2011 Wyoming Art For The Cure artists' call



Bullish by Diane Kaysen
from 2010 Art for the Cure

 Wyoming Art for the Cure will be held on Friday, April 29, 2011. All money raised at this event goes to the Wyoming affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

Artists are invited to donate a piece of original art. Pieces can be donated "in memory of" or "in honor of" someone who has battled breast cancer. A special card will be placed with your art showing the dedication.

There are six categories -- oil, pastel or drawings, photography, water-based media, sculpture, and mixed media. Cash prizes are awarded in each category for 1st and 2nd places, and a Best of Show.

Go to the website for all info on donating as well as being able to look at past years' donated art work.
http://artforthecure.org/

University of Wyoming receives "largest estate gift in its history" from artist and arts patron Neltje

This just in from the University of Wyoming PR office:

University of Wyoming officials said today (Wednesday) the university has received the largest estate gift in its history, a bequest that will transform the university's role in the arts in Wyoming and across the United States.

The estate gift is from Wyoming artist, Neltje (shown in photo), a prolific abstract expressionist whose works have been described as an "exploration of making the sensed visible."

The gift includes all financial and land holdings save for those going to her children and a select few personal donations. Additionally, the gift includes a world-class collection of contemporary, tribal and ethnic arts collected by Neltje over a lifetime of travel across the globe.

"If ever there was tangible evidence of the power of philanthropy, this is it," UW President Tom Buchanan says. "We can't thank Neltje enough for her vision and her commitment to the university and to the arts in Wyoming. It is simply remarkable."

The gift will enhance the UW Art Museum and the university's visual and literary arts programs, and it will enable UW to provide talented students with once-in-a-lifetime arts education opportunities unmatched in the United States.

The gift was announced just as the university is breaking ground for its new $33 million Visual Arts Center  see previous wyomingarts post) next to the UW Centennial Complex on the Laramie campus, which is home to the Art Museum and the American Heritage Center. Neltje's gift, combined with the significant investment in the new Visual Arts Center, promises to forever change the landscape for the fine arts at UW.

When this gift is realized, her home will become the heart of the UW Neltje Center for the Visual and Literary Arts, a place to honor and showcase the contemporary visual and literary arts and an educational facility for residencies, workshops, symposia, conferences, art exhibitions and literary readings.

"My heart belongs to Wyoming," says Neltje. "The incredible and vast landscape and the independent people have given me the inspiration to become who I am. My gift to the University of Wyoming is a gesture of my caring for future generations."

The Neltje Center will be open for UW activities related to the arts and also to the public for special events, conferences and celebrations. It will celebrate an expansive, sophisticated awareness of the arts and includes both the literary arts as well as contemporary art.

The gift includes a partnership with Jentel, a private foundation established by Neltje in 2000 that is located adjacent to her home. Jentel provides on a working ranch a residency program for visual artists and writers from across the country. The foundation strives to protect the pristine natural environment of the Piney Creek Valley.

"Neltje's extraordinary gift will transform the arts at the University of Wyoming, creating research and educational opportunities at the future Neltje Center and supporting the creative work of artists internationally through the artist residency program at Jentel," Susan Moldenhauer, director and chief curator at the UW Art Museum, says. "It will advance the Art Museum's mission through new collections, exhibition opportunities and museum-based research and education initiatives."

"Jentel will create a synergy of purpose with the Neltje Center, and the university," adds President Buchanan. "It will cultivate creativity and collaboration among artists in the residency program, students and artists from the university, and the public drawn to the Big Horns and this special place."

Neltje was born in New York City and raised in Oyster Bay, Long Island. In 1980 she took a few classes at the New York Studio School of Drawing and from 1979-80 she took a few classes at the Art Students League in New York, N.Y. She is essentially self-taught.

In 2005, she was recognized as one of Wyoming's preeminent artists with the Governor's Arts Awards. She received an honorary degree from Rocky Mountain College in Billings, Mont., and is the founder and benefactor of the Neltje Blanchan Literary Award in memory of her grandmother [and Frank Nelson Doubleday writing award in memory of her grandfather]. She served on the Board of the Wyoming Arts Council from 1985 to 1988.

Neltje's work has been featured in collections at the Smithsonian, the Yellowstone Art Museum in Billings, Mont., the IBM Corporation in Denver and the Wyoming State Museum in Cheyenne, among others. In addition, her work is in private collections in California, Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania and Wyoming.

Call for entries: AVA Center Miniature Show

AVA Community Art Center in Gillette would like to invite everyone to be a part of its Miniature Show. This show is a chance for any local artist to show their talents in an art exhibition. All art forms and mediums will be accepted.

Bring in your submissions by Friday, September 17.

Your donation of art -- a 100% donation to AVA -- advances art in our community.

Best of show will receive $100.

All accepted artists will receive one ticket to the event.

FMI: 307-682-9133

Tim Sandlin: Donate before Sept. 17 to help Jackson Hole Writers Conference get matching funds from Old Bill's Fun Run

Tim Sandlin from the Jackson Hole Writers Conference sends this:

Dear Writers,

We are happy to report another superb conference in 2010. Our visiting faculty raised the stakes yet again by revealing, then prying, into the reasons why they write… the reasons why we all write. Once inside, they probed fearlessly. Ideas circulated fast.

We framed conversation in possibility. We heard harrowing stories of success. We teased our manuscripts with fine red ink. With heels digging in rich Wyoming soil we think everyone found enough honesty, encouragement, and inspiration to sustain them through the summer and perhaps the entire year. Our deepest thank you to those who came together in June to make all this possible. A howdy-hello to those of you who better be scribbling away and planning to join us again.

While the conference is our favorite four days of the year, we spend the other 361 days making sure it will happen. Knowing we’re off to the right start lets us plan big for 2011 – reach out to the most outstanding writers and teachers in the field, and give you a Conference to get excited about.

As part of our writing community, we’re asking you to go a step further this year and become part of our philanthropic community.

Now is the time when our fundraising means the most because every dollar we raise is matched by a percentage – over 50% last year – from The Community Foundation of Jackson Hole during Old Bill’s Fun Run. It is the most innovative fundraiser in the nation, and we invite you to participate. Making a donation before September 17, 2010 will ensure that we have another remarkable conference in 2011.

As many of you may know, The Jackson Hole Writers Conference is a non-profit organization. We are writers supporting writers. Most of us are volunteers. We do it because we believe in the written word, ideas, and communication. And we know you do too.

We value donations at every level. It’s the show of your support, your attention to this art, that we appreciate most. And donating through Old Bill’s is easy and rewarding. Learn more to donate here.

Thank you in advance for your support. And let’s be sure to keep in touch.

Very Best,

from all of us here at JHWC

Questions or comments: nicole@ and tim@jacksonholewritersconference.com

Wyomingarts reminds the state's writers that you can apply to the Wyoming Arts Council for an Individual Artist professional Development (IAPD) grant to help pay for conference costs and travel. FMI: http://www.wyomingartscouncil.org/

Wyoming Art for the Cure celebrates art & life

This exhibit will be held on April 23, 2010 at Little America Hotel and Resort in Cheyenne, WY! Since 2003, the organization has raised nearly $200,000 which goes directly to the Wyoming Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure. We invite all artists to donate an original piece of art for the event, and if you wish, you may donate "in memory of" or "in honor of" someone you know who has battled breast cancer. Categories for the 2010 Art for the Cure include oil, pastel or drawings, photography, water-based media, sculpture, and mixed (or other) media. By donating you will also be eligible for cash rewards! To participate, obtain and return a pink commitment postcard by Feb. 19th to PO Box 832 Cheyenne, WY 82003, and the donated artwork must be delivered to Deselms Fine Art by April 16th. For more information or questions, contact (307) 432-0606 or visit www.komenwyoming.org/wyomingartforthecure.

Legislative Artwork Donation Program Selection Committee meets Jan. 11

From a SPCR press release:

Members of the Wyoming Legislative Artwork Donation Program Selection Committee will meet to review seven artistic pieces donated during the past year for display in the State Capitol Building.

The meeting is scheduled for 10 a.m., January 11, in Room 302 of the State Capitol.

During the meeting, the Committee will review the artwork donated by five Wyoming artists and decide whether to formally accept the donations, attend to any framing or matting issues of the artwork, approve signage and determine the location where the pieces will be displayed on the second and third floors of the Capitol.

Additionally, the Selection Committee will review a proposed artwork donation schedule and establish a timeline for the next round of promotion and marketing for the program.

The goal of the Wyoming Legislative Artwork Donation Program is to acquire and showcase appropriate artwork that represents Wyoming. The artwork will be exhibited in the Senate and House of Representative chambers, the respective chamber lobbies and galleries, and possibly expanded to common areas on the second and third floors of the Capitol.

The artwork may be acquired for display through donation, temporary loan or direct purchase.

Selection Committee members are Senators Wayne Johnson and E. Jayne Mockler, Representatives Pete Illoway and Mary Throne, former Senator John Hanes, former Representative Pat Nagel, Wyoming Arts Council Manager Rita Basom and Wyoming State Museum Manager Manny Vigil.

For more information about the Legislative Artwork Donation Program, please contact Renee Bovee, Department of State Parks and Cultural Resources, 2301 Central Avenue in Cheyenne, 82002; 307-777-6312.

Art show at Margo's benefits Buffalo's Crazy Woman Square Project

Margo's Pottery and Fine Crafts in Buffalo is having an art show to celebrate the holidays and to benefit the Buffalo Development Association's Crazy Woman Square Project. A percentage of all sales will go to the Buffalo Development Association. "A Progression" is an installation by artist Haylee Bolinger, that celebrates her recent travels to India.

The free event will be held on Thursday, Dec. 3, 5-7 p.m., at Margo's Pottery and Fine Crafts, 1 North Main.

Makin' A List & Checkin' It Twice

Clay Paper Scissors Gallery & Studio invites you to see our new show, Makin' A List & Checkin' It Twice. The media includes jewelery, felting, clay, encaustic, painting, batik and more! Many small items ideal for gifts. 10% of the proceeds will be donated to Needs in honor of the season. Featured artists include:
Alberto Alcantara
Cathie Carr-Lundfelt
Crystal Lawrence
Ginnie Madsen
Jon Madsen
Sharon Mathiessen
Ila Miller
Paulette Rasmussen
Gretchen Reed
Meggan Stordahl

November 22-December 31, 2009.

Hours: Thursdays 4-7, Fridays 1-5, Saturdays 11-5, by appointment & serendipity!

1506 Thomes, Ste B. (facing the tracks on 15th)

307-631-6039

Music Festival announces housing fund gift

Press release from Amanda Flosbach at 307-732-9957 or amanda@gtmf.org:

The Grand Teton Music Festival announced today that it is the beneficiary of pledges totaling $3.5 million for a Housing Fund. In making the announcement, Executive Director Tracy Jacobson said the new Housing Fund will enable the Festival to acquire ownership interests in housing for its participating artists and to stabilize once and for all the availability and cost of the single largest line item in the Festival's budget.

The pledges from anonymous donors make $3 million in cash available immediately as appropriate acquisitions become available. The Festival has made a good-faith commitment to raise another $1.5 million for the Housing Fund in gifts or pledges payable over five years. Gifts of real estate, condos, or fractional interests certainly are expected and will be welcomed.
Festival artists qualify for employee housing in Teton Village.

When the $1.5 million goal is reached, another cash gift of $500,000 from the original donors will top off the campaign.

"The ever-rising cost of housing a few years ago almost threatened to suffocate the Music Festival, and that experience created tremendous motivation to stabilize our housing permanently. We are very grateful for the generosity of these donors and their faith in our mission," said Jacobson. "With the Festival celebrating its 50th Anniversary in 2011, the Housing Fund is a fitting way to pay tribute to the musicians and other staff who come to our community every year to give us the Festival music experience, and will help to sustain its vitality for the next fifty years and more."

She added that the Festival is announcing the gift so that people with ideas for possible housing acquisitions by the fund or gifts for the Housing Fund will contact her at the Music Festival office at 307-732-9960 or tracy@gtmf.org.