Jackson Hole Art Blog

2009 Jackson Hole Fall Arts Festival Schedule of Events

(Note: This calendar reflects ongoing and slated events beginning Wednesday, Sept. 16.  For a complete calendar of events,  visit www.jacksonholechamber.com)

SPECIAL NOTE:  R. Tom Gilleon, 2009’s Fall Arts Festival Poster Artist, will sign posters of his painting “Yellow Leaves Moon” (50″x50″ oil), above, at ALTAMIRA FINE ART, a change from original venue plans.  Prior to the Fall Arts Festival, the painting is on display at the historic Wort Hotel, in Jackson.  See details below for Wednesday, September 16. Galleries West Fine Art

7th Fall Round Up
This annual Fall Arts Festival group show features new works by all of Galleries West artists. Please note:  Artists’ reception takes place during the Wednesday (September 16) night ART walk.

Galleries West Fine Art, 307-733-4412 www.gallerieswestjacksonhole.com

The Best of Astoria, September 11-20th
Includes the 2nd Annual Greg Beecham Wildlife Showcase. Astoria Fine Art, 307-733-4016, www.astoriafineart.com

J.H. Art Association: Members Only Exhibition
View  an eclectic and extensive body of work by hundreds of talented Art Association members.   On display through November 30.    Check it out at the Artspace Lobby Gallery, Center for the Arts.

Mountain Trails’ “American Visions Group Show”

Running Sept.  1-20.  The show features all Mountain Trails artists, with several being on hand and demonstrating throughout the Festival.  These artists are:  Carrie Fell (Grand Opening), Ken Rowe, Buckeye Blake, Jeff Ham and Vic Payne. Call Lisa Shannon for details!  Her phone:  307.734.8150.

A Horse of a Different Color Gallery:
Toland Sand
Celebrate Toland Sand, an internationally known glass artist. His medium is cold-worked glass, the creation of glass sculpture by constructing three-dimensional forms. On display through September 30.  307-734-9603

Wednesday, September 16

Jewelry and Artisan Luncheon at Teton Pines

In conjunction with the National Museum of Wildlife Art’s Western Visions Show & Sale, enjoy an elegant luncheon at Teton Pines Resort & Country Club. Artisans (jewelry, fiber and leather) preview and sell their handmade goods. Ladies only! Register by September 10, 2009 by calling 307-732-5412.

11:00am – 4:00pm.
$100 per person or $500 per person for a package including Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday plus other Western Visions events.
www.WesternVisions.org

Gallery ARTWalk   5:00-8:00 pm
Join more than 30 Jackson art galleries for the special Wednesday ARTWalk. Enjoy fine art and experience the vibrant Jackson art scene. Look for the ART walk banners!  Various locations, see gallery map, 5:00-8:00pm, open to the public.

Poster Signing with Tom Gilleon at Altamira Fine Art
3:00-5:00 pm
Meet Fall Arts Festival poster artist Tom Gilleon and receive a personally signed poster of his featured painting, “Yellow Leaves Moon.” Altamira Fine Art, 3:00-5:00pm, open to the public.  An artist’s reception follows immediately after.   307-734-8150.

Galleries West Fine Art, 5:00-8:00pm
Reception for the 7th Fall Round Up. Meet and visit with many Galleries West artists.
307-733-4142, www.gallerieswestjacksonhole.com.

Thursday, September 17

Wild West Preview Party 6:30-10:30 pm
As part of the 22nd Annual Western Visions, artists and patrons have an opportunity to view the art, place their ballots, and mingle. The Jewelry and Artisan Show & Sale, Photography Show & Sale and Sketch Show & Sale are also open to the public during this event and the artisans are in residence. The evening includes delicious fare, a full bar and entertainment. Register by September 10, 2009 by calling 307-732-5412.

Location: National Museum of Wildlife Art
$100 per person or $500 per person for a package including Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, plus other events.
www.WesternVisions.org

Center Street Gallery, 5:00-8:00pm
Marshall Noice and Robert Deurloo Show
Marshall Noice is a contemporary landscape oil painter from Kalispell, MT. Robert Deurloo is a wildlife sculptor working in bronze and exotic patinas from Salmon, ID.
307-733-1155, www.centerstreetgallery.com

Friday, September 18

22nd Annual Miniatures and More Show & Sale,  5:30-9:30pm
This is the final opportunity to place bids prior to the evening’s drawing and auction. The evening features hors d’oeuvres and beverage, and most importantly, the names of the winning bidders are drawn. The Jewelry and Artisan Show & Sale, the Photography Show & Sale and the Sketch Show & Sale will be on display and guests are invited to make purchases. Call 307-732-5412. Register by September 10, 2009. Call 307-732-5412.

Location: National Museum of Wildlife Art, 5:30-9:30pm.
$100 per person or $500 per person for a package including Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, plus other events.
www.WesternVisions.org

Legacy of Nature Group Show, 1:00-4:00pm
The Legacy of Nature Group Show featuring wildlife and sporting art. Artists include paintings by Ken Carlson, Luke Frazier, Michael Coleman, Brian Grimm, Chad Poppleton, Julie T. Chapman, Trevor Swanson, Jan Martin McGuire, and sculptures by Ken Bunn and Tim Shinabarger.

Legacy Gallery.  307-733-2353, www.legacygallery.com

E.I. Couse, (1866-1936), "Moonlight"

Jackson Hole Art Auction Preview 10:00 am – 7:00 pm
The Jackson Hole Art Auction is a premier Western Art Auction featuring art from Past and Present Masters of the American West. Historically recognized Western American Art is the focus, including works by the Taos Society of Artists, Deceased American Masters and Top Contemporary Western and Wildlife Artists. The Jackson Hole Art Auction is presented in association with Trailside Galleries and Gerald Peters Gallery.

Location: Center for the Arts
866-549-9278; www.jacksonholeartauction.com

Saturday, September 19

14th Annual Jackson Hole QuickDraw Art Sale & Auction
9:30 a.m.
Nationally, regionally and locally recognized artists paint and sculpt while spectators look on. Each new artwork will be auctioned off following an hour-long “draw.”  “Yellow Leaves Moon,” 2009’s featured poster artwork by R. Tom Gilleon, will also be auctioned.

Location: Jackson Town Square, 9:30am, open to the public.
Please note 2009’s earlier time slot for this event.

Jackson Hole Art Auction Start: 1:00 p.m.
The Jackson Hole Art Auction is a premier Western Art Auction featuring art from Past and Present Masters of the American West. Historically recognized Western American Art is the focus, including works by the Taos Society of Artists, Deceased American Masters and Top Contemporary Western and Wildlife Artists. The Jackson Hole Art Auction is presented in association with Trailside Galleries and Gerald Peters Gallery.

Location: Jackson Hole Center for the Arts
866-549-9278; www.jacksonholeartauction.com

Galleries West Open House, All Day
Visit the gallery any time throughout the day for hors d’oeuvres and beverages. Many Fall Round-Up artists will be on hand during the day.

Galleries West Gallery
307-733-4412, www.gallerieswestjacksonhole.com

Trailside Galleries Fall Gold Show, 3:00-6:00pm
This annual event will show new works by all of their gallery artists with special showcases for Kyle Sims (wildlife painter), Lindsay Scott (wildlife artist), Bonnie Marris (wildlife painter), a small grouping by Mian Situ (Chinese figural painter) as well as a small grouping by wildlife painters Adam and Dan Smith.
307-733-3186, www.trailsidegalleries.com.

SPECIAL EVENT:  JACKSON HOLE CONSERVATION ALLIANCE CELEBRATES 30 YEARS WITH “THE ART OF CONSERVATION: 30 ARTISTS, 30 YEARS.”

This event coincides with Jackson’s Fall Arts Festival.   The Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance’s 30th Anniversary gala takes place at the Jackson Lake Lodge this evening, beginning at 5:30 p.m.   A live and silent auction featuring works by renowned artists follows, and benefits the Alliance’s across-the-board conservation efforts.   Participating artists want to make a difference, and you can, too.

A highlight of the auction is Robert Bateman’s “Bison,” a limited edition print not commercially available.  A great American icon, the bison remains under stress, a symbol of conservation controversy.  Two works by Bateman, including “Bison,” will be auctioned at 7:15 p.m. The  auction includes oil paintings, watercolors, photography,  bronzes, hand blown glass, ilfochrome, pastels, and more.  Participating artists include:

Huntley Baldwin, Robert Bateman, Elke Bieber, Tina Close, Luke
Frazier, Natalie Goss, Eliot Goss, Jeff Hogan, Henry Holdsworth, Kal
Kallaugher, Fred Kingwill, Thomas Mangelsen, Mimi Matsuda, Pamela
McCool, Greg McHuron, Dee Parker, Mary Rasmussen, Audrey Roll-
Preissler, William Sawczuk, Kay Stratman, Lee Stroncek, Laurie Thal,
Shannon Troxler, Amy Unfried, September Vhay, Mary O. Waid, and
Andrew Weller.

Bidders may register for absentee bidding.  Post-dinner admission is also available.  For information, contact the Jackson Hole Conservation
Alliance office at (307) 733-9417.

• Sunday, September 20

Art Brunch Gallery Walk,  11:00 am – 3:00 pm
Join Jackson’s 30-plus art galleries for brunch and festive beverages at this Fall Arts Festival closing-day celebration!  Brunch, Bloody Marys, and spectacular art.

Various gallery locations, see gallery map, 11:00am-3:00pm, open to the public.

West Lives On Gallery Open House, 10:00am-4:00pm
Featuring over 12 of West Lives On Gallery artists.
307-734-2888, www.westliveson.com.

Monday, September 21

Sleep…………….(All Day)

It’s here!  Can you believe it?   I can’t.   Here we go…Fall Arts Festival starts NOW.

Trailside Galleries’ September line-up is remarkable.   September 1-20th, its annual “Fall Gold” spectacular will showcase an almost impossibly extensive selection of wildlife, cowboy, landscape and other manner of Western art.   The show will be up most of the month; “Fall Gold’s” opening reception happens Saturday, September 19, 3-6:00 p.m. Many Trailside artists will be in attendance, and the list of artists represented in this year’s show is:

Cyrus Afsary, Bill Anton, Wayne Baize, Gerald Balciar, Bruce Cheever, Brent Cotton, Pino Dangelico, Stan Davis, John DeMott, Andrew Denman, Michael Desatnick, Robert Duncan, Nancy Glazier, Michael Godfrey, Veryl Goodnight, Lanny Grant, George Hallmark, Matthew Hillier, Terry Isaac, Joffa Kerr, Francois Koch, Calvin Liang, Z.S. Liang, Mike Malm, Dan McCaw, Danny McCaw, Greg McHuron, Dan Mieduch, Jim Morgan, Brenda Murphy, Scott Myers, George Northup, Ralph Oberg, Dino Paravano, Andrew Peters, Howard Rogers, Sherry Sander, Bill Sawczuk, Lindsay Scott, John Seerey-Lester, Suzie Seerey-Lester, Mian Situ, Ryan Skidmore, Adam Smith, Dan Smith, Tucker Smith, Gordon Snidow, George Strickland, Richard D. Thomas, Kent Ullberg, Curt Walters, Morgan Weistling, Kathy Wipfler, Sarah Woods, David Yorke and Jie Wei Zhou.

Trailside shines a special light on new works by wildlife artists Kyle Sims, Bonnie Marris (she has a gift for portraying grizzlies–check out the work over Emma’s desk, upstairs at J.H. Auction headquarters), Lindsay Scott, Dan Smith and Adam Smith. Each artist will have their own showcase; an artists’ reception will be held for these artists at Trailside on Saturday, September 19th.

If that isn’t enough, Western art legends Mian Situ and Richard D. Thomas will have their own showcases too.

How does Trailside pull all this off?  With a remarkably energetic, devoted staff and two floors of gallery space, which, if you haven’t seen it, is impressive.

Trailside Galleries partners with the Gerald Peters Gallery for the 2009 Jackson Hole Art Auction, taking place September 19 at the Jackson Hole Center for the Arts.

For information, email Cara Kelly at cara@trailsidegalleries.com.

Jeff Ham and Malcolm Furlow open a new show, “The West – Expressions in Color,” August 1 – 15, at Mountain Trails Gallery. An artists’ reception takes place  Thursday,  August 6,  5-8 p.m.  Mountain Trails is ensconced in its new space, on the northeast corner of Jackson Town Square.  Haven’t been in?  Now’s your chance–both artists will be on hand.

Is it me, or does this gentleman look angry? Ham portraits have conveyed pride, spirituality…check his earlier  big, brightly painted, delineated portraits.  They’re thinking, “I’m huge.  I’m beautiful.  I’m iconic.”   Now, paint is thrown in the face of confidence, a bloodied history is realized, and Ham’s “Blue Indian” is tear tracked, a devastating accusation in his eyes.

This evolved perspective is a good reason to check out Ham’s new works.    His color and composition spring from a background in illustration — Ham is a Disney veteran.

“I do my best to translate emotion and feelings into color and communicate my individual interpretation of each subject,” he explained. ”My goal is to capture spontaneity. As an artist I am learning to express myself in an honest and straightforward manner.”

Malcolm Furlow wears a coat of many painting colors; his vivid canvases reflect a love of the outdoors, landscape, Western history, cowboys and wildlife.

Furlow lives and works primarily at his northern New Mexico ranch. Sitting under the pinion trees provides  peace and solitude that feed his creative soul.   I remember a story about a bull, Ferdinand, who sat under a cork tree smelling flowers, away from all the other sparring, fighting bulls.   It’s a story of peace.  307.734.8150.

Item #2:

Lyndsay McCandless plans on pulling out another First Friday this month.  She’s got rocker Charlotte Potter and Friends set to play at Lyndsay McCandless Contemporary on Friday, August 7.

That’s great music.   Drove by the gallery the other day, and McCandless still has works up; she’s not done.   Perhaps she should just turn it all into a nightclub?   A coffee house?   We don’t have a coffee house. The kind with beatnik poets and red checked table cloths.  Maybe Mike Bressler would show up and do a reading.  Pay for his food.  We don’t have a university town bookstore/bistro kind of place, where ensembles play cellos in the corner, and there are shelves and shelves of things to read, book-related items to buy, newspapers from around the world, AND art on the wall…ALL IN ONE PLACE.   Breakfast would be nice, too.

Give 10% to the Art Blog, please.   (nod, nod, wink, wink!)

PS:  Lyndsay McCandless is promoting her new venture, SLAM, a farmer’s market for artists taking place on Saturdays, at 10:00 am – 5:00 pm, at the gallery.  Finish up at the Town Square Farmer’s Market, then head on over to Jackson Street.   734.0649.

Item #3

CIAO Gallery’s deadline for entry to Nocturnes: Art Inspired by the Night was July 31, but give gallery director Michelle Walters a call if you missed it.  Walters tells me that anyone applying for CIAO exhibitions can do so online, via the gallery’s website.  “Nocturnes” opening reception is scheduled for Saturday, August 22.

CIAO’s next deadline, for its 2nd Annual Call of the Wild is August 7th.  The show will run during Fall Arts Festival week.  Check the website’s “Call to Artists” tab.   For more information contact Walters, or visit www.ciaogallery.com.

The National Endowment for the Arts is in the process of reviewing the applications that were received for Recovery Act funds.  The NEA received approximately 2,400 applications requesting support for projects that focus on the preservation of jobs in the arts, now under review.  The amount of money requested by applicants far exceeds the nearly $30 million available for grants.

For Wyoming this means that, if an application is denied, applicants can look to other possible NEA sources:

•    Wyoming’s state arts agency deadline has passed, but there may be a second deadline January 15, 2010, depending on funding.

•    A designated local arts agency that receives Recovery Act funding. (See the list of state arts agencies and regional arts organizations on the NEA Web site; a list of local arts agencies that receive Recovery Act funding will be available in July.)

Applicants are encouraged to consider the NEA’s traditional funding opportunities: the Access to Artistic Excellence category deadline is August 13. The NEA Chairman will make final decisions on Recovery Act funding following the meeting of the National Council on the Arts at the end of June. Applicants will be informed of funding in July. In the meantime, check the “Recovery” section of the NEA web site for the most up to date information on all aspects of the NEA’s Recovery Act program.    http://www.arts.gov/

Jackson Hole artist Suzanne Morlock will join the U.S. non-profit Cross Cultural Collaboration (www.culturalcollaborative.org) , an educational organization working with students from around the world, to work on a variety of paper-making projects in Ghana, Africa. Morlock will spend three weeks this August in Ghana, fulfilling a mission to promote cultural exchange and understanding through art.

Although Ghana provides six years of free, compulsory education, school curriculums are limited, says Morlock.  “There is a focus on reading, writing and math, but no exploration of technology or the arts,” she says.

Morlock, Teton County Library’s Public Service Manager, will work with over 40 students daily at Aba House, CCC’s cultural center.  She will supervise current projects and create new ones using papers from locally grown sugar cane fibers.

While teaching artistic techniques, these craft projects have another
purpose: creating saleable items to help students earn money for school supplies not provided by state sponsored schools. Morlock lists books, pencils and writing paper as some of the basics students still need.   She adds that the summer should see the addition of a new library and webpage design project at Aba House.

Morlock says that though weekends are weekends, children come to the program seven days a week.  The kids are learning values, rather than simply relying on bartering or begging.  Children will work with other mediums and create art using materials other than paper.

“Here in Jackson we are experiencing some economic slowdowns, and I believe this kind of service is even more important as we realize how connected we are globally.  Culturally diverse experiences strengthen and influence our communications as humans living on one planet. I’m sure I will learn more than I will teach,” says Morlock, who also needs help now with projects such as gathering and shipping books, computers and art accessories to Africa.

Want to know more?  Contact Suzanne Morlock by emailing nungua.ghana@gmail.com.

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.

It’s not supposed to be this mellow in Jackson Hole on Memorial Day.  Earlier in the weekend, a friend emailed me to find out what was happening in the arts over the holiday.  My answer was….not much.  No big parties or receptions.  No extravaganzas; I wasn’t even certain all the galleries would be open.

Our galleries are gasping for breath.  I’ve posted an idea about window art being utilized to fill and brighten empty storefronts; sent a letter to the editor at the Jackson Hole News & Guide that has yet to appear.   Which is o.k., because we’ve got some mega-issues going on with our revised Comprehensive Plan.

We need some stop gap action, though; simple, non-political gestures to shore us all up while the economy writhes and we search for a livable future for Jackson.  Our Center for the Arts needs a loan, galleries have closed, artists are scrambling. Artists are leaving, too. Comprehensive Plans include internal solutions, solutions that don’t have to do with sketching out a building, but that include using our hearts, minds and space in the most giving ways.

Ok, enough.   In the end, Jackson’s future is about how we decide to act in this community.

Earlier this spring Bruce Richardson, Chair of the Wyoming Arts Council, spoke on the subject of the importance of arts to our economy.   Richardson, a board member of the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies, takes the elusive, often seemingly quirky and odd aspects of art, and boils it all down to sensibility. Here’s Richardson’s essay, taken from the Wyoming Arts Council Blog. Note his point about the number of people working in the arts in Montana.

Arts Mean Business
By Bruce Richardson

I am here to talk about the ordinariness of arts and why include them in job bills and economic development. Simply put, arts are business and the arts business, both for-profit and non-profit, is a substantial part of the Wyoming economy.

People tend to think of art as odd and special, a separate, realm of elevated, difficult and unusual activities done by talented, but eccentric, flaky people. People remember Beethoven’s genius and bad temper, Vincent Van Gogh’s ear-chopping, and think of starving writers not paying the rent (as in the musical Rent).

In fact, most art workers are pretty regular people. They take and sell photos, repair instruments, plan buildings, design websites, make and sell jewelry, build hand-crafted furniture, teach guitar, fiddle, oboe, make and market sculpting tools, sculpt antlers into beautiful objects and sell them over the web, frame pictures, paint portraits, play Mexican dance music at your wedding, do entertaining and uplifting concerts, make fine pottery, do leathercraft, sell paintings in a downtown gallery and design your building.

All of these are businesses in Wyoming. The owners rent or own property, buy supplies, pay insurance and taxes, pay salaries, buy groceries and furniture and participate in the local economy just as do the owners and employees of manufacturing companies or coal companies.

So the arts portion of the stimulus bill makes good sense. The grants that will go out in Wyoming must be used to preserve significant jobs in non-profit arts organizations facing cutbacks. As reported in The Casper Journal, arts organizations such as the Symphony and Nicolaysen Art Museum have suffered from decreases in their endowments, donations and fund-raising.

The Arts are taking an especially big hit as philanthropy moves their diminished resources to others areas. Layoffs and canceled programs are a likely result that can hit small towns as well as large. We want to see the robust Oyster Ridge Music Festival in Kemmerer or the Basin Art Center continue to thrive. In the performing arts, a cancelled concert is similar to a layoff. Musicians lose work and money, the audience loses a program, and the organization loses the ticket and sponsorship income.

The small stimulus allotments contemplated by the Wyoming Arts Council will be out there fast and function as a short-term bridge to preserve jobs in the arts. The program will not remove all the threats to jobs, but it is timely, targeted and temporary.

Some may be surprised how many people in Wyoming make their living from the arts. In Sheridan there are 1,123 people (5.8% of the labor force) working in the creative, arts-based economy according to a recent, very careful study, “Tradition, Expression and Recognition: Creative Opportunities in the New West.” Stuart Rosenfeld, the author, gets his data from on-the-ground counts that find the self-employed and others not listed on the standard sources. He also found a cluster of leather and saddle artisans.

The study (available from the Center for Vital Communities in Sheridan) is of significance to the whole state and our efforts to increase economic diversity and attract top creative talent. There is much here already that we can nurture.

For example, the arts economy in Jackson, according to a recent study by Americans for the Arts (Arts and Prosperity III), is one of the largest in the nation. While the study, using Dunn and Bradstreet lists, misses much of the activity, it does allow comparisons and they are staggering. Jackson has ten times more arts spending per-capita than Boulder, Colorado, and twenty times more than Boise, Idaho, both places that promote themselves as arts centers. Cody, not included in the study, is probably not far behind Jackson, and clusters of activity can be found in many Wyoming communities, including Casper.

This matches national trends. Rosenfeld found that the arts economy in Arkansas was the state’s third largest employer and that in Montana, astoundingly, there were more people working in the arts than in the energy industry. It’s no surprise then that arts councils are often part of state offices of economic development, as is the case in Louisiana and Connecticut and that many towns actively recruit artists and promote themselves as arts destinations. Winston-Salem, North Carolina, a decaying manufacturing city has made a huge comeback by stressing music, pottery and food. Each night the downtown swarms with young shoppers and music lovers having a good time and spending money.

We know that appealing towns have lots of arts and that arts draw people and businesses. We also know that arts are fun, that they give pleasure and meaning, that strong art lifts the soul and unclutters the mind.

As a friend once said to me, “Looks like I’m somewhere I don’t like being–out of the loop!”

Though I’ve known Lyndsay McCandless’ gallery might close, it wasn’t confirmed for me until I checked out Henry Sweets’ article in today’s Planet Jackson Hole. (Nice new format, Planet! I didn’t recognize you.)

As Henry points out, Lyndsay’s First Fridays are Jackson’s own “first” tradition; having a “first” day of the month art celebration is becoming a popular venue around arts-oriented communities.   Selfish me.  When Lynsday began her First Fridays, I talked to her about her vision.   I told her to keep what was hers, to own her great concept for community art happenings, that it was hers and she should be clear and proud about it.

Imitation might not be the most sincere form of flattery, but it is certainly flattery.  Now, First Fridays are a Jackson phenom. In Jackson, we’re all competing for limited turf, in a variety of venues.  There are posers, there are the real deals.    Ironically, with so many galleries jumping on the First Friday bus, crowds are sometimes a bit diluted.

Openings are wonderful; they’re not the best venue for thoughtful perusal of art.  So my request to all of you who attend these parties is, please go back and spend time in your favorite galleries REALLY LOOKING at the art.  Think about what you are viewing.  Write something about it, even if just for yourself.

Developers:  Do something to save Jackson’s arts.  You need them.  The arts have powerful marketing value for you and to ignore them, to pay lip service only, isn’t enough.   It’s also not very smart, very current, or very prescient.

Lyndsay, you are a town treasure.  That’s why I nominated you for last year’s Award for Creativity, and that’s why you won, baby.   You are not a poser.  You are the real deal, an original, and you are all heart.   See you soon.

Love, Tammy

Art, be not proud.  Here’s an innovative idea out of Berkeley, California that would brighten the ever-increasing number of empty storefronts in downtown Jackson. In fact, it is a wonderful idea even when times are good, when streets are paved with, if  not gold, lots of C-notes.   Local artists have a tough time finding venues; we’re very creative, and space is limited.  Artists wait months for an exhibit at PSB, Koshu, Hard Drive or the Brew Pub.   Jackson’s operative businesses could set aside a corner of their store window to display a little local art.  Take a percentage—just don’t take 50%!   Think 20%.

Berkeley’s economic downturn has inspired an innovative use of empty downtown commercial space.   Empty store window display spaces are being used to exhibit the work of local visual artists.   The practice brightens an otherwise increasingly gloomy, doldrums downtown.

According to releases, a year-long discussion between Berkeley’s Office of Economic Development and the Downtown Berkeley Association culminated in a spring kickoff of Berkeley’s new window art program.  Click here to see a slide show.

“We really wanted to bring the community into the Downtown,” said the association’s Marketing Manager Katherine Scherbel, who coordinated the project. “We wanted to make it fun and bright, celebrating the Downtown instead of letting it feel dismal and empty.”

Window displays include ceramics, jewelry, photography, paintings and works from the Habitot Children’s Museum and local high school students.  Empty commercial space had reached 15.1 percent of total commercial space when organizers began discussing the project.

A Wyoming Arts Council (WAC) release has announced that applications are available for the new “Art Works for Wyoming” grant program.  The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is providing this one-time opportunity, and is able to offer the program as a result of its recently secured federal stimulus funding package.  Any and all Wyoming arts organizations may apply, which, of course, includes Jackson arts entities.  Grants are available to all qualifying arts venues.

WAC manager Rita Bascom says, “We are fortunate to live in a time when the arts are recognized for the impact they have on our economy.  The fact that the NEA was included in our nation’s Stimulus Funding Plan is a credit to all of the artists, arts businesses, and nonprofit arts organizations who make their living through the arts, or hire artists to paint, dance, act, write, sculpt, design, etc. – not just at this point in time, but throughout our nation’s history.”

Throughout world history.

The program offers up to $25,000 in grants monies for projects meeting one of the following two criteria:

Salary support, full or partial, for one or more positions that are critical to an organization’s artistic mission and that are in jeopardy or have been eliminated as a result of the current economic collapse.

Fees for previously engaged artists and/or contractual personnel to maintain or expand the period during which such persons would be engaged.

Applications are due at the WAC by May 15, 2009. Applications will be forwarded to the Western States Arts Federation on June 1.   June 3-5, applications will be considered and winning grants will be notified by mail on July 1.   NO PAPER APPLICATIONS will be accepted.

For full application information on this program, log on to WAC’s online granting site here.

“We are excited to be a part of this national effort to save arts jobs.  And we encourage all qualified Wyoming organizations to apply for funding,” Bascom said.

Oh, I LOVE this.  This is a story about Vertical Gardens.  The Art of Green.  Green urban gardens. Happy Earth Week, Jackson Hole!  The photo above is from Vertical Garden’s Exit Art website.

Vertical Gardens is “…an exhibition of architectural models, renderings, drawings, photographs and ephemera that depict or imagine a vertical farm, urban garden or green roof.”

Imagine Jackson’s new downtown garage transformed as a vertical garden.  A vertical forest, a vision of vines!   Imagine it surrounded with indigenous wildflowers and plants, an ever-changing public art installation, transforming itself with every season.  Wow.

Vertical Gardens encompasses over 20 projects by “…artists and architects that envision solutions for building greener urban environments.” Cities all around the world are finding ways to include gardens in their planning, knowing the urban aesthetic will increase a hundred fold.   They’re great ways to feed and inspire urban dwellers, and since Jackson’s downtown is bent on adding multi-million dollar commercial and residential spaces, how about including green gardens in the design?   Provide space for sustaining, aesthetic projects in every development and pay it back, pay it forward to the community.   And bring our town’s profile up to new age marketing snuff while you’re at it!   Bring the region’s great beauty right past the city line and into…town’s heart.

Here’s more from their site:

“Largely based on the principles of hydroponics, vertical gardens would also be mostly self-sustaining because they would capture large amounts of natural sunlight and water, and could use wind as an energy source. In a country where cities are suffocated by high rises, cement and industrial materials, where can green space exist? As this exhibition demonstrates, one possible answer is “up.” These and other urban parks and gardens provide areas for socialization and recreation; a location for a city farm or community land-trust; an outlet through which hundreds of people can learn about farming and agriculture; and the addition of much needed plant and animal life to the otherwise concrete jungle.”

Vertical Gardens is a project of SEA (Social Environmental Aesthetics) , which is an off shoot of Exit Art, which “…is an independent vision of contemporary culture prepared to react immediately to important issues that affect our lives.”  The New York City center, 25 years old, engages in “…experimental, historical and unique presentations of aesthetic, social, political and environmental issues.”  Exit Art says it “absorbs cultural differences that become prototype exhibitions,” and embraces multiple disciplines.   Starting as a ‘grass roots’ project, it has grown into a contemporary green, artistic powerhouse.  Always changing, it is now internationally recognized for its innovations, curatorial depth, media savvy and stick-to-it-ness.

Few endeavors build community like gardening.  And few activities provide the warm sense of well-being that gardening does. Win. Win again.  If we incorporate the Verticle Garden vision into ours, we won’t be able to take our eyes off the results.