Archive for May, 2009
CIAO Goes To Print
CIAO Gallery—66 South Glenwood? Yup, that’s what it says, though I know CIAO to be out in Wilson, on the Teton Village Road…sorry, folks; I’ve been away, and if the gallery has moved I’m not in that loop. Apologies for loose loops.
CIAO has a call out to printmakers. Printmakers should apply to CIAO’s “The Printmaker’s Mode,” a juried exhibit going up June 27. The application process is in full swing; anyone interested should visit www.ciaogallery.com to download an application for this event. June 5 is the deadline, so file away!
Contact CIAO if you have questions–I know I do! Doh! Email them at ciaogallery@yahoo.com or phone 307-733-7833.
Lots and lots of National Museum of Wildlife Art news and updates! Here is a full list of activities related to our museum on the hill.
#1: Dr. Seuss!
Whose childhood–and by extension, adulthood–has not been charmed by Theodor Geisel’s opus? We all occasionally find ourselves thinking “Seussical.” 
“The Lorax: Original Illustrations by Dr. Seuss” is on display at the museum through September 7. NMWA notes that the Lorax’s tale is a cautionary one, a tale ahead of its time, warning us of our own penchant for wrecking our beloved environment. The exhibit gives us access to Seuss’ process, from conceptual sketches to to camera-ready line art. Anthropormorphism of wildlife and our relationship to the natural world are the coal in creative story-telling engines; Disney has built an empire around these themes. Stand out exhibit characters include Swomee-Swans and Humming-Fish.
“Seuss was not one to shy away from contemporary topics or social commentary. The Lorax is among his most pointed, taking to task a company whose greed causes grave environmental harm,” notes the Museum. ” This exhibit combines original art as it probes humanity’s relationship with nature, making a perfect match for the National Museum of Wildlife Art.” The exhibit is on loan from the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library & Museum.
Special fun-for-kids activities tied to Seuss’s art will be offered throughout the Museum. The Lorax exhibition is included in Museum admission: $10 for adults, $5 for kids 5-18, and free for children under 5. A family rate of $30 for the first two adults, first two children, and $1 for each additional child helps make the Museum affordable for larger families.
#2: Out of the Box!
NMWA’s biennial “Out of the Box Show and Auction” is one of the museum’s 
best-loved events. This year, the show and sale takes place Friday, June 12 and includes over 115 creatively altered boxes by regionally and nationally acclaimed artists. Prices have typically ranged from an affordable $25 to $4,000 and more. Proceeds support the Museum’s adult and youth education programs.
Each box is unique, and artists are invited to work in any medium as long as the work retains its function as a box. The box artworks will be auctioned by auctioneer Jim Loose, and the evening’s M.C. is KMTN’s “Fish.” Of course, there are door prizes: two CityPass books, a two-hour art appraisal by Art Appraisals of Jackson Hole, LLC, two bird-themed notions boxes and a tour of the newly opened Jackson Hole Raptor Center with guide Roger Smith.
Volunteer Chair Ann Nelson notes the event is a labor of love, with 15 volunteers devoting much of the last two years organizing the show. “The community of Jackson Hole anticipates Out of the Box with great enthusiasm; this show will have something for everyone,” says Nelson.
Out of the Box is free for museum members, $7 for non-members; free for children. Event admission includes light hors d’oeuvres and a cash bar. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. 733-5771.
#3: Wyoming 2009 Junior Duck Stamp Winners!
Through August 23, take time to visit this year’s entries and winners of the Wyoming Federal Junior Duck Stamp Contest. Now in its 15th year, this exceptional program, a national art competition for students in grades K – 12 simultaneously teaches art, conservation of wetlands and natural resources, and awareness skills.
The exhibit is traditionally on display in the Museum’s King Gallery; check with the front desk to confirm. The list of winners is long, and every entry is a winner in itself.
The following information on is provided by the Museum.
Eighteen year-old Bryant Helm, of Cokeville, Wyoming, received the 2009 Best of Show award for his painting, “Provocative.” His oil painting depicts a striking portrait of a Long-tailed Duck. Bryant’s painting represented Wyoming at the Federal Jr. Duck Stamp contest Wednesday, April 22, 2009, at the Smithsonian National Postal Museum in Washington, D.C. The winner of the national competition will receive $5,000, a trip to our nation’s capital along with a parent and the art teacher, and have his or her artwork used to make the 2009-2010 Junior Duck Stamp. Proceeds from the sale of the Junior Duck Stamps, which cost $5.00, support conservation education.
Baily Schupp, a eight year-old student from Pinedale, for the second year in a row, won the 2009 Betty Nelson Artistic Promise Award for the best art in the youngest age group. The Betty Nelson Artistic Promise Award was established eight years ago to recognize the artistic accomplishment of students in the K-3rd grade age group and to honor the late Betty Nelson, a generous supporter of the Junior Duck Stamp program.
The 1st through 3rd place Wyoming winners of the Jr. Duck Stamp contest can be viewed online on the Museum’s web site, WildlifeArt.org. The 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place contest winners will be honored at a dinner and awards ceremony at the National Museum of Wildlife Art on Saturday July 18, 2009.
For more information, please contact Amy Goicoechea at (307) 732-5435.
Trailside Galleries turns toward summer like an artist to its muse. Three related shows take place at Trailside this June: Salute to Summer, June 1-31; and landscape artists Robert Moore and Lanny Grant will showcase, in conjunction, at the gallery June 1-30.
The annual Salute to Summer provides a chance to see the latest works by that gallery’s premiere artists. The broad sampling includes works by Gerald Balciar, Bruce Cheever, Nicholas Coleman, Brent Cotton, John DeMott, Andrew Denman, Robert Duncan, Allen & Patty Eckman, Michael Godfrey, Veryl Goodnight, Z.S. Liang, Mike Malm, Bonnie Marris, Buck McCain, Greg McHuron, Dan Mieduch, Jim Morgan, Bill Nebeker, Gary Niblett, Ralph Oberg, Andy Peters, Jared Sanders, Bill Sawczuk, Lindsay Scott, Kyle Sims, Mian Situ, Adam Smith, Daniel Smith, Tucker Smith, Richard Thomas, Kent Ullberg, Kathy Wipfler and more.
Robert Moore
Every time I’ve taken a Jackson Hole Art Tours client to Trailside, Moore’s 
singularly romantic, rich canvases command attention. Moore’s thick use of paint, his ability to move from warm to cool palettes and back again, his composition and lively landscapes fit a variety of tastes. Canvases are often large, but there’s a price point for everyone. Born and raised in the Snake River Valley of Idaho, Moore is a 20-year Trailside veteran, widely collected.
Lanny Grant
Landscape painter Lanny Grant, noted for his mountain vistas, also paints more intimate scenes, such as a sun-drenched hillside blanketed in flowering sage. A native of the Colorado Rocky Mountain region, Grant’s passion for these western ranges never wanes.
Up to 10 new works by Grant will be on display. The artist was recently asked to be Artist-In-Residence at Rocky Mountain National Park for the 2009 summer season.
Contact Trailside Galleries by Telephone: 307.733.3186
Facsimile: 307.733.0369
Email: cara@trailsidegalleries.com
Website: www.trailsidegalleries.com
First Lady Michelle Obama’s remarks at ribbon cutting ceremony for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s American Wing are stirring indeed. The Jackson Hole Art Blog takes this opportunity to remind its readers of art’s crucial role in our education, cultural life and economy by reprinting her speech here. The “…intersection of creativity and commerce…” The text of Mrs. Obama’s speech is supplied by the White House Press Office. The ceremony took place at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 18, 2009.
MRS. OBAMA: Thank you. (Applause.) Thank you so much. Please, rest. (Laughter.) Good afternoon and thank you, Emily, for that introduction, and thank you for reminding me. You know, after 20-some-odd years of knowing a guy, you forget that your first date was at a museum. (Laughter.) But it was, and it was obviously wonderful; it worked.
So I am delighted to be here with you to celebrate American history through the arts. From the beginning of our nation, the inspired works of our artists and artisans have reflected the ingenuity, creativity, independence and beauty of this nation. It is the painter, the potter, the weaver, the silver smith, the architect, the designer whose work continues to create an identity for America that is respected and recognized around the world as distinctive and new.
The American Wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art captures this spirit in presenting a variety of American art forms and providing a link to history for us to learn from, appreciate and be inspired by.
Our future as an innovative country depends on ensuring that everyone has access to the arts and to cultural opportunity. Nearly 6 million people make their living in the non-profit arts industry, and arts and cultural activities contribute more than $160 billion to our economy every year. And trust me, I tried to do my part to add to that number.
The President included an additional $50 million in funding to the NEA in the stimulus package to preserve jobs in state arts agencies and regional arts organizations in order to keep them up and running during the economic downturn. (Applause.)
But the intersection of creativity and commerce is about more than economic stimulus, it’s also about who we are as people. The President and I want to ensure that all children have access to great works of art at museums like the one here. We want them to have access to great poets and musicians in theaters around the country, to arts education in their schools and community workshops.
We want all children who believe in their talent to see a way to create a future for themselves in the arts community, be it as a hobby or as a profession.
The arts are not just a nice thing to have or to do if there is free time or if one can afford it. Rather, paintings and poetry, music and fashion, design and dialogue, they all define who we are as a people and provide an account of our history for the next generation.
The President recently nominated renowned theater producer Rocco Landesman to chair the National Endowment for the Arts. Rocco’s entrepreneurial spirit and his commitment to being a bridge between the philanthropic, non-profit and commercial arts community will ensure that all types of art and creative expression are provided fertile ground to live and to grow.
And that’s what we hope to do at the White House, that’s what we’ve been trying to do at the White House. We’ve been trying to break down barriers that too often exist between major cultural establishments and the people in their immediate communities; to invite kids who are living inches away from the power and prestige and fortune and fame, we want to let those kids know that they belong here, too.
I want to applaud the Metropolitan Museum of Art for all the outreach that you do, for having kids like these here today to be involved in this and to experience this and to share this with us, because this is your place, too. So we’re very proud of the Met for the work that they’ve done.
So we are excited. Thank you for including me. And now we can get to the — we’re going to cut the ribbon now. (Laughter.) Thank you so much. (Applause.)
END
3:21 P.M. EDT
Photographer Robert Turner’s large format, color landscape photography show “Rare Places in a Rare Light” is on display at the Buffalo Bill Cody Historical Center in Cody, Wyoming. It remains on display in the BBHC’s John Bunker Sand Photography Gallery through July 31.
Forty-three images make up the show, which has traveled to notable natural history museums at Harvard University and the Mumm Napa Fine Art Photography Gallery. The exhibit showcases Turner’s landscape shots of vistas in Utah, California, Maine and New Mexico…and of Wyoming’s Bridger-Teton National Forest and Yellowstone National Park.
“There are times when my camera frames a scene that sweeps 50 miles to the horizon without a trace of human life. Those times are rare and thrilling,” says Robert “Bob” Turner. “More often, I work to frame out the footprint of man on the landscape.”
I’m not familiar with any mantras saying human beings should be included in wildlife photography in order to show scale, even though Turner says one exists. If it does, he’s not a disciple of that photography sect.
” As a species, we have the capacity to respond to the essence of wildness in a place, even if that place is only an island in the larger sea of human commotion,” says Turner. “When [a photograph] works, it is often because I’ve managed to capture a
fleeting moment of light, color, motion, or stillness that gives the image a sense of heightened reality. I’m left feeling that I have witnessed something that has transcended the realm of ordinary experience.”
The historical center’s education department is working with Turner for lecture and workshop opportunities in late July. Details will be forthcoming later this spring. Monitor www.bbhc.org for more information.
An affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution, the BBHC is open 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. daily. For general information, visit www.bbhc.org or call 307.587.4771.