It has been a while since my last post--grantwriting season begins in mid February and stresses me out, but in a necessary way.  Along with the pressure all the other regular things need to get done and it became apparent to me that this place needed more than one half-time director to get it all done.  After some upheaval we have made some significant changes--Dannine Donaho has come on half-time as Assistant Director.  She will work on the Native Emerging Artist Training as well as coordinating exhibitions.  I am really looking forward to improving exhibition quality and signage as well as getting our program out to a broader artist community and improving the number and quality of our artist base.  You can already see the benefit of this with nice labels to all the art, more inclusive signage (more to come) and better use of the media to promote our efforts.  Dannine has been working on grants to help pay for the improvements in the exhibition program.

We also brought on Jenny Reeves Johnson to be Education Director, at least for the summer.  Jenny has been working like mad to get some programs in place, looking forward to fall classes and soon, writing education-specific grants to support the program.

Our next improvement will be to bring on a well-qualified administrative assistant full-time to help facilitate gallery/office procedures. The idea is that we will no longer have two people doing their own thing.  Instead we will have one person who will be knowledgeabe enough to answer most questions and who will be able to do some of the regular administrative jobs that we always seem to be re-inventing.  It will be a difficult job, but it will add to the overall performance of the Art Center.

Please let us know if we can make other improvements either now or at some future time--we seek to serve the community and enhance the quality of life in Fremont County!

Matt Flint is a painter and art educator based at Central Wyoming College in Riverton, WY since 2002.  Matt has an MFA in Painting from Wichita State University and a BFA in Painting from Central Missouri State University in Warrensburg, MO.  Matt has won the 2008 Wyoming Arts Council Fellowship Award and the 2007 Governor's Capitol Art Exhibition, Bobby Hathaway Jurors Choice Award and the Wyoming State Collection Purchase Award.

Matt has his own website, MattFlint.com
which is very informative.  His artist statement says:
 
"My paintings are about the rhythms of the natural world.  Ideas of memory, fragility, and interconnectedness traverse the work.  

The imagery I use consists of glyphs, semi abstracted plants, animals, and figures that inhabit a "landscape" made up of simple geometric patterns.  The geometry serves as a loose framework to organize, join, and simultaneously isolate the various subjects in the paintings.  Earthy colors, repeated patterns, and marks intermingle with hidden images to form layers of meaning.

Rich textures, scratched, weathered surfaces, and subtle light qualities come from months of intuitively working and reworking the surfaces.  No preliminary sketches are made; every thought is worked out directly on the piece, forming a roadmap of the creative process.

The resulting work is an encouragement to slow down and listen to our surroundings."

 - Matt Flint 2009

You can find Matt's work at the Lyndsay McCandless Contemporary
Jackson Hole, Wyoming, www.lmcontemporary.com and the Stewart Gallery
Boise, Idaho, www.stewartgallery.com.

Matt and his wife, Angie and their two little girls live in a beautiful, restored home on historic S. 3rd St.  We also hope to have Matt's backyard studio on our Studio Tour someday.  Angie is a trained Chef and I look forward to taking her non-credit "Sauces" class at CWC in March.

I haven't made an entry here for a bit.  I was gone to Cheyenne to the Governor's Arts Awards last Friday.  It was a great event and an opportunity to rub elbows with Arts Administrators and Legislators.  We are lucky to be in Wyoming where the scale is so intimate.  If you want to make a difference, you certainly have the opportunity.  I could have gone up and talked to the Governor (I didn't) but where else can you say that?  The Arts Community is really just growing here versus in many parts of the US they are decades ahead of us.

I think this all stems from the small population in Wyoming and also, the relative difficulty in surviving as an artist.  I would love to see opportunities for artists so we could have a few more people surviving on their art, instead of the art supplementing their other income.  In order to do this we must build a market for art--something that is very undeveloped at the moment.

I also was gone the Friday before to the Nicolaysen Art Museum for a workshop on "Building organizations that Work!  I'm not sure if we are any closer to that end, but any non-profit can benefit from Board Development.

Grants will be going out, starting with one of our biggest.  I sent the draft of the Wyoming Arts Council Arts in Education Grant out yesterday and I will be working hard on these grants for quite a while. 

This is a great artist statement and a great story--don't know the guy, but still

Artist's Statement-Curtis Benzle

My art is about understanding and uncovering an expression of Beauty. 

“Beauty”? 

That’s a great example of a single word being asked to do too much. Clearly, I am following a very personal definition of “Beauty”. A definition that is best explained through a story…

Many years ago I was conducting a workshop about my art---techniques and purpose. As an introduction, I was attempting to explain the aesthetic motivation behind my work and I was not making much headway. My audience wasn’t made up of accomplished artists or even ambitious art students. They were mostly amateurs; the majority, women who had taken a significant “time-out” to raise families and were now returning to their art making roots.

Noting the audiences growing frustration with my art-speak and our shared passion for parenting, I tried to relate my aesthetics through our common, parental bond. After asking the group if they had children(almost all had) I asked them to recall one of those days when the kids had tested every last bit of their patience. This request did little to build my hoped for bond but, kindly, my audience obliged. Then, I continued, try to remember that moment about twenty minutes after the last scolding, when you had finally succeeded in subduing your children in bed. Remember wondering if they really were asleep or just plotting their next move. Remember tiptoeing down the hall and silently cracking open the door; letting that shaft of light fall across their now sleeping and angelic faces. And then, remember how you felt as you savored that quiet moment. The sweet smile, the gentle breath, the sense of peace, comfort and security. It’s a feeling that defies words and it’s that feeling that fuels my aesthetic aspirations.

There is a reason I struggle with difficult materials, invent frustrating techniques and tolerate relentless failure. For me, the reason is an unfailing desire to give form to feeling. An attempt to connect myself, and my audience, with a “better place”. To express some of what is so wonderful in the world.

That goal has been both elusive and seductively possible. Porcelain, pattern, color and light are some of the keys available to aide me in unlocking this Beauty. While finding the right sequence and order may challenge, every success leads me further down the same path and excites my passion to continue the quest.

 

When you walk to the edge of all the light you have
and take that first step into the darkness of the unknown,
you must believe that one of two things will happen:
There will be something solid for you to stand upon,
or, you will be taught how to fly

© Patrick Overton
The Leaning Tree, 1975
Rebuilding the Front Porch of America, 1997

Creating Organizations that Work! was the name of the workshop I went to last Friday at the The Nicolaysen Art Museum in Casper.  Board Chair, Alice Brew and Board Member Dannine Donaho also came.  The workshop speaker was Patrick Overton of the Front Porch Institute talking about Non-profit organizations, particularly, he discusses "Navigating White Water in a Leaky Raft". 

There were several discussions about the evolution of an organization.  He uses the model that the organizations is "Creating" to "Comfort" to "Chaos" to "Conflict" to "Crisis".  It was nice to know that any difficulties the Art Center has with Board Development are completely normal and that most organizations struggle with growth and change.

The BEST part of the workshop was visiting with Alice and Dannine on the way there and the way back.  We had a lot of fun and discussed some substantive issues.

Some ideas that we conjured:  We need to have some sort of Annual Recognition for our membership--a Volunteer of the Year and maybe a "Herbert Award" that is totally made up from what we want--it could change yearly!

We need to develop out "Story" and get it out there more--unpleasantly, even though we have a Main Street presence many people in the community do not know that we exist.  I will shape up my Powerpoint presentation from the Ambassadors and take it on the road.

Last Friday I called a group of arts organizations together to talk about our issues and how we can work together.  Dave Neary, who is half of the Wyoming Shakespeare Festival and on the Wyoming Arts Council Board, and I had been talking about getting together ever since the fall when we went to the Wyoming Arts Summit. 

The Arts Summit is a Biennial Arts grouping (this was the second year) that focuses on the role of the arts in economic development and included many arts groups from across the state, state agencies and political leaders.  We came away feeling that Lander, although perceived as an arts community across the state, seems to be pretty scattered and we have no municipal or county-wide support. 

When I say scattered, I mean that we tend to have knowledge of each other and attend each other's events, but we don't schedule or have cooperative events where we could benefit from the other in various ways.  We also have a LOT of arts groups relative to our community size, especially for a Wyoming community without a large minerals income.

At the event we had Dave, Marvin and Joanne Brown from Community Concerts, Jonathon Rummel from Rummel Dance, Carol Chidsey from Community Concerts and Alice Brew, Chair of the Art Center Board attending the meeting.  We had a good conversation and decided to begin with a calendar like this one http://www.centerforthearts.us/documents/CVCA-Fall09_v4.pdf from the Cache Valley Center for the Arts provided by the wonderful Wally Bloss when he was in Lander for a Wyoming Arts Council event, who was kind enough to send us a copy and have a wonderful dinner with some members of the Art Center Board where we discussed some wonderful things and got inspired (note to self:  more of these events!).

You will undoubtedly hear more about the results of this meeting in future blogs and other communications.  We plan on meeting at the Wildflour conference room (in the back) on the final Friday of every Month at 11:30 a.m.  It will be open to anyone who has an interest in the arts and influencing the direction that local groups take.

There is extensive evidence to show that the arts enrich individuals and communities.  Evidence largely ignored in the state of Wyoming (note the refusal of the Legislature to include the Arts in the Hathaway scholarship requirements).  The data is dense and there is a lot of it that shows that:

• ART IS GOOD FOR KIDS, ESPECIALLY THE DISADVANTAGED
• ART IS GOOD FOR COMMUNITIES
• THE ARTS SECTOR CONTRIBUTES A LARGE (AND OFTEN UNASSESSED) AMOUNT TO THE ECONOMY
  

Check out:
http://www.americansforthearts.org/public_awareness/artsed_facts/002.asp
or
http://www.americansforthearts.org/public_awareness/artsed_facts/highlights/champions_change/002.asp

Some info from the National Governors Association "Role of Arts in Economic Development:  http://www.nga.org/portal/site/nga/menuitem.9123e83a1f6786440ddcbeeb501010a0/?vgnextoid=0f8b5aa265b32010VgnVCM1000001a01010aRCRD states that some roles for the arts are:

• "Leveraging human capital and cultural resources to generate economic vitality in under-performing regions through tourism, crafts, and cultural attractions;

• Restoring and revitalizing communities by serving as a centerpiece for downtown redevelopment and cultural renewal;

• Creating vibrant public spaces integrated with natural amenities, resulting in improved urban quality of life, expanded business and tax revenue base, and positive regional and community image; and

• Contributing to a region's "innovation habitat" by simultaneously improving regional quality of life -- making communities more attractive to highly desirable, knowledge-based employees -- and permitting new forms of knowledge-intensive production to flourish."

And to further prove my point, here is something from the CREATIVE ECONOMY RESOURCE CENTER http://www.nasaa-arts.org/artworks/creativeeconomy_facts.htm

Facts & Figures

• In fiscal year 2009, state arts agencies invested $328 million in creating and sustaining arts infrastructures in communities across the nation.

Source: National Assembly of State Arts Agencies, Legislative Appropriations Fact Sheet Fiscal Year 2010

• America's nonprofit arts industry generates $166.2 billion in economic activity every year, resulting in $29.6 billion in federal, state, and local tax revenues.

Source: Americans for the Arts, Arts & Economic Prosperity III: The Economic Impact of Nonprofit Arts and Culture Organizations and Their Audiences, 2007.

• The creative sector, whose economic function is to create new ideas or creative content, employs 38 million Americans, or 30 percent of all employed people.

Source: Richard Florida, The Rise of the Creative Class, 2002.

• In 2005, 1.99 million identified an artist occupation as their primary job, while another 300,000 reported secondary employment as an artist.

Source: National Endowment for the Arts, Artists in the Workforce, 2008

• In 2008, 612,095 U.S. businesses participated in the production or distribution of art and employed nearly 3 million people.

Source: Americans for the Arts, Creative Industries Report, 2008.

• Americans donated more than $307.65 billion to the arts in 2008 through individual giving, estates, foundations and corporations.

Source: Giving USA Foundation, Giving USA, 2009 Press Release.

• In 2008, 70.3% of all American leisure travelers participated in at least one aspect of cultural heritage tourism in the past year. This figure outpaces the number of Americans who visited friends or relatives (64.7%) and roughly equals the proportion (73.0%) of travelers staying in a paid lodging. Source: Destination Analysts,  Fall 2008 edition of Cultural Heritage Tourism News and State of the American Traveler, 2009

• American consumers spent $12.8 billion ($42.8 per person) on admissions to performing arts events in 2005.

Source: National Endowment for the Arts, Consumer Spending on Performing Arts, 2006

• More people are attending live performing arts events than professional sporting events in 10 major communities across the United States.

Source: Performing Arts Research Coalition, The Value of the Performing Arts in Ten Communities, 2004.

• Copyright Industries (businesses that rely on copyrights and produce computer software, films, television programs, and other audio, visual and printed media) accounted for 11% of U.S. gross domestic product ($1.38 trillion).

Source: International Intellectual Property Alliance, Copyright Industries in the US Economy, 2006.

• In 2006, nonprofits—including public charities, private foundations, and all other—accounted for 8.1 percent of the wages and salaries paid in the United States.

Source: The Urban Institute, The Nonprofit Sector in Brief, 2008.
For additional information, visit the Creative Economy Resource Center or contact Jesse Rye at NASAA.

In closing after this avalanche of arts data, my point is that we are overlooking the benefits of the arts.  The Art Center exists because a core group of citizens in Lander and to some extent, the larger county, value the Arts, but in order to make the most of what we have to offer we need to pass this information to the entire community, not just the elite, not just the well-educated and not just the artists--but all the community.

 

Sally Watt is our artist of the week.  Sally is primarily an oil painter and she is best known, locally, for her atmospheric images of birds.  Sally, a Riverton native, studied Graphic Arts at the Kansas City Art Institute and worked for a time in Denver before returning to Wyoming.  She is currently working at Fremont Frameworks http://www.fremontframeworks.com/index.php.

Sally is an avid bird watcher and her closely-observed details, combined with an impressionistic use of paint and a mystical, unfocused background give an individuality to her pieces.  For a time she was painting directly onto copper, creating a framed image within the frame and now works with oil on paper.  She has exhibited numerous times at the Lander Art Center including the Member's Show and the Icons and Shrines Show (above).  Sally has also been generous with her time and gifts, helping serve wine at the Valentine's Fundraiser and offering paintings for various silent auctions and painting several spectacular raven bowls for the Empty Bowls Fundraiser (all benefits went to the Care & Share Food Bank) .

The last two Thursday nights have been Artist Trading Card nights at the Folklore Coffee House and Sally has brought some extraordinary miniature works of art (I managed to trade for this wonderful young antelope)!

We are in full class mode right now.  Children's classes now being offered:  Afterschool Art Club with Melissa Scherr Bender, Semi-private Lessons with Jenny Reeves Johnson and our monthly Second Saturdays which have a variety of themes and teachers.

Adult classes include Silversmithing with Eric & Tammy Olsen from Chisholm's Jewelry, Handbuilding with Clay with Pam Spencer-Hockett and Life Drawing with Jenny Reeves Johnson.

Check out our classes section on the website for more on upcoming classes.  If you would like us to teach a class or if you have a skill/talent that you would like to teach, let us know.

We also do workshops on particular subjects that may be of interest to more advanced artists or craftspersons and we do Professional Development classes for artists.  These include "Photographing your 3-D Artwork" with Brad Christensen and "Website Development" with Bill Hastings.  I plan on taking both of them to get a better web presence.  And artists in the community, this is important!  When people want to see more of your work--where do they go?  How hard is it to find you?  As I do my "Artist of the Week" feature, I realize how difficult it is to find many of my favorite local artists.  It is pretty sure that if you don't have a website, I will be unable to make you artist of the week just because I want to link to a website and I need images--it is just that simple.

We hope to have a gallery connection with this website if we have the time and also, I am beginning our "virtual suggestion box" page.  Please make a comment there about class offerings-wanted, not wanted, exhhibitions, grouching, etc.  Thanks.

I made a short presentation before the Lander District Recreation Board (LDRB) last night.  I asked for materials and minor equipment to help support our Summer of Arts Program (SOAP), our summer kids program that fills the Art Center with kids for 3-5 hours a day.  The request will allow us to even out our income stream and make these classes profitable.  At this point all classes are largely a break-even proposition.  By the time we pay for the teacher and the materials we hope to make a little to pay for overhead and advertising.  None of this income includes the time that I spend in cooking up classes, writing schedules, making meetings, e-mailing, putting it on the website, receiving payments and helping the teacher if they have rowdy kids.

I write the class prices so we can at least make the class go at 5 students but if we only have the 5 we are definitely not making anything.  The rub comes when we have repeated minimum enrollments or a class is offered over several months with enrollments dropping off bit by bit, i.e., some of the kids classes are paid monthly so if someone drops out and doesn't pay for the month that leaves us with no way to make up the difference.  We also struggle with the concept of "drop-ins".  Inevitably, the drop-ins will become fewer and fewer over the course of the class but there will be too many at the beginning.  We struggle with this and have had to eliminate the drop-in aspect of the classes and we have asked for a commitment for the entire course of the class, even if people pay monthly. 

Classes are integral to what we do.  I know that without the art instruction I would not have gotten involved with the Art Center in the first place and we continue to work out ways to make it work.  The LDRB grant is vital to this effort and we really appreciate their support!