And speaking of innovation, the National Museum of Wildlife Art’s (NMWA) new three-quarter mile sculpture trail, designed by Walter Hood, is due to open on schedule this month. The presence of the trail adds a whole new dimension to the museum. NMWA is literally merging the concept of wildlife art with the landscape wildlife inhabits. Not only will visitors be able to sit outside NMWA and take in those glorious Elk Refuge and Gros Ventre vistas, they will be able to walk the hillsides around NMWA. A new pathway links the Town of Jackson to NMWA–bike & walking paths lead you right to the Museum.  Hood has been tweaking trail details; it sounds like those grid pattern surface boulders will be a part of the design. If you’ve had a chance to look at Hood’s design for the trail, you would have noticed those boulders bracing and anchoring the trail’s fluid design. Good news!

Visiting the trail is free, and open to the public. “Pathway stones and the trail’s Hood-designed Douglas fir benches also are being engraved with names from museum donors, with a number of stones and several benches still available for ‘naming,’ ” NMWA says. “It’s a great way to recognize a loved one in a beautiful outdoor place.”

The trail’s official opening is scheduled for September 2012, when all sculptures are installed and completed. If you’d like to adopt and dedicate a piece of the trail, contact NMWA’s Ponteir Sackrey at 307.732.5444. www.wildlifeart.org

PS: Thinking about the Museum caused me to wonder about Jackson’s lodging statistics for September, 2011 Fall Arts Festival month. Downtown Jackson was 85% full, up 1% from 2010; Outlying Jackson lodging was 86%, up a whole 7% from 2010′s 79%. 2010′s lodging stats for Fall Arts set records, so 2011 looks like a new record! Still awaiting September 2011 sales tax stats.

•

Here’s that plus sign again!  It’s the new arts text symbol.

Literary + Visual Art, a collaboration between Heather James Fine Art and the Teton County Library’s Page to Podium Series, offers a chance to attend an in-person conversation with writer Michael Cunningham, author of “The Hours.” Local artist Pamela Gibson will interview Cunningham about his latest book, set in New York’s art scene; other topics include the status of art in America and the “art of living a writing life.”

(Hint: Get up early. Brush teeth. Make coffee. If you write in your jammies, lock front door! Sit down, and do it the Anne Lamott way: bird by bird.)

Cunningham’s talk begins at Heather James at 6:00 pm, on Friday, October 21. Tickets are $125 if purchased at the library; a little bit more if you use PayPal.  www.tclib.org/authorchat.

From 3:30-6:00 pm on October 21, peruse the scary scarecrows up for auction at the Center for the Arts. The auction is silent until 5:30 pm, then goes live. Food, drink, live performances–it’s free to attend! Arts educator Jane Lavino is building a scarecrow. “At various times during construction my cat scarecrow resembled a kangaroo, a squirrel and a large rat,” Lavino says. “I hope the balance is tipping more towards ‘cat’ right now! After wrestling over 100 square feet of chicken wire into some semblance of an animal, my hands look like they were attacked by all of the above!”

Buy a scarecrow–all one of a kind and made by local artists–and raise funds for the Center and JH Public Art Initiative.

•

The Art Association presents arts industry consultant Bruce Baker, conducting a two-day workshop: Thrive, Not Merely Survive, As a Studio Professional. Baker teaches the workshop November 5 & 6, 9:00 am – 5:00 pm both days. If you have great ideas, why be starving, artists? Baker will talk about how to effectively sell your art, particularly if you work the art fair circuit. Booth design, sales and customer service, tips on slides for juried shows and trends and product development will be discussed.

Many of Jackson’s artists are, by now, practiced art fair veterans–but maybe there’s much more to being successful than meets the eye. One gal who always hits it out of the park: Michelle Miller, of Magpie (Driggs, Idaho) fame. Miller nabs that corner booth, she can be found in the same space every year, her displays are chock full of goodies, she’s whimsically fun and makes jewelry on the spot. Merchandise it, baby!

Cost for Baker’s two-day workshop: $165 for A.A. members, $175 for non-members. www.artassociation.org

•

For Annie on Her 39th Birthday

Before I slept I asked

Where do we go when we leave?

Like Annie left,

She rode away one day.

A mountain lion came for her

And up the stairs they went.

Here’s what happened:

Sarah and I are on a plane

We fly over shimmering water

We fly over emerald grasses

Waving at us.

Sacred views, magic earth.

We fly into night sky,

Through stars.

My plane is a spaceship-

Now I am alone.

A Heavenly spirit,

Round, starry and warm

Floating in space

Asks, “How do I speak

To my friends on Earth?

They cannot hear me

And I have something to tell them.”

I say,

“Just be You.

Nothing fancy,

Just You,

And You will be heard.”

He smiles

And I fly

Further into the sky,

Higher.

I see Annie’s house in the stars.

A tiny log cabin,

Windows aglow,

Wrapped round by tall firs

And twinkling lights.

That is where Annie

Is living, I know.

Thump! I land in a field

Boundless countryside

Rolling hills, sunshine,

Birds singing.

Annie’s flower,

Hydrangea,

Over and under me

In branches, spilling

Over fences

A periwinkle carpet.

A pony pulls his farmer

And wooden cart piled deep

With hydrangeas

High as the sky.

“Sarah, look! She is Everywhere!”