Summer Art Classes and Camps

Students participate in the Spring Break 2010 Art Camp.

The Education Department at the UW Art Museum has several summer art opportunities for kids of a variety of ages. Scholarships are available to assist families with limited incomes. Pre-registration is recommended. Museum members receive a 10% discount. See below for a list of the various classes and camps, information about when they meet, and the activities involved. For more information, or to register, contact Master Teacher Heather Bender at hbender1@uwyo.edu or 307.766.3515.

Pre-School and Kindergarten Class

Finding Inspiration in the World Around Us

Wednesdays, June 2, 9, 16, 23

10:30 - 11:30 am

$25/4-class session

Everyday we see things that can become ideas for making art. Sometimes we don't even realize it. This month, students will transform their own ideas into prints, collage, fabric art, and more, as they investigate the world around us for unique art ideas and inspiration. This class will look at the work of artists Harold Garde, Leon Kelly, Neltje, and Raoul Dufy for inspiration and ideas.

Summer Art Camp

Look Around: What Do You See?

Ages 6-10: Monday - Friday, June 14 - 18, 1 - 4:45 pm

Ages 11-15: Monday - Friday, June 21-25, 1 - 4:45 pm

Weekly rate: $60/student

Daily drop-in rate: $15/student

Artists have the most interesting way of looking at the world. Sometimes the most commonplace items become their subject. Other times they use materials that no one else would consider as art supplies. We'll explore the work of an exciting array of artists who paint, print, collage, and more. We'll write about our impressions of their viewpoint and make art inspired and informed by what we see.

Paint Pony Express

Ages 4-5: Tuesdays, July 6, 13, 20

Ages 6-8: Wednesdays, July 7, 14, 21

Ages 9-11: Thursdays, July 8, 15, 22

1-3 pm each day

FREE

Under the guidance of visiting artists and museum teachers, students will explore an array of artwork: paintings, textiles, collages, and more. They will then create their own artwork using writing, movement, and visual art materials to convey their own artistic response and vision. Wyoming artist Neltje will be an artist-in-residence with Paint Pony Express the week of July 6-8. Each week focuses on a different exhibition, and each day is designed for a different age group. Please wear clothes that you can create in. Parents must stay with children under 5 years of age.

Summer Solstice Celebration

Monday, June 21, 11:30-12:30 pm

FREE

After Wyoming's long winter, it's worth celebrating the longest day of the year and the official beginning of summer. Every year on the summer solstice, a solar tube in the ceiling illuminates a silver dollar in the center of the Rotunda Gallery at exactly 12 noon. Join us for this fun event and to view the sun through astronomer Ray Martin's filtered solar telescope, which will be set up on the terrace.

Last Week to See Cook, Crawford, Linder Exhibitions

Lia Cook, Traces: Amuse, 2003, 99 x 54 inches, cotton, woven, Jacquard power loom, multiple color warp rotation, lent by the artist

Photo courtesy of the artist

This is the final week to see three summer exhibitions at the University of Wyoming Art Museum. Scheduled to close on Sunday, August 23 are Lia Cook: The Embedded Portrait, Ralston Crawford: Lithographs and Photographs, and Tracy Linder: Tractor Hides. These will come down in preparation for new fall exhibitions, which open on September 11.

Lia Cook: The Embedded Portrait is the first exhibition to examine in depth the multifaceted aspects of Cook’s embedded portraits. Drawn from different bodies of work, twenty woven hangings depicting larger-than-life children illustrate Lia Cook’s exploration of the visual and physical realm where photographic likeness and textured textile meet. Cook takes the venerable early 19th-century Jacquard weaving technique into uncharted territory, wedding it to sophisticated computer programs. Beginning with slides, photographs, or video stills, she develops her imagery, couples it with digital technology, and creates specifically designed weaves that allow her to build the image thread by thread.

Ralston Crawford: Lithographs and Photographs includes the five lithographs and ten photographs by Crawford that were recently acquired by the Art Museum. The exhibition is enhanced by additional works on loan from the artist’s son, Neelon Crawford. Collectively, the exhibition reveals Crawford’s skill and artistic eye for rendering subjects in a language of planes, lines, and shapes. The underlying emphasis on structure in his work indicates his deeply intellectual, almost analytical approach, coupled with personal reaction and experience. The subjects and style of his lithographs and photographs reflect these two approaches.

Tracy Linder: Tractor Hides consists of fourteen individual “hides” that are stood on end and lit from within, creating pod-like forms. Using animal collagen as the primary material, photographic images of the land, plants, farm machinery, humans, and animals are embedded into the collagen and formed over the treads of splayed tractor tires. They embody Linder’s interest in life, death, and decay. Tractor Hides honors family farms while bringing to the fore the political and economic shifts that are changing this way of life. The sculptures resonate with a sense of ritual and tradition of farming and ranch life.

Be sure you make it to the Art Museum this week to see these three incredible exhibitions before they close! For more information, please call 307.766.6622.

Final Days for Moran Exhibitions

Thomas Moran (English/American, 1837-1926), Bluffs - Platte Riv. Wyoming Ter., Not dated, Pencil, 6-7/8 x 9-3/4 inches, Gift of Fritiof Fryxell, University of Wyoming Art Museum Collection, 2009.3.6

Only three days remain to see two Thomas Moran exhibitions at the UW Art Museum. Thomas Moran in Wyoming and Thomas Moran: Pastoral Views and Seashores will close this Sunday, August 16. That leaves only today, Friday and Saturday to view these great exhibitions. The Museum is open 10 am - 5 pm all three days. Admission is free.

Thomas Moran in Wyoming presents sketches, prints and chromolithographs that Moran created while traveling through the state. Several works depict nearby landmarks, like the Red Buttes south of Laramie and the colorful geologic features of Green River.

Thomas Moran: Pastoral Views and Seashores shows images from England and the east coast of the United States, where he lived and worked extensively. The exhibition contains prints and drawings of sand dunes near East Hampton, lighthouses and stormy seas.

These two exhibitions are a great way to see the work of one of the West's best-known artists and see his skill in a variety of media. For more information, call the Museum at 307.766.6622.

Family Day at the Art Museum this Saturday

Kids and parents work on art projects

during the 2007 Family Day.

Photo courtesy of the Art Museum.

Family Day at the UW Art Museum is this Saturday, July 18, from 10 am - 4 pm. The day begins with an Art Talk by Montana artist Tracy Linder at 10:30 am. Tracy has been an Artist in Residence this week in the Shelton Studio, and has been working with students to create and shape handmade paper during the annual Paint Pony Express classes. The Art Talk is free and open to the public.

Family Day includes free art making activities for artists of all ages. The theme of this year’s Family Day is "Ranch Stories." Families will be able to ask Tracy Linder questions about her work and what it's like living on a ranch and how she came to be an artist. She will be on hand to talk about the unique materials she uses and the subjects that interest her. Papermaking materials are supplied by the Shelton Studio. Participants can learn how to make and cast paper, and create truly unique items from this fun (and wet!) medium. Come prepared to work outside in the sun. Family Day is free and open to the public.

For more information, please call 307-766-3496.

Art Museum Closed for 4th of July

A reminder to everyone in the Laramie community and those coming into town to celebrate the 4th of July: the Art Museum will be closed on Friday, July 3rd and Saturday, July 4th for the holiday.

If you have free time and are looking for a fun, art-related activity over the weekend, check out Sculpture: A Wyoming Invitational around town and on campus. Driving guides are available in the boxes at each sculpture, hanging below the label on the metal signs.

Paint Pony Express also kicks off next week on July 7th, with three weeks of free kids activities in the afternoons. For more information about the activities available, contact Education Curator Wendy Bredehoft at 307-766-3496 or send an email to wbredeho@uwyo.edu.

Summer Exhibitions at the Art Museum

Montana artist Tracy Linder's Tractor Hides, will be on view at the UW Art Museum through the summer. The works are on loan from Banner, WY artist Neltje, and Tracy Linder. They are photo emulsion on animal collagen and lit from within to create pod-like structures.

Photo courtesy of the artist.

The installation of six summer exhibitions will begin this week at the Art Museum, after the closing of The Disappeared this past Saturday. Sculpture: A Wyoming Invitational will continue to be on view throughout the city, at the Art Museum rotunda and terrace, and on the UW campus.

From the Museum's permanent collection come the exhibitions Thomas Moran in Wyoming and Thomas Moran: The Eastern Landscape. Each of these showcases Moran's watercolors, sketches and prints from his excursions West, as well as his work on the East coast of the United States. Moran played an important role in visually documenting the west, in particular Wyoming, and his work helped establish Yellowstone National Park as the nation's first National Park in 1872.

Also from the permanent collection is Ralston Crawford: Lithographs and Photographs, which will exhibit 5 recently acquired lithographs and 10 recently acquired photographs. I n addition to these works from the collection, lithos and photos from the Crawford estate will supplement the exhibition. Although primarily recognized as a Precisionist painter, Crawford was also an accomplished print maker and photographer.

Artists from France: Paintings and Prints from the Art Museum Collection features late 19th and early 20th century work from numerous French artists, including Edgar Degas, Henri Matisse and Paul Gauguin. France was the center of the art world at the turn of the century, and many important art movements emerged during this time - most notably Cubism, Impressionism, and Art Nouveau.

Montana artist Tracy Linder's series of Tractor Hides (pictured above) will also be on exhibit. Raised on a sugar beet farm, her work references the importance and history of family farming and ranching. Linder will be artist in residence at the Shelton Studio July 14-18 for Paint Pony Express.

Lia Cook: The Embedded Portrait features 20 works by American textile artist Lia Cook. Using old family photographs, slides and video stills, Cook merges the visual with the physical in monumental sized weavings. The pieces in this exhibition are part of five different series, each of which demonstrates a different weaving technique.

A full list of events and programs can be found on the Art Museum website: www.uwyo.edu/artmuseum or for more information, please call 307-766-6622. Up to date announcements will be posted here throughout the summer!