Art Museum Featured as One of Laramie's Top Museums

Our friends over at Laramie Live have just put out a list of their top 5 museums in Laramie and the UW Art Museum has made the list! Check out their website to see what other great museums in town have been included in the feature.

Have you visited all of these museums? Which is your favorite museum in Laramie? What is your favorite aspect of the UW Art Museum? Let us know on Facebook or in the Comments on the blog.

Looking Ahead to the New Year

Brian Dickerson (American, b. 1951), Autumn's End II, 2011, oil, wax, mixed media on wood, 42 x 21 x 9 inches, courtesy of the artist

The new year is upon us and while the Art Museum galleries are closed this month to visitors, the staff is hard at work getting ready for 5 all new exhibitions! We are excited to present a range of work, including two photography exhibitions, Native American baskets, constructed mixed media works, and the always popular, Juried UW Student Exhibition. During the month of January, staff will be busy de-installing the exhibitions from this past fall, packing them up, and shipping them out. Then it's time for gallery maintenance and repairs and the installation of all new work.

You can check out the link here to our website, which has more information and images about what exhibitions are opening this spring, and throughout the year. In addition to presenting new and varied work, we are also looking ahead to the opening of the new Resource Room, which will be a great research and meeting area for faculty, students, and other researchers. Books, catalogs, artist files, and computer workstations in the Resource Room will be a great addition to the Art Museum as we expand our connections to the academic community and other cultural institutions.

We look forward to seeing all of our returning and new visitors in the year ahead!

Lobby Sale - 50% Off All Items Today

We had a great turnout yesterday for our lobby sale, but there are still a lot of items to be sold! We are putting everything on sale today and taking 50% off all items! There are still Christmas trees and lights, children's games and toys, lava lamps, and more fun home decor. Be sure to stop by today between 10 am and 5 pm to take advantage of this deep discount!

All proceeds from the lobby sale will benefit Art Museum programs. For more information, please call 307.766.6622.

Lobby Sale at the Art Museum Next Week

Just in time for the holidays! The Art Museum will be holding a lobby sale next week, Monday - Wednesday. The sale will be held during our usual hours of operation, 10 am - 5 pm. There are items for everyone in this sale, from children's games and toys to home decor. Special holiday items include strands of Christmas lights and we even have two artificial trees for sale.

All items are priced as marked and are non-negotiable, but there are plenty of great deals already! Payment will be cash or check only. For more information, or with questions, please call 307.766.6622.

Final Monday Evening of Extended Hours

Tonight is the final Monday evening at the Art Museum with extended hours until 9 pm. During the spring and fall semesters, the Art Museum stays open until 9 pm to allow students and faculty additional access, as well as to provide a time for members of the public to visit if they can't make it in during the day.

Next week we will return to our hours of Monday - Saturday, 10 am to 5 pm. Stay tuned this week as we post information on the upcoming Happy Holidays, Laramie! festivities and the Festival of Trees. For more information about any of our programs or exhibitions, please call 307.766.6622 or visit our website.

Art Museum Closed Tomorrow

A reminder that the Art Museum will be closed tomorrow - Saturday, October 29th - due to construction on the adjacent Visual Arts Building.

We're excited for our new neighbor to be open and we apologize for any inconvenience that this closure may cause.

The Art Museum will be open on Monday from 10 am to 9 pm, and Tuesday - Saturday of next week from 10 am to 5 pm.

For more information, please call 307.766.6622.

Art Museum Closed on Saturday, Oct. 29

The Art Museum will be closed this Saturday, October 29. Construction on the new Visual Arts Building that is adjacent to the Art Museum often requires tie-ins to water and power lines that are shared between the buildings. This Saturday, water pumps that service both buildings are scheduled to be replaced, and with the complete shut-down of the water system, the Art Museum is unable to serve our visitors.

We apologize for any inconvenience this might cause. The Art Museum will be open on Friday, 10 am to 5 pm, and we will resume our usual hours on Monday, 10 am to 9 pm. If you have any questions or concerns, please call us at 307.766.6622.

Smithsonian Museum Day is this Saturday

This Saturday, September 24, the UW Art Museum will be participating in Museum Day. This annual event is sponsored by Smithsonian Magazine and provides free entrance to many participating museums.

While admission to the UW Art Museum is always free, it's a great way to follow in the spirit of the Smithsonian Institution's free admission policy and to encourage museum visitation!

If you're going to be in Laramie this weekend, be sure to join us in celebrating museums and visit the UW Art Museum on Saturday either before or after the big football game!

If you're planning on visiting a different museum, a list of those participating in Museum Day can be found on Smithsonian Magazine's website, which also has the free printable tickets you'll need for entrance into those museums that normally do charge an admission fee.

Extended Monday Hours Begin Tonight

Starting tonight the Art Museum will have extended hours until 9 pm on Mondays. With all new exhibitions open, it's a perfect time to take advantage of later hours! The extended hours will continue through the end of the fall semester.

If you're a student using one of the exhibitions in a class project, this is a great time to finish up some research! Or, if you can't get to the Art Museum in the evenings because you're at work, Monday nights make it easy for you to come see what's on view!

For more information or to help plan a visit to the Art Museum, visit our website or call 307.766.6622.

Tempted to Touch the Artwork?

Many people, from seasoned museum visitors to young students, and sometimes even curators, are tempted to touch the artwork. The reason museums have a strict no touch policy is that our hands contain many unseen and harmful dirts and oils. Over time, and with repeated touching, these dirts and oils can permanently damage the art by causing negative reactions, such as corrosion, that diminish the life span of the art. This is why when museum staff members need to handle the artwork, you will see them wearing white gloves to protect the art so that it can be enjoyed for generations to come.

One of the current exhibitions at the Art Museum has been especially tempting to touch because it incorporates interesting and new materials. Etsuko Ichikawa: NACHI - from the eternal to the ephemeral - uses cotton rope and pyrographs to create a unique environment in the gallery. Pyrographs are drawings created by molten glass scorching the surface of the paper. Because of the high heat of the glass, the paper need to be very thick. The cotton rope hangs in strands by the thousand, creating almost a curtain. Both the rope and the paper are unique materials, so the artist was generous and provided a sample of both a pyrograph and cotton rope, that museum visitors can touch. This will help keep the work in the exhibition safe, but also allows museum visitors to answer the questions they might have about what the materials feel like.

We invite you to visit the exhibition, explore it, and use your senses. From looking closely at the designs of the pyrographs, to listening to the sound playing from the center of the spiral, and now touch with these samples at the entrance to the gallery.

For more information, or if you have questions, you can contact the museum at 307.766.6622.

We want to hear from you!

Visitors at the Art Museum take time to observe and experience Etsuko Ichikawa's installation. Courtesy of the Art Museum.

Have you been to the Art Museum recently? An installation by Japanese artist Etsuko Ichikawa has transformed half of the large gallery space. Inspired by an ancient waterfall in Japan that has been a shrine for purification and meditation for generations of people, NACHI - between the eternal and the ephemeral - invites museum visitors to observe and reflect. A combination of materials - cotton thread, video projection, an audio component, and pyrographs (drawings on paper made from molten glass) offer much to look at.

A new guest book has been placed in this gallery space to get your feedback. We've noticed that some visitors have returned to the gallery twice and even three times, and we'd like to hear more from you! If you visit for the first time, is it what you expected? What word or words would you use to describe the experience? How did the space make you feel? If you're one of those visitors who has been to see NACHI more than once, what brings you back? Does your experience change? How so?

Visitor comments are important to the Art Museum because it tells us what you think, what you like, or if you'd like to see something else. For artists, it's important for them to hear reactions after they've completed a work, installed it, and gone back to their studios.

The Art Museum always welcomes your feedback and we have several places where you can leave your comments online - here on the blog or on our facebook page. If you're at the Museum, we have visitor surveys and now the guest book back in the gallery specifically for the Etsuko Ichikawa installation. We appreciate you taking the time to tell us what you think!

The Art Museum Wants to Hear From You

The Art Museum has recently launched a new visitor survey that we hope you'll take the time to fill out after your visit.

Whether you are a student, teacher, member of the Laramie community, or are visiting from farther away, we want to hear from you! Surveys are available at the front desk and can be deposited anonymously in the box outside the Museum Store.

The survey takes only a few short minutes to fill out and helps us understand who are visitors are, why they visit the Museum, and what other suggestions you might have for us.

Don't forget, there's also a feedback feature on our Facebook page and cell phone audio tours, as well as the comments section of this blog. We hope you feel free to share your thoughts and ideas with us!