Jackson Hole Art Blog

Lately, plein air painter Jen Hoffman has been screeching.  “Scree!”  I suspected she’d mistaken herself for a hawk, but she’s just excited about the National Museum of Wildlife Art’s upcoming exhibit, Birds of Sage and Scree.  Twenty-seven paintings by artist Greg McHuron with correlating text by writer and conservationist Bert Raynes will be on display.  The show opens Thursday, March 4, 2010 and as  Raynes and McHuron wouldn’t think of not having a party, there is one!  The party starts at the Museum at 5:30 pm, with a targeted end time of 7:30 pm.    I predict a packed house.

Are there two more admired and loved men in Jackson? Two figures whose passions are never dimmed, whose work is more purely motivated…devoid of narcissism?  I don’t think so.  Franz Camenzind is the only activist/conservationist/artist who holds a candle.  These spiritual leaders follow their muse, waking up daily considering and honoring the natural beauty surrounding us.  They wonder what they can do next to help it all along, and they don’t think about how they might benefit professionally or politically.

Back to the point, the show.   McHuron’s paintings and Raynes’ text are combined in a book, also titled Birds of Sage and Scree. This party celebrates that book’s upcoming Spring 2010 release, the finish line to a collaborative quest.   All proceeds derived from book sales will benefit the Meg and Bert Raynes Wildlife Fund. That organization’s mission is to “…initiate, augment, or simply fund projects or activities to help maintain viable and sustainable wildlife populations into the future, especially in Wyoming and Jackson Hole, through support of research, education, habitat protection and habitat restoration.”

A Raynes-McHuron collaboration provides an excellent in-your-hands example of the power of connection between nature and art.  Wildlife art nurtures love for, and engagement with, the natural world.  This show and the book are beautiful, and they are a tool.  The exhibition is also an opportunity for NMWA to  “…highlight two long-time supporters of the Museum,” says Museum President and CEO James McNutt. “The show furthers the Museum’s mission to inspire visitors to examine both fine art and humanity’s relationship with nature.”

Raynes, with his late wife, Meg, have been recognized for their dedication to conservation and wildlife issues by the National Museum of Wildlife Art, the Wildlife Heritage Foundation, the Wyoming Chapter of the Wildlife Society, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, the Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance, and the Town of Jackson.   As the book profile on Raynes notes, he “….noticed that some promising bird habitats with difficult access got (little) attention. In particular, Raynes found that students in beginning birding classes tended to avoid scree slopes and attempting to cross expanses of sagebrush. Thus, birds that inhabit these ecosystems are lesser known. (Raynes) has long thought that these birds should be better understood.”

Greg McHuron especially delights in painting en plein aire in locations ranging from northern Alaska to the Grand Canyon. McHuron regularly participates in the Museum’s Western Visions® show and received numerous awards and special recognition from his peers and the Museum. In 2009, his painting Alpine Flush won the Trustee’s Purchase Award.

“I prefer painting…en plein air as the drama and excitement that occurs all around me is difficult to recreate in a studio environment,” notes McHuron.  “When I paint the rapidly changing scenes, I put into each of them the feelings and excitement that I felt while watching the scene unfold. Years of watching, analyzing and learning from nature’s school ground has helped me to understand the interrelations between organic and inorganic entities and how different lighting, seasons and locations affect how they look and react. If I can capture that particular feeling, I know that those viewing my works will come to feel some of the emotions and excitement that motivated my wanting to record this particular fleeting moment.”

Birds of Sage and Scree remains on display through April 18, 2010.   Phone the Museum at 307.733.5771.

As this is the Jackson Hole Art Blog, and not the Irish Artists Look at America Blog, I should probably begin this post with my “Art for Dummies” discovery that Thomas Moran, famed portraitist of Yellowstone, was not the only artist in his family.   In fact, most of his immediate family were noted artists, a bit of art history I recently discovered.

Instead I’m opening by turning you on to Irish painter Tom Molloy’s exhibit at the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art.  Located in Ridgefield, Connecticut, the Aldrich is a gem, an “approachable” museum with great appeal.  A friend cautioned that the Aldrich was, at the time of our visit, “between exhibits.”  It was.  Most galleries were closed, but the exhibition we viewed was so powerful it was worth the time invested and more.

The show’s title, Tom Molloy, is as spare as this exhibit first appears. It is unusual because Molloy is an Irishman living in Ireland whose work is largely about American events and issues.  Akin to Pop Art, Molloy’s art utilizes real money, maps, other found objects and wordplay.  His “surgically precise” drawings and scale are magnetic.  Zoomed in, Molloy’s scathing opinions on global events, new world order and America’s role in global affairs reveal themselves.  Messages are punch-you-in-the-heart clear.

A self portrait depicts Molloy holding a newspaper featuring a photo of an Abu Ghraib detainee holding a photo depicting one of the detention facility’s nefarious prisoner abuses.  Map, one of Molloy’s best known works, is a cut dollar bill map of the world; not much larger than a dollar bill, we initially mistook the work for a wall doodle. Positioned at eye level, it is in fact a “….double-edged metaphor of American might and hegemony.”

Dead Texans, a series of fifty stamp sized portraits of death row prison inmates executed in that state during George W. Bush’s tenure as governor, captures each prisoner’s likeness, even providing glimpses of personality and fractured spirits. From a slight distance the portraits resemble inky thumbprints.  These men are simultaneously stripped of personal identity and confirmed as unique, individual beings. Each regards the viewer straight on.  Faintly visible penciled drawing grids further connote incarceration and the reality of fifty doomed destinies.

Standing in the gallery’s center, we realize that an exhibition as politically charged as this has yet to turn up in Jackson. With time, I believe we can open ourselves to exhibiting work with equal depth and commentary.

Tom Molloy remains on exhibit at the Aldrich until June 13 2010. Phone: 203.438.4519.

Item #2:

Went to dinner at my cousin’s house.  She’s a master artist in her own right, she needs to exhibit and show, show, show.

As we talked, she pointed out a substantially sized etching hanging over the sofa.  The work depicts a Pennsylvania open field, ringed by forest, and inhabited- Peaceable Kingdom style–by cows and other animals.  She pointed to the artist’s name:  Peter Moran (1841-1914).

My cousin found the etching at a flea market. She cleaned it up, and instantly spotted Moran’s signature.

Peter Moran, brother of Thomas Moran, favored Pennsylvania’s farmlands as subjects, but in 1890 he participated in the U.S. Indian census, and ventured into Yellowstone.  “Grand Tetons View” was, according to Grand Teton National Park, most likely painted while he was on that expedition.  A watercolor, this view captures the Tetons as they appeared from Idaho.  It is part of the permanent collection of the Roswell Museum and Art Center.

Peter Moran, the youngest brother in the Moran family, is said to have become his brother’s best art student.

Peter was three when his family arrived in America.  At age fifteen, he became a lithographer’s apprentice.  His interest in portraying animals was life long.  Moran’s efforts in this area are obvious;  the Teton painting seems an exercise compared to his animal scenes, which are rich in detailed devotion.

The Wyoming State Parks & Cultural Resources website has posted information on Cultural Trust Fund (WCTF) applications, currently available to download.

The deadline for completed applications is May 1, 2010; a postmark deadline.  Hand-delivery date deadline is April 30.   Draft proposals may be submitted no later than April 16.  Projects applying for funds must be “projects/events/activities that commence by July 1, 2010.”   Recipients must also complete a final report, due 60 days after project completion.

I clicked through the site to find out what kinds of projects are currently being funded with grant monies.  It’s a wonderful grouping:

“Learn by Using Museums,” a program developed by UW Art Museum Director and Chief Curator Susan Moldenhauer, covers the importance of museum-supported education.  Specifically, the Museum has created a Master Teacher program that helps students understand their place in history–and history itself—through art projects.  Arts curriculum are enhanced through teachers and venues wanting to collaborate.  Art is used to enrich all curriculum: math, history, language…any topic that does NOT include art can be enriched through art.

You can watch a short video on the project here.

Another project, the Paul Smith Children’s Village at the Cheyenne Botanic Gardens has opened. It includes a Secret Garden Wall and Puppet Theater. Laramie County School District #1 will benefit from future programs as well.

The Washakie Museum & Cultural Center, located in Worland, Wyoming, is not yet completed, but its schematics are complete and the facility should be opening very soon.   WCTF grants are helping fund interior museum equipment.   The museum’s director, Cheryl Reichelt, is happy to schedule tours of the almost-finished building.

To learn more about the Wyoming State Parks and Cultural grants program, contact Renee Bovee by phoning 307.777.6312.  Good luck!

Here in rural Connecticut, I can’t find a ding dang movie theater inside of 12 miles.  But the New York Times is sold in every nook and cranny;  weekends, I get it delivered.

Sitting in bed with the Sunday Times at 7:30 am, watching yet another raging New England gale blast the landscape, is one of life’s great pleasures.   Sorry, I’m still a hold-the-paper-in-your-hand kind of girl.  When I can be.   It’s civilized.  And so much more interesting in a sensory way.

I do recycle.  And my rabbits, Minnie & Pearl, make good use of old newspaper for certain projects of theirs. We’re efficient with our newspapers, o.k.?

Getting to the point, I want to make a point about the deep devotion the N.Y. Times has towards the arts.  It’s HUGE.  Of course, it is huge because New York is swimming in arts. You could spend a solid month viewing art in NYC and not come close to seeing everything.   More arts there than there are grains of salt in the ocean.

The arts are struggling, but for those cities and towns committed to their arts, they are a giant economic engine.  Stop and think.  How interesting is any city or town without its arts?  Without expression of environment and culture?   What would Jackson Hole be  without its galleries, without Dancers Workshop, Grand Teton Music Festival,  NMWA, the Art Association, the Center? Without pARTNERS?  Without Nicole Madison? Without Candra Day?  Tina Close? Without Rocky Vertone? Without David Swift and Tom Mangelsen and Jon Stuart and the Riddells? Teton Art Lab? Off Square and Jackson Community Theatres? Without venues like the Brew Pub and Pearl St. Bagels and Koshu and Elevated Grounds? Charlie Craighead? Without Missy Falcey, our fabulous Library and its programs and exhibits? Without our movie and playhouses?

We’re already finding out what it’s like without McCandless; we’ve found out what it’s like without other galleries that didn’t make it, and we’ll find out what it is like without a few more.

Well?

I wouldn’t live here.  Who’d want to? We’re not exactly ethnically diverse, so there’s no interest there.  If town didn’t exist and we were a park only, that would be one thing.  But we’re not.  We’re an urban center, we’re Wyoming’s equivalent of Connecticut’s Fairfield County. (Hey, I’m a hugely boring WASP…self-deprication here! And actually, Fairfield Co. is now much more ethnically diverse than Jackson…) What can keep us from being just another snow village country club? Art, for one thing.  All kinds of art.

This weekend, the New York Times has four sections devoted to the arts. A reflection of a reflection of commitment.  Here are a few items from those pages–along with one item from the Travel Section, often packed with arts news from around the globe.  (Because when people travel, they usually enjoy visiting regional art and architecture!):

The Whole Earth Catalog: The Prequel. The article reviews “Visions of the Cosmos: From the Milky Ocean to an Evolving Universe,” on view at the Rubin Museum of Art. Pull quote: “Western science and Eastern religion imagine the beyond.”

Time, the Infinite Storyteller. The article discusses the many ways that great institution, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, takes a visitor through time’s linked histories.

Growing Up Biracial Before Obama: Years of Pain and Eventual Progress. A theater review of a one-woman show at the Roy Arias Theater Center.

Nothing about “NINE.”

A 1965 film, Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster, is on view at MOMA.

George Orwell was born in…India?  A small article about restoring the author’s birthplace.

A music review of the band Soulive, on the occasion of the band’s 10th anniversary.

Small Museum Captures a Rare Chagall. London’s Jewish Museum of Art has acquired a rare depiction of the Holocaust, by Chagall.  The work is entitled “Apocalypse in Lilac: Capriccio.”  The work is perhaps the most “brutal and disturbing ever created by an artist primarily known for his brightly colored folkloric visions.”

A review of the show “Struttin’ With Some Barbeque,” featuring musicians Henry Butler and Donald Harrison.

Carmen.

36 Hours in Mountainous, Multicultural Tucson includes a mention of a great collection of American Photography, the Center for Creative Photography. You can also check out “Jet Age Graveyards” and the Titan Missile Museum—a largely underground nuclear silo not demolished, where you can get a quick view of a warhead “700 times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb.”

Degas Work Stolen from French Museum. Swiped while on loan from the Musee d’Orsay. (By the way, did Jackson’s police ever solve the mystery of the artworks stolen from galleries this past summer?)

Struggling Actor Tweaks Script, Buddy and Bodies.  A review of the movie “Film With Me In It,” a “…slender, supple comedy graced with appealing performers and laced with agreeable poison.”

So, Jackson Holers–next time you bump into one of our town’s creative souls, give them an extra big “Thankyou.”   And contribute what you can.  Maybe we can expand our arts coverage, and I and my rabbits will like that.

Jackson Hole plein air painter Jen Hoffman’s pastel Winding Through has won Best in Show in Bucks County, Pennsylvania’s First Annual Autumn Arts Painting Challenge. The work will be exhibited (along with other winning entries) during the month of March, 2010 at the Bucks County Gallery, in New Hope; Hoffman’s win will be chronicled in both American Artist and Pastel Journal.

Although the competition took place during Fall, the Gala Reception for this show happens next Spring, on March 6, at the Bucks County Gallery of Fine Art, and the show runs through March 31, 2010.

Not only did Hoffman win, she was presented with a 60-piece Terry Ludwig pastel set!

Hoffman’s star seems to be rising; she’s showing her work in other venues around the country and has been invited to show the West’s prestigious “The Russell,” the C.M. Russell Museum’s March fundraiser exhibition and sale.

In Jackson, Hoffman is represented by Galleries West Fine Art. Congratulations, Jen!

Item #2

There’s lots to do this holiday week, up at the  National Museum of Wildlife Art .  A partial (post-Christmas Day) schedule includes:

A free screening of the beloved PBS favorite, “Christmas in Yellowstone.” Go and watch on Sunday, December 27, beginning at 2:00 pm.  If you can’t get up in the Park this winter, this gorgeous film will take you there itself.  I believe the film also includes images from Grand Teton National Park; at least that’s what the promos on Public Television suggest; the Grand Teton and Sleeping Indian are featured in PBS spots for the show.

Art After Hours and Tapas Tuesday happen on December 29, with Museum galleries open 5-9:00 pm, and programming beginning at 7:30 pm.  The Museum will screen National Geographic’s documentary, “Eye of the Leopard.”

Check out everything NMWA at their website. Phone:  307.733.5771

PS: Did ya miss Bert Raynes‘  Christmas Eve “Chronicle” interview (conducted by local producer John Kerr) on Wyoming Public Television?  Me, too!  Click on this link ; once you’ve gotten to the “Chronicle” page, click on the new Video button, left side of the page, to find and view Bert’s interview.    Happy New Year, Bert!  Congratulations on your new chronicled status!  Miss you!

The first part of this series (planned as two parts, it is now a three-part) touched upon landscape designer Walter Hood’s cursory views on Jackson’s approach to its own landscape. This second installment addresses Hood’s vision for a new NMWA sculpture garden and connective earth design.

“It is not the stuff you have. It is the stuff you no longer have. A lot of planning is too much about “what we need” v.s. “what we have.” In a reciprocal way, planning should be about the things that connect us-how to connect us. That makes us special.” - Walter Hood

Walter Hood has travelled to Jackson Hole to consult with the National Museum of Wildlife Art (NMWA). In a recent edition of NMWA’s member publication Call of the Wild, Hood described the beginnings of his collaboration with NMWA that will, ideally, result in a new museum sculpture garden.

It’s not as if Hood’s work to date has included an ongoing interest in wildlife museums, but the environment and how people use it drive his work on the project. Process and progress, inspiration ignited by how people choose to make “place.” On a certain level, he says, it’s all the same, whether one is talking about a sculpture garden or an entire community.

“The museum is interesting in that there are these cultural artifices, pieces of art, that are trying to represent nature,” says Hood. It’s a bit ironic that bronze elk are stationed at the base of the Museum’s driveway right across from the Elk Refuge; the installation seems an attempt to convince the public that there is a connection between NMWA and the Refuge.

“If the landscape itself was powerful enough it could move people in fantastic ways. That is what I am interested in. Standing out on NMWA’s hill, is there a way to allow a visitor to be in the Refuge? It is possible. NMWA’s architecture builds on the idea that it is “with the landscape,” and ironically that is one of the issues they are dealing with.”

Hood believes he could scale and shift existing landscape, so that art as well as the landscape is legible. “Attempt to eliminate design dichotomy, the experience of being either here, or there - either at the museum or in the landscape; either in Jackson or in the landscape.”

Check out parking lot ratios to the buildings they serve, suggests Hood. Looking at the Museum’s site, the parking lot stretches incredibly far, perhaps taking more space than the building itself. Part of the lot might be converted to trail, and a pervious surface is healthier for surrounding growth than asphalt, an oil-based material.

Rarely filled, and within a couple of miles of town, a reduced parking lot would be no problem if more mass transit options existed. “You don’t even want to know what asphalt is doing the environment; pervious surfaces would change our world drastically.”

Will NMWA pursue traditional design for its sculpture garden? Hood thinks both representational and contemporary design will be utilized.

“As a designer I have my own preferences, but when I do work I accept that scope,” he affirms. “What they are interested is figurative art with a long tradition, pre-Renaissance. But they had a show last year with Picasso and other contemporary artists rendering wildlife. Fantastic! Jane (Jane Lavino, NMWA’s Sugden Family Curator of Education) talked about the possibility of having contemporary installation in the landscape that would talk about wildlife in very different ways. I think then the project becomes broader in scope.

It is not about placing things; it is about creating more of a visitor experience where you can have permanent and temporary pieces co-interacting in the setting. Helping people make discoveries without bringing in the artificial. We have some strong ideas on how that might be achieved. It is my job to provoke. NMWA has the ability to create amazing indoor and outdoor experiences, and those are what museums are about today. It could be fabulous!”

It’s all already there. It’s only a question of how to make it visible.

Wildlife photographer Tom Mangelsen’s October presentation at the National Museum of Wildlife Art was so packed, they had to send people away.  So, Mangelsen is generously presenting his program again–at NMWA–on Thursday, November 19th, at 7:00 p.m.  Mangelsen will talk about his nature photography, specifically the work now on view at the Museum.  That exhibition, “The Natural World: Photographs by Thomas D. Mangelsen,” is on display through April 25th, 2009.

I can make this one, yay!   By the way, the last post on Mangelsen’s show was Twittered about, out in the enviromental-creative universe….proof we’re all connected.  Proof that Wyoming’s artists are among the best in the world when it comes to representing this powerful place.

For information, give NMWA a call at 307.733.5771 or log on to www.wildlifeart.org.

Item #2:  Repeat Arts Grant Opportunities

A second deadline has been added to receive grant money from Art Works of Wyoming (AWW), a Wyoming Arts Council program.  Funding comes from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Timeline is as follows:

• December 11, 2009 2nd deadline to apply for AWW funds.

• February 11-12, 2010 WAC Board meeting and 2nd Art Works for Wyoming Panel.

• February 19, 2010 Award letters for second funding deadline issued.

For full details and guidelines, log onto the Wyoming Arts website here.

Item #3:

Colorado landscape painter David W. Mayer’s paintings “Autumn at String Lake” and “Spring Runoff” are to be included in the C.M. Russell Art Auction, in Great Falls, Montana next Spring.  The auction takes place March 17-20.

Mayer, a colleague of painters Scott Christensen, T. Allen Lawson and other painters; he is an acolyte of such writers and artists as Richard Schmid, Edgar Payne, Joaquin Sorolla and the California Impressionists.

The C.M. Russell Art Auction is juried.

Teton County Parks & Recreation sends word that they are in need of the following items for a large-scale children’s crafts project.  The Kids Club After School program will undertake the project in December.  If you or your friends are inclined to save items from your recycling, TCP&R can use the following items; these can be dropped off at the Rec Center in town….that’s where the big pool is, ya’ll.    Thanks from them, in advance for your…

Small cardboard boxes - cereal boxes - snack boxes - paper towel tubes - toilet tissue tubes - extra cardboard - plastic bottles - socks - buttons - any small and large boxes - egg cartons.

What, no string?  No yarn?  Ask about yarn and string.

Maybe a Christmas Village is in the works?   Contact Angela York, Youth Recreation Coordinator, at 307.732.5756 or (cell) 307.200.1565.

Item #2:  National Museum of Wildlife Art’s “Harvest on the Hill”

One of the valley’s favorite fall family traditions happens soon: The National Museum of Wildlife Art’s November “Harvest on the Hill” celebration.  The special First Sunday event takes place Sunday, November 1, 1-4:00 pm, at the museum. Free to area locals - the first 600 to arrive get a free T-shirt - the afternoon is filled with fun events.  A “Harvest” stalwart, Deanna Banana the Clown, will be on hand.  The musical group Two Rivers will perform their own brand of “Celtic Western” music and a leaf print arts project activity for kids and adults takes place 1-3:00 p.m.  And, of course, be sure to enjoy the Museum’s galleries; leave your cider in the lobby, though!

Arrive early!  The tees are popular and this is one of Fall’s best family events.  Gets you in the spirit. Leaf bag fights optional.  For information, call 307.733.5771.

Item #3:  LMC’s Boo-yah!

Lyndsay McCandless Contemporary’s Halloween party plan is this:  Macbeth Party!  The gallery space hosts a “lively evening” of costume contests and playing around, Halloween-style.  There will be sword fights, and members of Off Square Theatre’s Macbeth cast will make spooky, spectral appearances.  Bring lots of garlic and dry ice for the cauldron.  The fun happens October 30, 6-9:00 pm at Lyndsay McCandless Contemporary, on South Jackson Street.

Item #4:  Coffee

My friend Jim VanNostrand, who is in St. John’s hospital, inspired by a giant hospital coffee machine, asked me to put this bit of philosophy on my blog:  “There Is No Life Before Coffee!”

Feel better, Jim!  Love, Tammy

The Art Association has named a new Executive Director: Jennifer Crawford. Karen Stewart, outgoing director, says Crawford has strong arts credentials, “infectious energy and ideas.”  Crawford takes over in January, 2010.  She replaces Stewart, who led the Art Association through 16 years of growth.  She guided the Association’s transition to its current home at the Jackson Hole Center for the Arts. Stewart will retire at the end of January.

Congratulations to Jennifer Crawford, and KUDOS, KUDOS, KUDOS to Karen as she begins the next phase of her life with family, friends and great projects.

NOW….

Jackson artist Jenny Dowd is being honored at her alma mater, the University of Missouri. The university’s first Alumni Exhibition features Dowd’s sculptural aged forms…forms that look like teeth and books.  We wrote about that, and we are proud to have collaborated with Dowd on her Blurb Book, “Collection.” Dowd and her husband Sam work for Jackson’s Art Association, and are noted for their sculptural works;  Jenny is inspired by history, data and nature, while Sam creates fanciful, orbital and aerial inspired-forms, forms that would transfer very well to claymation.   Jenny’s work was also featured in the Premio Fondazione Arnaldo Pomodoro International Competition for Young Sculptors in Milan, Italy.

Item #2: Charlotte’s Arts - Why Not Here? Connect the Dots!

Charlotte, South Carolina’s arts, that is.  Charlotte’s Mayor Joseph Riley is solidly behind public arts initiatives in his city—and he’s been re-elected for NINE terms!  I’m excerpting some highlights from an article on the subject, compiled by various Gazette-Virginian staff, here:

“The arts, public grounds/parks and historic preservation are “the three basic reasons, the initiators” of Charleston, S.C.’s phenomenal change, keynote speaker Mayor Joseph Riley told Art & Creative Economy Conference guests, town and county officials Wednesday.”

Oh heck.  I’m crunched for time.  Here’s the rest of the article, and it’s a good one. I’ve italicized major points.

“Riley described downtown Charleston as almost dead in 1977, the year the Spoleto Festival USA debuted there. “But the arts, all those people coming, and all the flowerings started” igniting the rebirth of the downtown district.

However,  the seminal course change almost floundered.

Initially composer Gian Carlos Menotti started an arts festival in Spoleto, Italy in 1958, and a North American “sister city” was sought.

Charleston went courting, but some on the committee were not delighted with all aspects of the Italian festival – finances were described as a mess - and worried a similar event in Charleston might have a negative impact on the community and the existing arts.

Riley - backed by the committee’s 6-5 vote tabling the disbandment motion - fought for Spoletto Festival USA, “to make ourselves a stage for the arts.”

The city began raising money and cleaning up for the event.

Today, the 17-day Spoletto’s phenomenal impact on the arts and economy continues. “Spoletto began the artistic renaissance of Charleston. It’s never been so robust, but it goes so far beyond that,” he added, naming development of magnet schools for the arts at the high and middle school level.

The arts also are being used as a unifying theme to reach kids in an inner-city school.

“We are teaching everybody,” added Riley, describing the wonderful spectrum of the city.

The quality of life in Charleston also makes recruiting easier for businesses, Riley noted, with one businessman naming that asset as making it easier for him to recruit the employees he needs.

Historic Preservation
In the early 20th century, some wanted to tear down Rainbow Row, recalled Riley. “The ladies rose up, taking a stand for preservation,” he recalled.

Today, Charleston boasts the first Preservation Ordinance in America.

When the historic buildings are preserved for adaptive reuse, the structure takes on a forever aspect, according to the mayor. “You can’t create this from scratch,” he added, emphasizing the city’s historic preservation as one of the three basic reasons for its great revival and success.

Public Parks
“It is very important that there be public places,” emphasized Riley. “The more the better. The public realm is so important,” he repeated.

Vision, a hefty $750,000 private donation and creative negotiations with a property owner ultimately resulted in the city’s Waterfront Park.

“No one can imagine Charleston without Waterfront Park,” added Riley. “The community adores it. The moral imperative is that we make sure the city is an inspirational place for everyone,” he said.

The park also elevated the notion of the public realm, going to the extra effort to create beautiful places for the public, according to the mayor.

Charleston also fought for a bridge with bike and pedestrian paths, opening yet another avenue to the public, recalled the mayor.

“Great towns or cities, the size doesn’t matter, these principles are universal,” said the mayor, who speaks with almost 34 years experience as a master of transition in Charleston.

Prior to Mayor Riley’s introduction, one county businessman and civic leader observed: “I hope people can connect the dots linking the arts and the economy and ask, ‘Why not here?’”

“The Earth is at a crossroads never before experienced. My hope is that we begin a new path, one of enlightenment, understanding, appreciation, and tolerance for all living things.” - Tom Mangelsen.

Here in Jackson Hole, wildlife photographer Tom Mangelsen needs no introduction.  Our arts, particularly our conservation-based arts, have long looked to his intuitive, prescient practice of seeking out species and their habitats around the globe.   Tom Mangelsen is a given, thank goodness. But preservation of wildlife, its assured survival, will never be a “given.”  We are responsible, and Mangelsen has taken up the sword.  He won’t put it down.

His awards include “Outstanding Nature Photographer of the Year” honors from the North American Nature Photographer Association and “Wildlife Photographer of the Year” from the BBC.

So welcome the chance to take in his work - a significant and renowned oeuvre - and reconnect to the wildlife and landscapes Mangelsen spends eight months a year exploring.  The National Museum of Wildlife Art opens “On the Natural World: Photographs by Thomas D. Mangelsen,” on October 1.  The exhibition remains up through April 25, 2010.

“These animals, even the most seemingly insignificant ones, are the barometer of the health of this planet,” says Mangelsen.  “It doesn’t take long to realize that we are on that same chain, we are all linked in nature.”

I am the proud owner of Mangelsen’s quintessential book, “The Natural World.” It is a prized possession.  Through his looking glass I peer. I close my eyes, fan the pages and stop.  I do this several times, opening my eyes to see where I’ve landed.

Lord, he’s been written about.  But my guess is, Tom (May I call you “Tom?”) is most proud of his connection to Jane Goodall, Founder of the Jane Goodall Institute and a UN Messenger of Peace. She thanks Tom for his “magnificent enterprise,” and she speaks of his work:

“There I found myself in a magic place, for the breathtaking photographs around the walls transported me to faraway countries, some loved and familiar so that looking at them woke a yearning to be back, others that provided tantalizing images of other worlds I had yet to experience.  Here, at last, were photographs that had captured…the very essence of the wilderness scenes depicted.”

I wish I could be there this Thursday, but I’m traveling.  You all go, you hear?   What better place to take in Mangelsen’s work than within the rustic stone walls of the Museum, crouched on its butte like a watchful cougar?

For information, log on to www.wildlifeart.org or phone 307.733.5771.