Early Bird Rates End March 15 for Arts Symposium and Laramie Hotel Rooms

The early registration deadline is March 15 for the Public Art and Community: Inspiration and Reflection symposium April 2-4 at the UW Conference Center in Laramie. Register by Sunday, March 15, to receive the $100 rate, which includes the full conference, opening and closing receptions and two lunches. NEW! Registrations postmarked on Monday March 16 will be considered advance registrations for the reduce rate!

Registrants should keep in mind that a block of $99/night hotel rooms are available only through March 15. Lodging in Laramie that weekend will be at a premium as 12,000 Elton John fans hit town for his April 3 benefit concert.  

For information or downloadable registration forms for this exciting symposium, please visit the UW Art Museum web page at or the Wyoming Arts Council web site. The Art Museum and WAC are co-sponsors of the event.

Wyoming visual artists! This is your first opportunity since the WAC’s ARTSPEAK conferences to gather together with fellow artists from around the state. You are invited to attend a series of roundtable discussions with WAC staffers on Friday and Saturday to discuss the agency’s programs for individual artists. Stick around for the closing reception at 5 p.m. Saturday when the WAC will award its 2009 visual arts fellowships. Meet this year’s fellowship jurors Greg Esser, Gina Ruggeri and Lawrence Argent.

Conference attendees will have a chance to hear inspiring talks by renowned artists such as Texas’s Jesus Moroles, winner of a 2008 National Medal of Arts; Lawrence Argent, creator of the “Big Blue Bear” sculpture at the Colorado Convention Center which has become the most photographed site in downtown Denver; Charmaine Locke, whose six-foot-tall multi-armed “Open Book” bronze now greets Laramie’s library patrons; and Ursula Von Rydingsvard, a New York-based monumental sculptor whose work was influenced by a childhood in World War II Germany and post-war refugee camps.

Three artists featured in Sculpture: A Wyoming Invitational--Moroles, von Rydingsvard and Tennessee sculptor John Henry--will stage an “Art Slam” at 7:30 p.m. on the symposium’s opening night on April 2.

UW’s Jeff Lockwood brings a philosophical and scientific slant to sculpture during a 9:20 a.m. talk on April 3. At 1:40 p.m. on April 4, UW Music Professor Rod Garnett will perform a musical interpretation of UW’s year-long Sculpture Invitational. Wyoming First Lady Nancy Freudenthal speaks later that afternoon (4:20 p.m.) about her involvement in the arts.