Wanted: Big Horn Basin Artists

I’m traveling to three sites in the Big Horn Basin next week – Jan. 22-24 – for grants training sessions. Here’s a special invitation for you creative types to come out and see a demonstration of the Wyoming Arts Council’s new on-line granting system. It’s also an opportunity for me to talk with performers and visual artists, people I’ll be working with now that I’m supervising fellowships and IAPD grants in the performing arts and visual arts categories, along with my ongoing responsibilities in literature. I’d also like to hear your ideas on what kind of programs for individual artists you’d like to see at the WAC.

Here’s the Big Horn Basin schedule:

Cody, Northwest College Cody Center, Room CC2208, 1501 Stampede Ave., Monday, Jan. 22, 7-8:30 p.m. Contact: Nancy Gilmore, 587-3376
Thermopolis, Hot Springs County High School, 331 Park, Tuesday, Jan. 23, 4-6 p.m. Contact: Eric Kay, 864-6511
Worland, Worland Community Center, 1200 Culbertson Ave., Tuesday, Jan. 23, 7-9 p.m. Contact: Steve Hunt, 347-8616

Grants training sessions are for individual artists and representatives from schools, arts groups, and community organizations. No need for advance registration. Just show up and I’ll take it from there.

For more info, e-mail me or call 307-777-5234.

See you in The Basin. By the way, Billings Gazette reporter Ruffin Prevost in Cody writes a cool blog about happenings in the Big Horn Basin. Go to Basin Beat Blues.

Labels: fellowships, grants

- posted by Michael Shay @ 9:49 AM 0 comments

 
Road Trip: Ethete and Riverton

As I drove I-25 north on Tuesday, I was glad I hadn't been on the road the day before. I passed five truck trailers that had been smacked down by Monday's winds. Two were on their sides and sliding down the snowy hill on that last rise before you get to Wheatland. On the southbound lanes, two big wreckers were righting another big rig. The wind had settled to its usual 30 mph range, with enough oomph to let motorists know we are in Wyoming but not windy enough to send you down a hill or into Nebraska.

Conducted grants trainings in Ethete and Riverton yesterday. This is my first time on the road demonstrating the Arts Council's new on-line granting system. I'm still fumbling around a bit with it, so be forewarned! Despite me heavy-handedness, those in attendance in Ethete and Riverton got a sampling of the computerized application. It's easy once you get the hang of it.

At the Tech Center located next to Wyoming Indian High School, Ren Freeman outlined some of the plans she has for the Eastern Shoshone Heritage Center. They include a new building to house the center, as well as a bronze of Sacajawea (sometimes spelled Sacagawea) pulling a travois and surrounded by native plants. She plans to use local artists for all the projects. The Reservation, notes Ren, has great potential for cultural tourism if handled in the right way. She told the story a family from Denmark who visited last summer. It was almost a pilgrimage, as they had named their daughter Sacajawea. The Shoshones invited them to share a meal and participate in one of their ceremonies.

Last night at the Riverton Public Library, the attendees were all individual artists. That's a first for me. Usually I get a mix of artists and those representing arts (and other non-profit) organizations. Willie LeClair was there. You may know Willie for his long-time tenure on the WAC's artist roster. He's been to a number of communities in Wyoming and across the U.S., sometimes performing with "Buffalo" Bill Boycott and other artists. At this session, I focused on WAC's programs for individuals, which include fellowships, Individual Artist Professional Development (IAPD) grants, artists' roster, folk arts apprenticeships, and the Artist Image Registry (AIR). We have a number of opportunities for the state's many artists, and hope to have more in the future. If you're interested -- we still have money available this year for IAPD grants in literature and performing arts. Come to a grants training session and I'll show you how to apply. See my schedule below.

Labels: fellowships, grants, Wyoming Arts Council

- posted by Michael Shay @ 10:17 AM 0 comments

 
Mark Jenkins, Global Correspondent

Can’t keep a guy like Mark Jenkins down on the farm, not after he’s cycled across Siberia, paddled a kayak from battlefield to battlefield along the Turkish coast of Gallipoli, and climbed the icy Italian Ridge of the Matterhorn. Mark, a Laramie native and two-time WAC fellowship recipient, reports that he just returned from researching an article on Pakistan for National Geographic and will depart for Botswana next week to do a story for Bicycling magazine about AIDS/HIV health workers.

Between assignments, he’s at home in Laramie, spending time with his wife Sue and two daughters. Says Mark: “Even after circling the globe dozens of times, I still believe Laramie to be a wonderful place to live. It has just the right balance of cultural activities, limited traffic, intellectual residents who are often also outdoor athletes, open country right at your doorstep, gorgeous summers and brutal winters.”

After spending almost eight years writing for Outside magazine, Mark ended his column “The Hard Way” in October and departed for greener pastures. In the future, he says, “I’ll be focusing a bit less on adventure and more on geopolitical and environmental writing.” In 2007-2008, he will be writing more for the Atlantic Monthly and National Geographic, as well as working for Rodale Press as its global correspondent, penning pieces for Men's Health, Best Life, Backpacker, Bicycling and Runner's World.

Rodale will publish Mark’s second volume of collected works, A Man's Life, later this year. Rodale also is reissuing his first two books, Off The Map and To Timbuktu.

Meanwhile, you can read an original essay by Mark, "Growing Up in Wyoming," and an except from To Timbuktu, in Deep West: A Literary Tour of Wyoming, published by Grebull's Pronghorn Press.

Labels: Deep West, fellowships, writers

- posted by Michael Shay @ 2:21 PM 0 comments

 
SANDLIN TAKES NEW NOVEL ON THE ROAD JAN. 29: Jackson’s Tim Sandlin will launch a book tour for his new novel, Jimi Hendrix Turns Eighty, on Monday, Jan. 29, 7:30-8:30 p.m. with a talk and signing at Boulder Bookstore, 1107 Pearl St., Boulder, Colo. On Tuesday, Jan. 30, 5:30-7 p.m., Tim will sign books at Off the Beaten Path Bookstore in Steamboat Springs, Colo. Hell be at the Tattered Cover Bookstore, 1628 16th St., in Denver on Wednesday, Jan. 31, 7:30-8:30 p.m. Novelist Christopher Moore had this to say about the book: "Part Cuckoo's Nest, part Acid Test, and part Alamo, Jimi Hendrix Turns Eighty shows us that to awaken the passion and idealism we thought flatlined at thirty, we need only to slip it a dose of sunshine and poke it with stick of sandalwood. Tim Sandlin takes us on a comic flashback to the future that can give you the giggles and the willies at the same time. What a trip! Pound for pound, Tim’s stuff is as tight and funny as anyone doing this comedy novel thing." Tim, a a one-time Wyoming Arts Council fellowship recipient, documented his 1997 book tour for Deep West: A Literary Tour of Wyoming, available through Wyoming's Pronghorn Press.

Labels: Deep West, fellowships, writers

- posted by Michael Shay @ 4:20 PM 0 comments

 
BBHC OFFERS FELLOWSHIPS: The Cody Institute for Western American Studies (CIWAS) at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody invites proposals for its Resident Fellowship Program. Funds are intended to pay for research on any aspect of the American West. They carry a stipend of $5,000 and a residency requirement of up to five months between June 1, 2007 and May 31, 2008. Fellows may pursue field research in the Cody area or work in the BBHC collections. Deadline is March 19, 2007. Submit a c.v. and a proposal (no more than three single-spaced pages) to Dr. Robert B. Pickering, CIWAS, BBHC, 720 Sheridan Ave., Cody, WY 82414-3428.

Labels: fellowships, Western History

- posted by Michael Shay @ 2:12 PM 0 comments