University of Wyoming’s Magic Art Bus & 20:20 Art Slam
Friday, March 19th, 2010
The University of Wyoming’s Art Museum has a great blog (I’d be happy to trade links with them) with lots of cool information on what’s going on in the arts in Laramie and around Wyoming. Last summer I met a representative—and please forgive my forgetting her name—of the university’s Artmobile Program, who tipped me off about the bus and its mission.
It is, specifically, the Ann Simpson Artmobile Program, a statewide visual arts outreach. Named for former Senator Alan Simpson’s wife Ann, the ArtMobile provides interaction with visual arts to “…audiences across the 97,914 square miles of Wyoming, visiting K-12 schools, state park visitor centers, libraries, senior centers, and other community-accessible locations in towns throughout the state.” Funding for U.W.’s magic bus is provided by an anonymous donor and its contents and programs utilize exhibition artwork from the museum. Presentations and events are followed up by discussion and other activities.
The Artmobile visits remote Wyoming communities with programs geared for children and adults, reaching remote populations that otherwise lack exposu
re to visual arts. For those people, the Artmobile is a breath of fresh air. And fresh paint! The Artmobile is even on Facebook.
Jackson is awash in arts initiatives; I’ve never seen U.W.’s Artmobile come to town but perhaps we should invite them. Do a little exchange, partner up! Might there be a new way to paint the Tetons? Even here, many residents and kids could benefit from additional arts exposure. Funding for such enterprises is in flux, and in addition to its anonymous donor, the Artmobile operates with funding from the Julienne Michel Foundation, the FMC Corporation, Helga and Erivan Haub, and Ann and Alan Simpson, and the Wyoming Arts Council. The latter is funded by the Wyoming legislature via the National Endowment for the Arts.
Contact Artmobile’s curator Beth Wetzbarger to find out more. 307.399.2941 or email artmobile@uwyo.edu. Beth, perhaps it was you I met last summer, in Jackson, at Jill Callaway’s pot luck? A pleasure.
Item #2:
Art speed dating!
It’s already time for the UW Art Museum’s fifth annual 20:20 art slam. Presenters show 20 images of their work for a 20-second duration–total presentation time is 6 minutes, 40 seconds, allowing for 20 participants.
Visual artists from around the state may sign up, but sign up is done on a first-come, first-served basis. So, signing up is fast, too. You must submit your images in a PowerPoint format and submissions are due by Friday, April 9, 2010. The show will take place in Casper at the Hilton Garden Inn on April 23, from 8-10 pm.
The museum notes that 20:20’s format is “borrowed from a program that was first developed in Japan by two architects who were looking for a new way to present design ideas in an upbeat and exciting way. Events like 20:20 now occur internationally as specially organized evening events where the focus is on sharing information and community participation.”
20:20 Statewide is another venue for sharing ideas about the visual arts from around Wyoming. Saturday evening, April 24, a reception hosted by the Wyoming Arts Council will honor 2010’s visual arts fellowship recipients. An artist roundtable discussion follows the awards.
For more information on 20:20, or to sign up, please contact UW Art Museum Assistant Curator Rachel Miller at 307.766.6621 or rmiller@uwyo.edu.

The gallery’s history began when the Buffalo Bill Memorial Association commissioned a New York artist,
Memorial Weekend Monday as I write this. Earlier today I took a walk around town. It was an extremely pleasant walk because I was able to stroll easily around the Town Square, able to find a bench to sit on, able to browse lazily in a few shops. It was mellow out there.

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.
Through August 23, take time to visit this year’s entries and winners of the
Trailside Galleries
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.
Up to 10 new works by Grant will be on display. The artist was recently asked to be Artist-In-Residence at 
Forty-three images make up the show, which has traveled to notable natural history museums at
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.”
Public Art and Placemaking
more viable, broad-based economy are Jackson’s great challenges. Most crucial is ensuring we promote and protect our wildlife, its habitat and other environmentally sensitive areas. In our region, the arts are a keystone in preserving place. Although our Town Square’s monument, various land art and myriad creative educational projects provide continual reminders of our inherent love for the arts, we’ve so far not included researching and moving towards making the arts a part of our “constitution,” as it were. We can remind ourselves and all visitors of this history by including beautiful and lasting public place making in our Comprehensive Plan. Such planning aids in building tourism and strong market values. Think logo.
Art captures the essence of the places dear to our hearts. Successful public art resonates on a national level. Our traditional themes may be translated traditionally; they may also be translated using contemporary aesthetics and materials.
If you missed, as I did, the opening of
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Where is the 
Utilizing a 