The University of Wyoming’s Art Museum has a great blog (I’d be happy to trade links with them) with lots of cool information on what’s going on in the arts in Laramie and around Wyoming. Last summer I met a representative—and please forgive my forgetting her name—of the university’s Artmobile Program, who tipped me off about the bus and its mission.
It is, specifically, the Ann Simpson Artmobile Program, a statewide visual arts outreach. Named for former Senator Alan Simpson’s wife Ann, the ArtMobile provides interaction with visual arts to “…audiences across the 97,914 square miles of Wyoming, visiting K-12 schools, state park visitor centers, libraries, senior centers, and other community-accessible locations in towns throughout the state.” Funding for U.W.’s magic bus is provided by an anonymous donor and its contents and programs utilize exhibition artwork from the museum. Presentations and events are followed up by discussion and other activities.
The Artmobile visits remote Wyoming communities with programs geared for children and adults, reaching remote populations that otherwise lack exposu
re to visual arts. For those people, the Artmobile is a breath of fresh air. And fresh paint! The Artmobile is even on Facebook.
Jackson is awash in arts initiatives; I’ve never seen U.W.’s Artmobile come to town but perhaps we should invite them. Do a little exchange, partner up! Might there be a new way to paint the Tetons? Even here, many residents and kids could benefit from additional arts exposure. Funding for such enterprises is in flux, and in addition to its anonymous donor, the Artmobile operates with funding from the Julienne Michel Foundation, the FMC Corporation, Helga and Erivan Haub, and Ann and Alan Simpson, and the Wyoming Arts Council. The latter is funded by the Wyoming legislature via the National Endowment for the Arts.
Contact Artmobile’s curator Beth Wetzbarger to find out more. 307.399.2941 or email [email protected] Beth, perhaps it was you I met last summer, in Jackson, at Jill Callaway’s pot luck? A pleasure.
Item #2:
Art speed dating!
It’s already time for the UW Art Museum’s fifth annual 20:20 art slam. Presenters show 20 images of their work for a 20-second duration–total presentation time is 6 minutes, 40 seconds, allowing for 20 participants.
Visual artists from around the state may sign up, but sign up is done on a first-come, first-served basis. So, signing up is fast, too. You must submit your images in a PowerPoint format and submissions are due by Friday, April 9, 2010. The show will take place in Casper at the Hilton Garden Inn on April 23, from 8-10 pm.
The museum notes that 20:20’s format is “borrowed from a program that was first developed in Japan by two architects who were looking for a new way to present design ideas in an upbeat and exciting way. Events like 20:20 now occur internationally as specially organized evening events where the focus is on sharing information and community participation.”
20:20 Statewide is another venue for sharing ideas about the visual arts from around Wyoming. Saturday evening, April 24, a reception hosted by the Wyoming Arts Council will honor 2010’s visual arts fellowship recipients. An artist roundtable discussion follows the awards.
For more information on 20:20, or to sign up, please contact UW Art Museum Assistant Curator Rachel Miller at 307.766.6621 or [email protected]
Tammy Christel 
