of English at the University of Utah where she teaches in the graduate creative writing program, and has served as faculty at the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers since 1992.  Among her awards are a National Endowment of the Arts fellowship and an Associated Writing Program award. 

In addition to her public reading, Brennan will give a three-hour writing workshop on Friday afternoon from 2 to 5 p.m., as part of a one-credit Visiting Writers course.

The event is sponsored by the Arlene and Louise Wesswick Foundation and by the WWCC English Department. It is the last of four readings in the Spring 2011 Visiting Writers series, which also included journalist and historian Tom Rea, Wyoming Poet Laureate David Romtvedt, and Colorado poet and editor Maria Melendez. 

For more information, contact Rick Kempa at rkempa@wwcc.wy.edu.

Photo – Karen Brennan, author of five books of fiction, nonfiction and poetry, will read from her work at Western Wyoming Community College on March 25 at 7:30 p.m. Brennan’s visit is part of the annual Visiting Writers Series sponsored by the Arlene and Louise Wesswick Foundation and the WWCC English Department.

"Kenyan Expressions" reception Feb. 26 at Community Fine Arts Center in Rock Springs

A reception for Wyoming photographer Mike Conaway's "Kenyan Expressions" exhibit will be held on Saturday, Feb. 26, 2 p.m., at the Community Fine Arts Center, 400 C Street in Rock Springs. The event is free and open to the public.

The reception includes a presentation about the school being built in Kenya with the help of Wyoming educators.

FMI: 307-362-6212

Reading by Wyoming Poet Laureate David Romtvedt at WWCC on Feb. 11

From Rick Kempa at Western Wyoming Community College:

David Romtvedt, accomplished writer and musician and the Poet Laureate of Wyoming, will read from his work on Friday, February 11. The event will take place at Western Wyoming Community College in Room 1302 at 7:30 p.m. It is free and open to the public.

Raised in Southern Arizona, Romtvedt attended Reed College and the Iowa Writers’ workshop. He lives in Buffalo, Wyoming and teaches half time in the University of Wyoming MFA program for writers.

His books of poetry include Some Church, Certainty, How Many Horses, and A Flower Whose Name I Do Not Know, which was a selection of the National Poetry Series. He is a recipient of fellowships from the Wyoming Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts and has received the Wyoming Governor’s Arts Award.

Romtvedt also writes essays, fiction, histories, and nonfiction. Among his other books are the anthology he edited, Wyoming Fence Lines (Wyoming Humanities Council, 2007), Windmill: Essays from Four Mile Ranch (Red Crane Books, 1997), and Crossing Wyoming (White Pine Press, 1992).

The state's fourth poet laureate, Romtvedt started his term August 15, 2004. The position of poet laureate is filled by the governor, who selects an appointee from a list of recommendations submitted by a nominating committee. The position is honorary and without compensation, and invites the appointee to "submit writings for selected historic occasions" of choice. The incumbent serves a term concurrent with that of the governor. Romtvedt succeeded Robert Roripaugh (1995-2002), who followed Charles L. Levendosky (1988-1995), and Peggy Simpson Curry (1981-1987).

A musician as well as a writer, Romtvedt plays dance music of the Americas with his band The Fireants. He is the founder and a board member of Worlds of Music, a foundation that provides opportunities to participate in music-making involving cultures all around the world. His series on traditional music of the American Southwest aired on Montana National Public Radio.

In addition to his public reading, Romtvedt will give a three-hour poetry writing workshop on Friday afternoon, as part of a one-credit Visiting Writers course.

The event is sponsored by the Arlene and Louise Wesswick Foundation and by the WWCC English Department. It is the second in a series of readings planned for the spring, which will also include poet and editor Maria Melendez from Pueblo, Colorado on March 4 and fiction writer Karen Brennan, formerly of Salt Lake City and now from Tucson, on March 25.

For more information, contact WWCC Associate Professor of English Rick Kempa, the coordinator of the reading series and the class, at rkempa@wwcc.wy.edu.

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

WWCC in Rock Springs features talk by author and historian Tom Rea on Jan. 28

From a press release:

Noted Wyoming historian and journalist Tom Rea will read from his work on Friday, January 28. The event will take place at Western Wyoming Community College in Rock Springs, Room 1302, 7:30 p.m. It is free and open to the public.

Rea is the author of several books of interest to Wyoming history buffs. Devil's Gate: Owning the Land, Owning the Story was the winner of the 2006-07 nonfiction book award from the Wyoming State Historical Society. Bone Wars: The Excavation and Celebrity of Andrew Carnegie's Dinosaur, received the 2002 Western Writers of America Spur Award for contemporary nonfiction. His most recent book is The Hole in the Wall Ranch: A History (published by Pronghorn Press in 2010).

The Friday reading will include an account of the 1885 Rock Springs Massacre, and will be accompanied by slides.

In addition to his public reading, Rea will give a three-hour writing workshop on Friday afternoon, January 28, as part of a one-credit Visiting Writers course. The workshop will focus on researching and writing good narrative about nonfiction topics. Students will be given specific research and organization tools, tips on good prose, and a chance to try out both on the spot.

Rea grew up in Pittsburgh, Pa., and has lived in Wyoming for over 35 years. He holds degrees from Williams College and the University of Montana, and worked for many years as a reporter and editor on the Casper Star-Tribune. He is currently editor of a searchable encyclopedia of Wyoming History, WyoHistory.Org, now in development. He lives with his family in Casper.

The event is sponsored by the Arlene and Louise Wesswick Foundation and by the WWCC English Department. It is the first in a series of readings planned for the spring, which will also include Wyoming’s Poet Laureate David Romtvedt from Buffalo on February 11; poet and editor Maria Melendez from Pueblo, Colorado on March 4; and fiction writer Karen Brennan, formerly of Salt Lake City and now from Tucson, on March 25.

These writers will also be offering workshops prior to their readings, in which they facilitate writing exercises, share writing experiences and tips, and answer student-generated questions. Rea’s workshop is scheduled from 2-5 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 28th, in Room 1408. The workshops are part of a one-credit Creative Writing class (ENGL 2495). Students may register in advance or on Jan. 28th.

For more information, contact WWCC Associate Professor of English Rick Kempa, the coordinator of the reading series and the class, at rkempa@wwcc.wy.edu.

Sixth annual "Art on the Green" Aug. 21

The City of Green River and the Green River Arts Council presents "Art on the Green" on Aug. 20-21.

The grand finale dinner will be held on Saturday, Aug. 21. Cocktail hour begins at 6 p.m., followed by the awards dinner at 7. Tickets are $30 per person. Buy them at the Green River and Rock Springs Chamber, and at the Green River Parks and Recreation office.

A silent auction will be held from 1 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 20, until 7 p.m. on Saturday.

Be sure to check out the 24-hour artist competition!

FMI: 307-872-0580 or akrumholz@cityofgreenriver.org.

"Quilting on the Green" June 3-5 in Green River

The 20th anniversary of "Quilting on the Green" will be held from Thursday, June 3, to Saturday, June 5. Thursday hours are 6:30-8:30 p.m.; Friday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. At the Expedition Island Pavillion in Green River. Admission is $2.

Trunk show will be held on Friday at 7 p.m. $15 admission.

FMI: Alyssa at 307-872-0580

Rehab plans announced for abandoned movie theatre in downtown Rock Springs

The abandoned Rock Theatre (once the West Theatre) in downtown Rock Springs is being rehabilitated. Here's an excerpt from a story about the project from Casper Star-Tribune reporter Jeff Gearino:

A little bit of that local history is being saved under an ongoing, approximately $2.1 million revitalization project by the city's Urban Renewal Agency/Main Street program. The project aims to renovate the old venue for use as a theater and performing arts facility.

The West/Theatre project is part of a larger effort to revitalize the city's downtown area and promote economic growth, says URA/Main Street director Lisa Mueller.

"We want to rehabilitate the building, put it to public use and access, and hopefully it can become a kind of new catalyst for people and give them a reason and a purpose to come downtown," Mueller says.

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The facility will serve as a community gathering place, Mueller says, and will accommodate movies, theatrical and cultural performances, youth-oriented and other activities.

Earlier this year, the agency received a $1.5 million community facility grant from the State Loan and Investment Board to help fund the project. Donations, smaller grants and city funds are footing the rest of the project.

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Mueller says the agency expects to review architectural drawings around June 15 and begin bidding the construction phase soon after.

Construction is expected to begin in September or October, with an eye toward completing renovations by summer 2011.

She said a "peek party" is planned for June 19 to allow residents one last look at the old theater before construction begins.

One of those other grants for this project is coming from the Wyoming Arts Council is the form of a $10,000 Community Arts Partners grant. FMI: 307-777-7742.

Student art exhibition at Community Fine Arts Center in Rock Springs

An exhibition of artwork by students at Rock Springs and Independence high schools will be held May 4-15 at the Community Fine Arts Center, 400 C Street, Rock Springs.

The opening reception will be held on Wednesday, May 5, 6-7:30 p.m. Free and open to the public.

FMI: http://www.cfac4art.com/

Vicki Lindner conducts reading and workshop March 26 in Rock Springs

Vicki Lindner, mentor to an entire generation of writers in Wyoming, will be returning to the state for a March 26 event in Rock Springs. Vicki retired from University of Wtyoming a few years ago. She's the recipient of two creative writing fellowships (1991 and 2005) from the Wyoming Arts Council.

Here's a press release about the event:

Journalist and fiction writer Vicki Lindner will read from her work on Friday, March 26 at Western Wyoming Community College in Rock Springs. The event will take place in Room 1302 at 7:00 p.m. It is free and open to the public.

Lindner has published a novel, Outlaw Games, and many short stories, essays, magazine and newspaper articles. In these different genres she has written about cooking, bird watching, loneliness, dinosaurs, sculpture, not having children, travel, and medical malpractice. Her work has appeared in numerous literary journals and anthologies, including The Paris Review, Kenyon Review, Ploughshares, American Nature Writing, and The Seneca Review. Her short story about karate, “Barefoot to the Bridge in Winter,” was the Fiction Premiere for New York Woman.

Before moving West, Lindner worked as a freelance writer for publishing companies and magazines in New York City. Her collaborative project, The Money Mirror: How Money Reflects Women’s Dreams, Fears, and Desires, with psychotherapist, Annette Lieberman, was published in three different editions and featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show. An Associate Professor Emeritus at the University of Wyoming, where she taught creative writing for twenty years, she is presently on the faculty of Lighthouse Writers in Denver.

Lindner has won awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, New York State, the PEN/NEA Syndicated Fiction Project, and the Wyoming Arts Council. She is presently working on Baby, It’s You, a memoir about her romance with the only black athlete in her New Jersey high school in the early sixties. She lives on Capitol Hill in Denver and spends summers in her cabin near Dubois.

The event is made possible by the support of the Arlene and Louise Wesswick Foundation.

Lindner will also be offering a workshop for writers on Friday, March 26 from 2-5 p.m. in Room 1408 on the WWCC Rock Springs campus.

For more information, contact WWCC Associate Professor of English Rick Kempa at rkempa@wwcc.wy.edu or 307-382-1731.

Peter Anderson talks about "personal maps & topographies" March 5 at WWCC

From a press release:

What makes a place important to you? Stories? Knowledge? Family? Adventure? A sense of home? If you were to map out the most important places in your life, what would you include?

When Colorado writer Peter Anderson asked these questions of himself, he was led to write about mountains. His essays and poems are invitations to consider our own personal maps and topographies and how they affect our lives.

Anderson will read from his work on Friday, March 5 at Western Wyoming Community College in Rock Springs. The event will take place in Room 1302 at 7:00 p.m. It is free and open to the public.

Peter Anderson is author of First Church of the Higher Elevations: Mountains, Prayer, and Presence. An editor, journalist, children’s book writer, and teacher at Adams State College, he lives with his wife and two daughters on the western slope of the Sangre de Cristo Range in Colorado’s San Luis Valley.

The event is made possible by the support of the Arlene and Louise Wesswick Foundation. Following the reading, a reception will be held in honor of Louise Wesswick, a recipient of the 2009 Wyoming Governor’s Arts Award.

Anderson’s reading is the third in Western Wyoming Community College’s spring reading series, which will conclude on March 26 with fiction writer Vicki Lindner, formerly of Laramie and now from Denver.

These writers will also be offering workshops prior to their reading, in which they facilitate writing exercises, share writing experiences and tips, and answers student-generated questions.

Anderson’s workshop is scheduled from 2-5 p.m. on Friday, March 5 in Room 1408. For more information, contact WWCC Associate Professor of English Rick Kempa at rkempa@wwcc.wy.edu or 307-382-1731.

Governor's Arts Awards: Louise Wesswick

Arts patron Louise Wesswick, Rock Springs


Watch Louise Wesswick in Travel & Culture  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

John D. Nesbitt reads Friday at WWCC

Rick Kempa sent this from Western Wyoming Community College:

Western writer John D. Nesbitt will read from his work on Friday, February 19. The event will take place at Western Wyoming Community College in Rock Springs in Room 1302 at 7 p.m. It is free and open to the public.

Nesbitt lives in the plains country of Wyoming, where he teaches English and Spanish at Eastern Wyoming College. He has had more than twenty books published, including short story collections, contemporary novels, and traditional westerns, as well as textbooks for his courses.

His most recent work consists of "Dead for the Last Time," a novella; "Poacher's Moon," a contemporary novel; and "Not a Rustler," a traditional western.

Nesbitt has won many awards for his work, including two awards from the Wyoming State Historical Society (for fiction), two awards from Wyoming Writers for encouragement of other writers and service to the organization, two Wyoming Arts Council literary fellowships (one for fiction, one for non- fiction), a Western Writers of America Spur finalist award for mass-market paperback original novel for "Raven Springs," and the Spur award itself for his novel "Trouble at the Redstone."

The event is made possible by the support of the Arlene and Louise Wesswick Foundation and the Wyoming Arts Council. It is the second in a series of readings planned for the spring, which will also include essayist Peter Anderson from Crestone, Colorado on March 5; and fiction writer Vicki Lindner, formerly of Laramie and now from Denver, on March 26.

These writers will also be offering workshops prior to their readings, in which they facilitate writing exercises, share writing experiences and tips, and answer student-generated questions. Nesbitt's workshop is scheduled from 2-5 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 19, in Room 1408.

FMI: Contact WWCC Associate Professor of English Rick Kempa at rkempa@wwcc.wy.edu or 307-382-1731.

Quilters mix it up with dinosaurs this summer

2010 Opportunity Quilt

From the Wyoming State Quilt Guild:

"Quilting is Dino-Myte"

You are invited to Dinosaurland at Western Wyoming Community College in Rock Springs for the Guild's annual conference July 15-18.

Bonnie Brontosaurus will be looking forward to seeing you there!

Teachers -- submit your class outlines and photos now!

Featured teachers are Larkin Jean Van Horn, Barbara Broshous and Mary Lou Weidman.

FMI: http://www.wsqg.org/

Michael Parker's Exhibition in Rock Springs

Michael Parker

January 2- February 19, 2010

Community Fine Arts Center

400 C Street

Rock Springs, WY

(303) 362-6212