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.

The University of Wyoming has put out the call for entries for their nationally acclaimed literary and arts journal, the Owen Wister Review (OWR).  The competition is open to all writers and artists contributing work about the Western experience.

The University recently provided the following information:

OWR, printed each spring, won its second Associated Collegiate Press Pacemaker, the college equivalent to a Pulitzer Prize in October.

“We are looking forward to another great year and can’t wait to start looking through this year’s submissions,” Editor Joshua Watanabe said.

Journal editors will be selecting original works of fiction, poetry, photography and art for inclusion in the 2010 edition. Submissions are open to artists, authors, poets, photographers or designers of any age.

Visit www.uwyo.edu/studentpub/owr for detailed submission requirements and contact information. All submissions, regardless of media, must be unpublished, original works and may not be simultaneously submitted elsewhere. Submission deadline is February 15, 2010.

University students published OWR’s first edition in 1978 with the goal of producing a magazine “the magazine reflected the talents of writers and artists in our community, recognizing them in the great tradition of Western literature and art.”

Named after Owen Wister, who set the first modern western novel, The Virginian, in the town of Medicine Bow, the review’s focus remains on the western experience interpreted by western people, but all writers and artists are invited to contribute their visions and stories.

Item #2

The National Museum of Wildlife Art’s Winter Carnival Quick Draw takes place Thursday, January 28, 5:30-7:30 pm.   Proceeds from the 1-hour paint-in and auction benefit NMWA’s educational programs.

This year’s Quick Draw will include more than a dozen artists, including four young up-and-comers from Jackson Hole high schools.  $10 admission for members, $15 for non-members, and children under 18 are free.   Get your “Chilly Bar, and some short beers, courtesy Snake River Brewing. Gessler gets tall ones, and so does McHuron.  Not sure why….Website: www.wildlifeart.org.  Phone: 307.733.5771

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

Oh, to be able to split this screen. So many happenings out there, so many stories to tell, talent everywhere, good causes, new spaces and lots of electricity.   Here’s what’s happening tomorrow night, Thursday, July 23, in and around Jackson Hole’s art galleries:

Trio Fine Art’s September Vhay puts her new show, “Passages,” up tomorrow evening; the exhibition kicks off with an artist’s reception 5-8pm, at Trio. From 5-6 pm, Vhay will give a talk, and host a discussion, on the topic of creativity. Refreshments will be served.  Vhay notes her new website address:  www.vhay.com. Click on the small “i” to view images included in her new show.

Trio Fine Art is located at 545 North Cache, across from the Visitors Center.   Phone:  307.734.4444.

Item #2:  Squeak Carnwath’s “Loose Change”

Meet nationally recognized artist Squeak Carnwath this Thursday evening at J.H. Muse Gallery, 62 S. Glenwood.   Carnwath will be signing copies of her new book, Squeak Carnwath: Painting is no Ordinary Object. The book is published in conjunction with this exhibition, and organized by the Oakland Museum of California.

The reception honoring Carnwath takes place 5-8 pm, and I’m certain refreshments will be on hand.   For info:  307.733.0905.

Item #3:  What is the Diehl?

Clarification on Diehl Gallery & Ashley Collins: Tonight, Wednesday, June 22, a fundraising event for the Community School takes place.  Collins is on hand; see previous blog post for details–flip back a page!    Tomorrow evening Collins is again on hand. Stop in and meet meet her during the artist’s reception, 5-8 pm. Diehl Gallery is located at 155 W. Broadway.   Info:  307.733.0905.

Item #4:  Eliot Goss: New Works on Display

Eliot Goss is an architect; he’s also an accomplished painter.  Goss, a familiar presence at the National Museum of Wildlife Art and Ciao Gallery, has new works up around town.

The Wine Loft at The Liquor Store, adjacent to Albertson’s, now has an exhibition of Goss’ exceptional landscapes; they remain on display through July.

And, two miles north of town at NMWA’s Rising Sage Cafe,  more works are on display; these will remain up through summer.  Goss has an excellent, easy-to-navigate website.

Goss paints with an eye to the Arts and Crafts movement; there’s a certain structural organic touch; a simple power.

Another Goss venue:  Galleries West Fine Art’s Body and Soul exhibition, opening at that gallery August 20.

A number of Jackson Hole area artists are experienced in working for our two parks, Grand Teton and Yellowstone.  Ed Riddell, Greg McHuron,  and Dan Burgette are three examples.   Riddell and McHuron conduct workshops, often taking their students into the wilderness or abroad.

This month and next, sculptor Dan Burgette is the National Museum of Wildlife Art’s Lanford Monroe Memorial Artist-in-Residence.   Burgette will be on hand in Johnson Hall on Tuesday - Saturday, 10:00 am - 3:00 pm through August 1.   Demonstrations are free and open to the public.

Burgette’s artistry springs from his three decades as a Grand Teton National Park backcountry ranger.   He is a sculptor inspired by wildlife, particularly by birds and the aerodynamics of flight.  Burgette creates dynamic works depicting indigenous birds in flight; he visualizes spiraling air currents of beating wings, dissolving any separation of a bird and the air around it.   In some instances, Burgette’s birds become the air.   Burgette works primarily with wood, metal and stone–materials seemingly too weighty to produce a sense of flight.  Seemingly.  Burgette smashes barriers, suggesting speed, grace and space with every work.     For information, visit www.wildlifeart.org.

Item #2:  A New WSJ Culture Section?

Columnist Laura Collins-Hughes reports that the Wall Street Journal is working on a new NYC-only culture section.   The new section would compete with the New York Times’ predominant arts coverage.    Collins-Hughes reports that a budget is being worked up and the new section could debut as early as 2011.   She quotes one WSJ staffer as saying that the new section will be “…arts-and-culture-oriented…The ad side thought they could sell ads on a local New York basis, given the Broadway scene and the arts scene overall.”

Arts sell ads, baby.  By the way, did I tell you about the J.H. Art Blog’s incredible visitation stats?

Item #3  Altamira Fine Art Bends It

Altamira Fine Art has moved into its new, 172 Center Street (Suite 100) space.  And it’s pretty cool.   Altamira opened its doors with a Nieto ( check out the fancy dancer canvases, they are spectacular ) exhibit and now Amy Ringholz’s Storytellers is the gallery’s focus, through July 28.   Ringholz’s opening reception night was pretty rockin; music on 172’s street front plaza brought the crowds in.    Ringholz’s artwork kept them there, and Altamira’s relatively dark-hued interior creates a clubby atmosphere.   Check it out.

Next up at Altamira:  Mary Roberson’s “Nature is Life in the Dream” opens August 5.   Info:  307.739.4700 & connect@altamiraart.com.

Item #4:

Artist Ashley Collins is the focus at the Diehl Gallery this week.  See previous posts about her work, exhibit and resume.   Wednesday evening a special opening benefitting the Community School takes place,  6-9:00 pm.   20% of all purchases go to the school, supporting educational initiatives for children.   Call Karen Hodges at 307.733.5427 for more information on this special preview event.

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.

The Buffalo Bill Historical Center (BBHC ) in Cody will receive $190,000 to study and digitize William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody’s personal papers.   The earmark, part of the 2009 Federal Budget Bill, also known as the Omnibus Bill, was introduced by then Representative Barbara Cubin.   Cubin left office in January.

Lee Haines, BBHC’s Director of Public Relations, says it will most likely take several months to receive the funds.  Once received, the money will be used to create three new jobs: an editorial assistant and two researchers.

“We anticipate that the entire project will be completed within three years,” says Haines.  “That said, we don’t plan to wait three years before we begin to share what we have found and make information available online.”

What shape the information will take as it is presented to the public is unclear, but Haines says it will probably be organized much like chapters in a book.

Why is a bill sponsored by an out-of-office representative still alive?

Federal budgets are planned two years in advance.  Budgets are combed over and passed on to the Administration, which then submits it to Congress.   The idea is to get it ironed out before the fiscal year the money is to be spent.  It all bounces around, is adjusted, and moves from agency to Congress to the Administration and back before being signed.

“Museums everywhere are trying to realize such projects so that people can have access to information,” says National Museum of Wildlife Art CEO Jim McNutt.  “We have our collection online, and any such project is worthy no matter where the funding comes from. I can’t comment on the BBHC’s process, but I’m very much in favor of such projects.”

The earmark has been widely questioned.  “Taxpayers for Common Sense,” a watchdog group, singled out the BBHC funding, gaining the project national attention.   Critics, including Republican Senator John McCain, tagged it as typical wasteful pork barrel spending.  Proponents argue Bill Cody’s papers are a national treasure and should be preserved via federal funding.

In other fundraising efforts, the BBHC has secured $310,000 from private donors and $300,000 from the Wyoming State Legislature.

In a February 25 statement, House Representative Cynthia Lummis said, “Congressional leaders are turning a blind eye to the plight of millions of Americans by passing this bloated pork-laden spending bill.”

The BBHC takes issue.  “This funding request is a normal part of the process that museums and many other institutions go through to secure funding, not only for particular projects, but for general operating support,” Bruce Eldredge, Buffalo Bill Historical Center Executive Director and CEO, said. “This request will provide additional support for what we consider to be important scholarly work. It’s unfortunate that some people appear to regard scholarship as unnecessary.”

End.