Cell Phone Audio Tour Now Available for Papua New Guinea Exhibition

A free cell phone audio tour is now available to museum visitors for the exhibition, Journeys along the Sepik River: Tribal Art from Papua New Guinea. The exhibition includes such items as dance masks, canoe prows, necklaces, and skull racks. The accompanying cell phone audio tour allows visitors to access additional information about these items by dialing a local number from their cell phone. The audio tour was written and recorded by the exhibition's curator, Barbara Stone.

For more information about exhibitions and services available at the Art Museum, please call 307.766.6622 or visit our website.

Final Week to View Two Exhibitions

Brian Dickerson (American), Roseboom, 2011, oil, wax, mixed media on canvas and wood, 71 x 32 x 6 1/2 inches, courtesy of the artist

This is the final week to view two exhibitions at the Art Museum. Brian Dickerson: Constructed Paintings and Drawings and Woven Traditions: Native American Basketry of the Southwest will be on view through Saturday, April 21.

Dickerson explores the idea of remembered landscapes through minimal, three-dimensional paintings on wood. The heavily layered and reworked surfaces contain hidden forms that suggest deep emotional meaning and a sense of mystery.

Woven Traditions: Native American Basketry of the Southwest, features the Art Museum's collection of baskets made by the Navajo, Hopi and Tohono O'odham tribes. The baskets depict elaborate, traditional and contemporary designs, including turtles, spiders, butterflies and kachinas.

The Art Museum is open 10 am to 5 pm, Monday - Saturday with extended hours on Monday evenings until 9 pm. Admission is free. For more information on exhibitions, please call 307.766.6622 or visit our website.

Spring Break at the Art Museum

Students work on art projects during last year's Spring Break Art Camp.

Are you staying in town for Spring Break? The Art Museum has plenty to see and do next week! The 37th Annual Juried UW Student Exhibition is only on view through next Saturday, March 17, so be sure to stop in next week to see the wide variety of work being created by students across campus. A free cell phone audio tour is also available for select pieces and were recorded by the art students who created the work.

If you have an elementary aged student, Spring Break Art Camp will also be next week at the Art Museum. Students will explore artwork on view in the museum and then using what they learned, make their own art projects in the Shelton Studio. Students will have the opportunity to work with a variety of materials, including painting and sculpture, and even writing! For more information or to register your student, please visit our website and check out the downloadable registration form here.

F0r more information about exhibitions or education programs, please call 307.766.6622.

Film Screening on Edward Burtynsky Tonight

Join us tonight for a film screening, Manufactured Landscapes, being held in conjunction with the exhibition, Edward Burtynsky: The Industrial Sublime, which is currently on view at the Art Museum. Here is what Zeitgeist Films has to say about this 2006 film by Jennifer Baichwal:

The film follows him through China, as he shoots the evidence and effects of that country’s massive industrial revolution. With breathtaking sequences, such as the opening tracking shot through an almost endless factory, the filmmakers also extend the narratives of Burtynsky’s photographs, allowing us to meditate on our impact on the planet.

The screening will be at 7 pm and will be held next door to the Art Museum in the new Visual Arts Building Auditorium. The event if free and open to the public. The Art Museum will be open tonight until 9 pm, so you can go look at Burtynsky's work either before or after the film screening!

For more information about exhibitions and public programs, please call 307.766.6622 or visit our website.

Only 2 More Weeks to View Student Exhibition

The 37th Annual Juried University of Wyoming Student Exhibition will only be on view for two more weeks. The exhibition includes work from students across campus and in a variety of mediums, including sculpture, painting, video art, and photography. A cell phone audio tour is available for select pieces in the exhibition and were recorded by the student artists. If you haven't visited the Art Museum to see the great work being created at UW, be sure to stop in soon!

This exhibition will be the basis for the Education Department's Spring Break Art Camp, which will be held March 12-16. For more information, or to register your student, please call 307.766.3515.

For more information about exhibitions, education classes, or public programs, please visit our website or call 307.766.6622.

Gallery Walk Through: Award Winning Students

Join us tonight at the Art Museum for a Gallery Walk Through with students who have won awards for their work in the 37th Annual Juried University of Wyoming Student Exhibition. This public program begins at 7 pm and is free and open to the public. Each award winning student will be given a few minutes to talk about their work on view, as well as what they're currently working on in the studio. This is a great professional opportunity for students to practice speaking in public about their artwork, and for the public to learn more about the creativity of students from around campus!

Tonight is also the first night of our extended Monday night hours. Beginning tonight through the end of April, the Art Museum will be open until 9 pm on Monday evenings, providing more opportunities to visit.

For more information about exhibitions, hours, or public programs, please visit our website or call 307.766.6622.

Artist Brian Dickerson on KOWB This Morning

Brian Dickerson (American, b. 1951), Vroman, 2011, oil, wax, mixed media on wood, 47 x 40 x 4 inches, courtesy of the artist

Artist Brian Dickerson was on the radio this morning with KOWB to talk to Laramie Live about his solo exhibition here at the UW Art Museum. Their website has a link to the audio clip from this morning where you can hear what he has to say about his work.

Dickerson will be presenting a Gallery Walk Through this evening at the museum at 4:30 pm. This will be followed by our spring opening reception from 6 to 8 pm. Both events are free and open to the public.

Please call 307.766.6622 for more information, or visit our website.

Winter Break Closure

Fish Shaped Lock, Late Chosŏn, brass, 1-1/4 x 2-3/4 x 1/2 inches, courtesy of the Lock Museum and the Korea Society

With only two days remaining to see all of the Art Museum's fall exhibitions, we are already looking ahead to the winter break closure. The Art Museum will begin its winter closure this Friday, December 23. The final day to see six exhibitions will be Thursday, so make sure you take a pause from the last minute holiday rush to see these great exhibitions!

The Art Museum will continue to be closed through January and will re-open on Friday, January 27. Each year we take this time to completely re-install the galleries. You can see the exhibitions that are coming up on our website. We kick off the new semester of exhibitions with an opening reception on January 27, 6-8 pm. While the museum is closed to the public during this time, our administrative offices will be open. If you have questions or would like more information, please give us a call at 307.766.6622.

Have a very happy holiday and we look forward to seeing you all and sharing new exhibitions with you in the new year!

Final Week to See Fall Exhibitions

Unknown Maker, Muffineer, 1886-1887, silver, 6-3/4 x 2-1/2 inches, 3.4 oz., London, courtesy of a private collector

The Art Museum will be closed beginning next Friday for the winter break, which means that there is only one more week to see our fall exhibitions. The exhibitions that will be closing are: Albany County Student Art, The West of Eliot Porter: Images of Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah, Talismans of Protection from Chosŏn Korea: Antique Locks, Latches, and Key Charms, Donovan Widmer: Small Metals, Terror in the Theater: Fifties Fears, and 300 Years of British Silver: Hallmarks of the Monarchies.

The Albany County Student Art Exhibition showcases the artwork created throughout the course of the year by students in all local schools, from elementary to high school.

The West of Eliot Porter: Images of Colorado, New Mexico and Utah presents color landscape photographs from the Art Museum's permanent collection. Porter began working in color in 1939, long before his fellow photographers accepted the medium.

Talismans of Protection from Chosŏn Korea: Antique Locks, Latches, and Key Charms is an exhibition of rare antique metalwork on loan from the Lock Museum in Seoul, Korea. The objects, which are in the forms of dragons, turtles, butterflies and more, are richly symbolic and exquisitely decorative examples of traditional Korean aesthetic and craft traditions.

Donovan Widmer: Small Metals includes work from Widmer’s four most recent series. He uses traditional metalsmithing processes to create images and objects that are amusing, sardonic and sometimes peculiar.

Terror in the Theater: Fifties Fears features posters, photos, a film clip and props used in science fiction movies. Visitors have the opportunity to view a tribble from the famous Star Trek episode and the animatronic Triceratops from the original King Kong. The items on view are from the American Heritage Center’s Forrest Ackerman Collection.

300 Years of British Silver: Hallmarks of the Monarchies presents flatware and other silver dating back to the reign of William III and Mary II (1689-1702). This comprehensive and chronological collection includes silver from each British monarchy all the way up to today’s Queen Elizabeth II.

For more information, or for a look ahead to our spring exhibitions, please visit our website.

Next Week at the Art Museum

Donovan Widmer (American, b. 1973), The Cycle Has Been Completed, 2008, sterling silver, brass, cork, glass, moss, flowers, 5 x 5 x 2-1/2 inches, courtesy of the artist.

We are looking ahead to next week when small metals artist Donovan Widmer will be here to present two public programs, and he will also be meeting with classes and individual students in the Art Department.

Widmer will present an formal Art Talk on Monday, November 14 at 7 pm and a more informal Gallery Walk Through on Tuesday, November 15 at 10:30 am. Both of these programs are free and open to the public and will be held at the Art Museum.

Widmer's work combines traditional metalsmithing techniques with found objects to create highly detailed and intricate work that examines how social and cultural ideas change and evolve. He is an Assistant Professor of Metalsmithing at the University of North Dakota.

For more information on public programs or exhibitions, please visit the Art Museum website or call 307.766.6622.

AHC Exhibition on View at the Art Museum Featured in the Casper Star Tribune

The exhibition presented by the American Heritage Center (AHC), Terror in the Theater: Fifties Fears, which is currently on view at the Art Museum, is featured in today's Casper Star Tribune.

The article discusses the motivation behind the exhibition, some of the items included, and also some background information on the AHC. Every year a different archivist from the AHC curates an exhibition from one of their vast collections of archives, which is then put on view in one of the Art Museum's galleries.

For more information on the AHC, you can visit their website. For more information on the Art Museum and exhibitions, please visit our website.

New Exhibition of Korean Antique Metalwork Opens Saturday

Peony Patterned Lock, Late Chosŏn, lock; nickel, 3 x 5 x 1-3/4 inches, key; iron, 6-1/2 x 1-3/4 x 3/8 inches, courtesy of The Korea Society and The Lock Museum

A new exhibition of rare antique locks, latches, and key charms from Korea opens Saturday, Sept. 3 at the Art Museum.

Talismans of Protections from Chosŏn Korea: Antique Lock, Latches, and Key Charms presents objects that are richly symbolic and exquisitely decorative examples of traditional Korean aesthetic and craft traditions.

The Chosŏn Dynasty (1392-1910) was the longest and last imperial dynasty in Korea. This rare collection includes metal and wood objects in the forms of dragons, turtles, butterflies, fish, bats and swallows. Although the objects had functional purposes, the beauty of their design underscores the symbolic nature of the protections they afforded.

The exhibition is on loan from the Lock Museum in Seoul, Korea and organized for national tour by The Korea Society, New York.

A free opening reception to celebrate this and other new fall exhibitions will be at the Art Museum Friday, Sept. 9, from 6-8 p.m. For more information about this or any other upcoming exhibitions, please visit the Art Museum webpage or call 307.766.6622.

Final Week to See Two Exhibitions

Serena Perrone (American, b. 1979), March 15, 2009 9:13 am, 2010, intaglio, monotype, silkscreen, letterpress, 11 x 15 inches, courtesy of the artist and Cade Tompkins Projects

Saturday, Aug. 27 will be the last day to see the exhibitions, The Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection: Fifty Works for Fifty States and, Serena Perrone: A Volcano Pilgrim in Exchange for Fire at the University of Wyoming Art Museum.

The Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection: Fifty Works for Fifty States features works collected by a retired postal clerk and his wife, a former librarian, who spent 45 years collecting contemporary American art and amassed a collection of over 2,000 pieces. Recognizing their collection would be too unwieldy for one institution, they developed a program through the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. called “Fifty Works for Fifty States” that distributed 50 works of art to public collections in each of the 50 states. The UW Art Museum was chosen as the Wyoming participant in the program. The works are representative of the Vogels’ interest in Minimalist, Conceptualist and post-1960s art.

Serena Perrone: A Volcano Pilgrim in Exchange for Fire chronicles the tragic loss of UW professor and poet Craig Arnold in April of 2009 through a series of printsthat layer color, line and text. The 20 prints on view represent Arnold’s twenty days of travel in Japan where he was studying volcanoes for a new book. Laid over the images of sky, earth or volcano is text taken from Arnold’s travel blog.

For more information about exhibitions at the Art Museum, call 307.766.6622 or visit our website. The Art Museum is open 10 am - 5 pm on Saturdays and admission is free.

Final Week to See Two Great Exhibitions

This is the view looking up into the center of the spiral in Etsuko Ichikawa's installation at the UW Art Museum.

This is the final week to view two exhibitions at the UW Art Museum. Utagawa Kunisada (1786-1865): Japanese Kabuki Portraits from the Art Museum Collection and Etsuko Ichikawa: NACHI - between the eternal and the ephemeral - will be open through Saturday.

Featured in the Rotunda Gallery, Kunisada's color woodblock prints of Japanese Kabuki theater actors are an important visual record of these individuals who might otherwise only be known by name today. While some of Kunisada's contemporaries such as Hokusai and Hiroshige might better known today, in 19th century Japan, Kunisada was regarded as one of the most prolific, profitably, and successful artists of the time.

Etsuko Ichikawa's installation, NACHI has been popular with visitors who enjoy the different atmosphere she has created in the gallery with the spiral of scorched cotton threads, audio components, video of dancers, and the 14 foot long pyrographs (drawings made from the mark of molten glass on paper). Ichikawa was inspired by the Nachi waterfall in Japan, which has been regarded as a shrine for generations.

Come visit the Art Museum before these two exhibitions close! We're open 10 am - 5 pm today through Saturday and admission is always free!

New Exhibition Opens Tomorrow

Evald Nielsen, Tea and Coffee Service (coffeepot), 1919-1920, sterling silver, ivory, Scandinavian Style, Copenhagen, Denmark, M0002M0002, courtesy of Margo Grant Walsh

A new exhibition opens tomorrow at the UW Art Museum. Silver & Metalwork of the 20th Century: The Margo Grant Walsh Collection features over 185 items of silver and metalwork from this unparalleled private collection. Based on design - from contemporary UK design ideas to Arts and Crafts - the work on view originates from eight different countries.

Walsh began collecting silver on a whim and considers herself a self-educated collector. Today, her collection consists of over 2,000 objects, all of which she collected based on their beauty, functionality, and good design. With a background in architecture and interior design, she has amassed a truly unique collection.

The Art Museum is open 10 am - 5 pm on Saturday and admission is always free. Visit the Art Museum website or call 307.766.6622 for more information on exhibitions or to plan a visit!

New Cell Phone Audio Tour for Scottish Sublime Exhibition

Searly S. Willis (Scotland), Untitled (Hunting Scene), 1874, oil on canvas, 30 x 50-1/4 inches, gift of William J. Thulin, University of Wyoming Art Museum Collection, 1971.4

A new cell phone audio tour for the exhibition, From the Scottish Sublime to the American West: Selections from the University of Wyoming is now available. The cell phone audio tour is a free service offered by the Art Museum and is accessible by dialing a local number from your cell phone. Handouts are available at the front desk.

This audio tour provides information about the different artistic movements that are represented in the exhibition, including British sublime landscape painting and American styles such as the Hudson River School artists. Information about specific artists and paintings is also available.

Because this exhibition was organized in conjunction with the 9th International Scott Conference, which begins today and is being held at UW, the audio tour is punctuated with information and quotes from Sir Walter Scott's writing. A special thanks to Peter Parolin, department head of the UW Department of English, for recording this tour!

For more information about this exhibition or the cell phone audio tour, please call 307.766.6622.

Final Week to See "Laramie: A Gem City Atlas" Exhibition

Paula A. Wright, Alex Borgen, Shizue Seigel, Ben Pease, Quarries and Climbing, 2011, ink on paper, 22 x 34 inches, courtesy of the artist

This is the final week to view the exhibition, Laramie: A Gem City Atlas at the Art Museum. The exhibition has been receiving a lot of positive feedback from museum visitors and the media. It features maps created by students in the UW MFA in Creative Writing Program who worked with Eminent Writer in Residence Rebecca Solnit to rethink how they view Laramie. The project was then opened up to the community to get their ideas and input of how they think of the town and the surrounding area. For several of the maps, local artists created original artwork in response to the maps, and that artwork is also on view.

The final day to see the exhibition is this Saturday, June 18. The Art Museum is open this week Monday - Saturday, 10 am - 5 pm and admission is free. Don't miss this exhibition and be sure to tell us what you think! For more information, call 307.766.6622.

Exhibition Featured in High Country News

LuLing Osofsky, Paulius Staniunas, Shizue Seigel, Wild Wild East, 2011, ink on paper, 22 x 34 inches, courtesy of the artist

The exhibition, Laramie: A Gem City Atlas, has been featured in an article in High Country News! You can read it online here. The article highlights some of the maps that are on view and discusses the process behind the project, as well as viewers' perspectives. A side bar has additional images, as well as audio clips from the cell phone audio tour that was recorded by each student who created a map for project. The cell phone audio tour is available for listening at the museum and is a free feature.

The exhibition will be on view at the Art Museum through Saturday, June 18. For more information about this or any other exhibition, please call 307.766.6622.

Fun Facts about NACHI

The view looking up into the center spiral of Etsuko Ichikawa's installation at the UW Art Museum.

The installation by Japanese artist Etsuko Ichikawa, NACHI - between the eternal and the ephemeral - has been intriguing visitors since it opened in February. Her use and mixing of materials has been especially fascinating, as she combines cotton thread, pyrographs (drawings made from molten glass on paper), video, and audio components. A special section of sample materials was added to the gallery last month to give visitors the opportunity to touch these unique materials.

Here are some other fun facts about Ichikawa's installation:
- The installation reaches the ceiling of the museum at a height of about 16 feet.
- It is 44 feet long and 27 feet wide at the largest points.
- The spiral of cotton thread is 123 in length.
- There are over 11 miles of cotton thread, cut into 8200 individual pieces of differing lengths.
- Each of the 6 pyrographs are 14 feet high and 4-1/2 feet wide.
- The projected video of the dancers runs 32 minutes long and loops continuously.
- The sound comes from 4 hidden speakers under the wooden platform at the center of the spiral, is 28 minutes long, and also runs continuously.

The exhibition will be on view through August 6, so be sure to stop by and experience it for yourself! You can leave us your thoughts and comments about the exhibition either here on the blog, on our Facebook page, or in the guestbook in the gallery.

Cell Phone Audio Tour for, Laramie: A Gem City Atlas

Interested in learning more about the maps on view in the exhibition, Laramie: A Gem City Atlas? The latest cell phone audio tour features prompts recorded by the creators of the maps. The students who first began working with Rebecca Solnit early in the semester when she was an Eminent Writer in Residence through the MFA in Creative Writing Program also wrote essays about the subject or subjects of their maps. A condensed explanation about the maps can be heard in their own voice, simply by dialing a local 307 area code number from your cell phone. These quick synopses are a great way to learn more about their creative process, the subject of the map, and maybe learn a little bit more about Laramie!

The complete essays are also available for public reading in the gallery. A specially created case holds all of the students' essays. These two unique opportunities really allow museum visitors to delve into the exhibition, whether it's through listening, looking, or reading!