Art

Two professors from the University of Wyoming have created an original opera about the story of an unusual subject; the Rocky Mountain locust.

Winston Churchill is known for being the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during World War II and helping lead the allied powers to victory. But in addition to being a statesman, Churchill was also an accomplished amateur artist, submitting his work to shows under pseudonyms.

Now, eleven of his paintings are on display at Heather James Fine Art in Jackson through September 16, and on September 11 there will be a reception for the exhibit. Churchill’s great-grandson Duncan Sandys is attending the reception. He spoke with Wyoming Public Radio's Caroline Ballard about what led Churchill to paint.

If you know the songs “A Taste Of Honey,” “Spanish Flea” or “This Guy’s In Love With You,” then you know Herb Alpert. 50-some odd years later and the jazz musician is still going strong, with new albums and a tour. 

A new mural in downtown Laramie will be dedicated as one of the first events of Laramie PrideFest. The mural features notable people affiliated with social justice and civil rights in the state - including suffragists, the University of Wyoming Black 14, and the action angels that blocked Westboro Baptist Church protestors at the Matthew Shepard murder trial almost 20 years ago. Wyoming Public Radio’s Caroline Ballard visited the mural and spoke with the artist behind it, Adrienne Vetter.

In recent years, scientists have been astounded to learn how far large animals like elk, pronghorn and mule deer migrate in Wyoming. But a new show at the National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson looks at both the great and small creatures that travel to and fro to reach the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Wyoming Public Radio’s Melodie Edwards sat down with painter and writer James Prosek to talk about evolution, language and whether to name waterfalls.

When museums have special exhibitions, what visitors don't know is that it takes years for the exhibit to evolve from a concept to the moment you are standing in front of that famous work of art. The Whitney Western Art Museum at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West just opened its new exhibit featuring the famous Western American artist, Albert Bierstadt. But the process behind securing loans is not so easy.

Albert Bierstadt—He’s a late 19th-century artist, most well-known for his majestic landscape paintings of the Wind River Range, Yellowstone and the American West. But there's more to him than paintings of grand open spaces. The Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody and the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, Oklahoma worked together to create an exhibit exploring Bierstadt’s influence on conservation and wildlife management in America. It’s called Albert Bierstadt: Witness to the Changing West. Kamila Kudelska speaks talks to three museum curators as they tell the little-known story of a beloved American artist. 

Artist Estelle Ishigo was one of the few white women that went to a Wyoming Japanese-American internment camp. Estelle and her husband were imprisoned at Heart Mountain in 1942. During their three years at the camp, Estelle painted watercolors portraying the daily life. A new exhibit at Heart Mountain Interpretive Center called The Mountain Was Our Secret displays a collection of Estelle’s work. 

It’s a weird story not often told at museums since it’s against the rules. But at the Whitney Western Museum of Art, there’s one painting visitors can’t resist touching.

The Plains Indian Museum at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West has partnered with the Creative Indigenous Collective (CIC). A group of Northern Plains indigenous artists created the collective to promote contemporary native art. This is the first time the Plains Indian Museum is partnering with modern artists. 

More conversations from the series Women in Wyoming…about pushing boundaries and redefining what it means to live in the modern West. Featuring Neltje and Affie Ellis.

Omaha-based artist Jave Yoshimoto’s distinct style of painting blends traditional Japanese woodblock, Chinese brush painting, and comic book-like graphics.

Conversations from the series Women in Wyoming…about pushing boundaries and redefining what it means to live in the modern West. Featuring Nimi and Nina McConigley.

Zenka is an artist and a futurist. “I mix new tech with collaboration structures to form strategies to improve the outcome of future. Exponential growth - the ability for something to change drastically rather than slowly - has forever changed the way I see the world. Change can be scary but it also can be good, especially if we can think ahead and create a strategy and a clear vision for the world we want to build.”

The new podcast and photography series Women in Wyoming profiles accomplished women living in the Equality State. Its creator photographer Lindsay Linton Buk grew up in Powell thinking that in order to be successful in life she would eventually have to leave the state.

For the past three years, the Whitney Western Art Museum of the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody lent over eighty works of art from their main collection for a traveling exhibition: Go West! Art of the American Frontier. 

Since 2013, the Western American art exhibit traveled to Atlanta, Georgia, Omaha, Nebraska and Palms Springs, California. But on December third, Go West! Will open its’ doors for the last time at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts in Salt Lake City.

Comic books get kids reading and thinking about complex issues. That's definitely the case for an art show now up at the Cheyenne Frontier Days Old West Museum. All the comic book art in this show is by Native American artists.

The museum's marketing director Morgan Marks gave Wyoming Public Radio's Melodie Edwards a tour that started with the illustrated robe of the great Eastern Shoshone Chief Washakie, showing just how deeply ingrained picture storytelling is in Native American cultures.