Call for public art proposals: WY Military Joint Force Readiness Center

Photo by Sue Sommers

FMI: Wyoming Military Joint Force Readiness Center, Cheyenne. Deadline is June 30, 2011 

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

UW screens "The Tillman Story" Jan. 13

"The Tillman Story" can be seen Thursday, Jan. 13, at 7 p.m. in the University of Wyoming College of Education auditorium in Laramie. 

The free film is part of the Student Activities Council monthly film series.

In 2004, Pat Tillman, a defensive back with the Arizona Cardinals, was killed in action while serving in the U.S. Army in Afghanistan.

Filmmaker Amir Bar-Lev examines Tillman's unusual life and times, the facts about his death, how and why the military created a cover story to hide the truth, and his family's battle to bring the real story into the open.  The "Tillman Story" had its world premiere at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival.

Call for entries: 11th annual Veterans Creative Arts Festival

From a press release:

The Cheyenne Veterans Administration Medical center Recreation Therapy Department is currently accepting visual and performing art entries for the 11th Annual Veterans Creative Arts Festival.

This event is open to all Veterans who have received care or services from the Cheyenne VAMC or any of the other VA clinics in southeastern Wyoming, northern Colorado and western Nebraska. Entry Forms are due by Feb 18, 2011 and may be picked up at the Laramie County Library, VA Medical Center 2360 E. Pershing Blvd or by contacting Kristi Ruben, local coordinator at 307-778-7550x7240.

There is no cost to enter the festival. Winners from each category will advance to a regional competition with the chance to advance to the 2011 VA National Creative Arts Festival. The VA Art Competition and Show provides our Veterans with an opportunity to showcase their artistic talents and skill and recognizes the value of the arts in the healing process.

This year's local art will be showcased February 24-27 at the Laramie County Public Library with an artists' reception at 3 p.m. on Saturday, February 26.

All art must have been created after April 1, 2010, except for the Military Combat Experience entries. For a complete list of the nearly 60 categories of acceptable art and an information packet, contact the Cheyenne VA Creative Arts Festival Coordinator: Kristi Ruben at 307-778-7550 x7240 or kristi.ruben@va.gov.

Cleo Parker Robinson dancers, "The Race Show" and veterans' voices at UW MLK Days of Dialogue

Calendar of events for the 2011 Martin Luther King, Jr. "Days of Dialogue" at the University of Wyoming. This year's theme: "A decade of defining diversity through dialogue:"

Monday, January 17th
10:00 am - 4:00 pm: National Service Day, Laramie Plains Civic Center
- Restoration Projects

4:00 pm - Martin Luther King Jr. March and Supper, Albany County Courthouse
- The March will start at the Courthouse and continue to the Wyoming Union where soup will be served. WASA and Ballet 7220 will be preforming.

Tuesday, January 18th
12:00 pm - 1:30 pm - ECTL Book Discussion, "War and the Soul: Healing Our Nation's Veterans from Post-traumatic Stress Disorder" - Union East Ballroom.
Registration required. Click here.

12:15 pm - GLBTQ Cultural Panel Discussion, "Commonalities Across Culture: GLBTQ Life in Various Cultural Communities" - Union Family Room
* Pizza Provided *

7:00 pm - MLK/DOD Keynote Speaker, Common - Hip Hop artist and activist. Union Ballroom

Wednesday, January 19th
12:00 pm - B.E.A.U.T.Y. Panel Discussion, "Standing at the Crossroads of Identity" Union Family Room
* Pizza Provided *

3:00 pm - 4:00 pm - Panel Discussion "Interfaith Dialogue: Spritual Wholeness In a Fractured World" headed by Dr. Sally Palmer. Union Family Room

4:00 pm - Film Screening: "The Calling" Union Family Room

8:00 pm - Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble, Laramie Plains Civic Center
* sponsored by the Student Activities Council, transportation from and back to campus provided by SAFE RIDE. *

Thursday, January 20th
10:00 am - 11:30 am - Master Dance Class with Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble - Union Ballroom
* No prior dance experience required.

4:00 pm - Ethnic Idenity and Voice in N*GGER WETB*CK CH*NK -A conversation with the actors - Union West Ballroom

7:30 pm - N*GGER WETB*CK CH*NK: The Race Show - A & S Auditorium
* UW Student Tickets $10.00
Non-Student Tickets $27.00 *

Friday, January 21st
1:00 - 3:00 pm - "How and Why We Are Different When We Come Back: A Veteran's Perspective" Union East Ballroom

2:00 pm - A Program with The Beehive Collective Union West Ballroom

6:30 pm, 9:00 pm, 11:30 pm - FNF Movie: "The Messenger" Union Family Room

9:00 pm - Dead Prez Concert, Union Ballroom
* Hip hop music, sponsored by Friday Night Fever *

Cody's Harry Jackson got his start as Marine combat artist

Great article in today's New York Times about the U.S. Marines' combat artists' program. During World War II, the Marines has 70 combat artists and today only one remains, Sgt. Kristopher J. Battles.

One of those World War II Marine combat artists was Harry Jackson of Cody. At 18 in 1942, he was the youngest of them all. The slide show accompanying the NYT article shows one of Harry paintings. Here's the caption:

"From World War II there's a vigorously worked scene of men engaged in combat on Tarawa, painted by Harry Jackson, later an Abstract Expressionist and today a hugely successful Western painter."

View Harry's painting of the battle of Tarawa -- and the rest of the slide show -- at http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2010/07/14/arts/design/20100718-MARINES-8.html. The painting is on exhibit at the National Museum of the Marine Corps, Triangle, Virginia.

Harry was awarded a Wyoming Arts Council Governor's Arts Award in 1990. Read about his very colorful life in his equally colorful autobiography at www.harryjackson.com/biography.cfm

On July 4 in Laramie, Wyoming National Guard soldiers perform song they brought back from Iraq

"Freedom Has a Birthday" is Laramie's annual Fourth of July celebration. It takes place from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. in Washington Park on Sunday, July 4. On stage from noon-1 p.m. will be the Joe Speed Band, made up of National Guard soldiers from Laramie and Rawlins. They'll perform their song "Cowboy Soliders," the number one song on GIJams, a web site devoted to military musicians.

Jennifer Dunn wrote about the band in today's Casper Star-Tribune:

Christmas Eve in a tent in Iraq, three members of the Wyoming National Guard recorded a song.

They called it "Cowboy Soldiers."

Despite my cowboy roots
They fit me for some combat boots
Instead of home on the range
We'll be ridin' the plains
Lookin' for that old sand dune

It's a song about what a cowboy from Wyoming needs, serving deep in the desert heat.

Namely, a beer.

It's what a lot of soldiers need, it turns out. The song has become something of an internet sensation, the most listened to and downloaded song on the website GIJams, a website devoted to promoting musicians of all genres serving in any military branch.

"We've been at No. 1 since we've been on there. I would like to think someone can knock us off the top," said Spc. Jeremiah Eaton, 33, of Rawlins. He's one of the three founding members of the Joe Speed Band, formed in Iraq with two other Wyoming soldiers -- Sgt. Nathan Harvey, 26, and Pfc. Dusty Scott, 26, both of Laramie.

Harvey and Scott met in elementary school. They met Eaton while deployed with the Guard's 133rd Engineer Company from 2004 to 2005.

“Nathan and I were heavy equipment operators, and Jeremiah fixed what we broke,” Scott said.

To read the rest, go to http://trib.com/lifestyles/weekender/article_0fdba667-981d-50f3-82d1-8efa04517f52.html

Listen to more music from the Joe Speed Band at http://www.gijams.com/web/joespeedband

ANG's 67th Army Band moves into renovated facility

From an AP story:

The Wyoming Army National Guard's 67th Army Band has moved into a remodeled armory in Wheatland that provides many features of a proper band hall.

The remodeled facility opened this month after a yearlong, $2.2 million renovation.

Members of the band say the new space is a significant improvement over the gym they formerly used for rehearsal in Wheatland and the garage they used in Casper while the renovation was taking place.

The new armory includes storage space, individual practice rooms, and separate practice rooms for the concert band and rock band. The rehearsal areas are surrounded by soundproof walls.

The renovation also added a parade field for marching and drilling exercises.

FMI: http://bands.army.mil/bands/ng/default.asp?UNITNAME=67AB

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

"The Toll of War" hits stages in Utah

From the Salt Lake Tribune:

James Svendsen believes works of art about warriors from thousands of years ago might be used to serve warriors of today. The University of Utah dramaturge is helping produce a series of staged readings of "The Toll of War," two short one-act performances cut from Sophocles' 2,400-year-old plays "Ajax" and "Philoctetes."

"Ajax" tells the story of a suicidal warrior who takes his own life after struggling to come to terms with the unjust spoils of war. "Philoctetes" is a play about a disabled soldier who is abandoned by his commander.

Svendsen said it's not hard to find modern resonance in either play. And he hopes military members and veterans of recent wars -- the performances will be staged at Fort Douglas, the Salt Lake City VA hospital and other locations where they are likely to draw a military-oriented crowd -- will walk away understanding they are connected to generations upon generations of past warriors, who also struggled to "come home" from war.

Free performances of "The Toll of War" will be staged in these Utah locations:
Wednesday, 7 p.m. » Main Library Auditorium, 210 E. 400 South, Salt Lake City
March 6, 2 p.m. » Universe City, 2556 Washington Blvd., Ogden
March 8, 11:50 a.m. » Fort Douglas Post Theater, east of the University of Utah Campus
March 13, 7 p.m. » VA Hospital, Bldg.8, 500 Foothill Drive, Salt Lake City

FMI: http://www.sltrib.com/utah/ci_14493842