A Public Conversation about the Importance of Public Art in Wyomings Communities and Campuses

April 2-4, 2009

PRESENTER BIOGRAPHIES

Lawrence Argent
Lawrence Argent is known for his multi-media sculptures and indoor and outdoor installations. His often abstract, conceptual works strive to encourage contemplation. Born in England in 1957, he grew up in Australia. He majored in sculpture at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology and received his MFA in Sculpture from the Maryland Institute, College of Art in Baltimore, Maryland. He is a full professor of art and the head of sculpture at the University of Denver School of Art & Art History. In 2002 he was awarded the Distinguished Scholar Award. Argent lives and works in Denver, CO with his family.

Ashley Hope Carlisle
Originally from New Orleans, LA, Ashley Hope Carlisle received her BFA in Sculpture from The University of Southern Mississippi in 1997, and her MFA in Sculpture from The University of Georgia in 2002. Her work has been exhibited in galleries in the southeast and western U.S., in England and Italy. Carlisle received the International Sculpture Center Outstanding Student in Contemporary Sculpture Award in 2002 and a Wyoming Arts Council Visual Arts Fellowship in 2007. She is an Assistant Professor of Sculpture the University of Wyoming and resides in Laramie with her husband David Jones and son Dylan Elijah.

Terry Cooper
Terry Cooper is currently the Vice President – Chief Operating Officer of ARK Regional Services in Laramie. She has received numerous awards within her field and has founded several organizations, including the Wyoming Buddy Walk, and the Wyoming Down Syndrome Association. Cooper directed the development of the award-winning Creative Arts Program at ARK.

Jedediah Cracco
A UW Art Student, Cracco is originally from Leeds, South Dakota, where in High School he became interested in sculpture. He was a UW Art Museum Intern in the summer of 2008, where he worked directly with many of the sculptors featured in Sculpture: A Wyoming Invitational. Cracco is also currently the president of the University’s Student Art League.

Stan Dolega
A Laramie based artist, Stan Dolega created large scale earthworks in the 1970s and 1980s. For the past few decades, he has owned and operated a gun-leather business and creates unique pieces used in historical re-enactments. Sculpture: A Wyoming Invitational marks Dolega’s return to creating large-scale sculpture.Dolega’s steel and boulder sculpture, Vedauwoo Modernized, is located in Optimist Park in Laramie.

Duane Evenson
A. Dudley Gardner (Ph.D History, University of New Mexico, 2000; M.A. History, Colorado State University, 1980) is an anthropologist, historian, expert field researcher, and teacher. He is renowned for his knowledge of 18th and 19th century non-native desert populations: trappers, overland settlers, Chinese railroad laborers, Japanese detainees, and boomtown gas drillers.

Linda Fleming
Linda Fleming is a sculptor who has worked out of the Bay Area since the late 1970s and has shown nationally since 1967. She is represented in such public collections as the Stanford University Museum of Art; Berkeley Art Museum; and the Albuquerque Museum of Art. She has received numerous grants and awards, including those from Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation, Inc., New York; Pollock-Krasner Foundation, New York; and California College of Arts and Crafts, Oakland, California. Fleming was educated at Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania and teaches at California College of Arts and Crafts. Fleming’s laser cut steel sculpture Refugium is on the west plaza of the Classroom Building on 9th St.
 
Nancy Freudenthal
Wyoming’s First Lady Nancy Freudenthal was born and raised in Cody, Wyoming. She earned a bachelor’s degree and a juris doctor from the University of Wyoming, graduating with honors in both cases. She and her husband Dave Freudenthal have two sons and two daughters. As First Lady, Freudenthal has made keeping Wyoming’s children alcohol-free and promoting self-sufficiency for women her top priorities. The Wyoming First Lady’s Initiative brings together communities to develop and implement a local vision for keeping their children alcohol-free. A lifelong collector of Western art, Freudenthal is a member of the University of Wyoming Art Museum National Advisory Board.

Rod Garnett
Rod Garnett teaches classes in world music and flute at the University of Wyoming. He performs extensively at UW, regionally with classical guitarist Alex Komodore, nationally with the Irish Folk Ensemble Colcannon, and at the Boxwood Festival in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. He is the coordinator and assistant instructor for the Wyoming Gamelan Chandra Wyoga and Sikuris de Wyoming, and is a teacher and assistant for the Boxwood Festival.
In addition to his musical responsibilities, he is a PhD in the UW Department of Anthropology. The recent years he has worked in Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Slovakia, Moldova, and the Czech Republic, studying and documenting traditional flutes and music. Garnett is a recipient of the Wyoming Governor’s Arts Award. Harvey Hix
H. L. Hix is a professor in the MFA Creative Writing Program at the University of Wyoming. His most recent collection of poetry is Legible Heavens. Previous collections include God Bless, a collection of poems collaged from the words of George W. Bush and Osama Bin Laden, and Chromatic, which was a finalist for the National Book Award. His poetry has been recognized with the Grolier Prize, the T.S. Eliot Prize, the Peregrine Smith Award, and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship Award.

Ben Hornok 
Ben Hornok became involved in construction when he enrolled in a home building class during high school. This training led to the first of many construction jobs and he put himself through college with the money he earned while building. He continues to be involved with building project so that he continues to learn the skills, concepts, craftsmanship and art of building. A superintendent job in Cheyenne prompted the move to southeast Wyoming, where he and his family now live. Hornok works for Haselden Construction; a general contractor that believes in building relationships with clients and the communities where they work.

Phill Harris
Phill Harris is the Vice President for Administration and has held several administrative positions at UW during his 20 year career. Prior to coming to UW, Phill worked for 14 years in Wyoming State Government, including service as State Budget Director for two governors. He has a B.S. in Finance and a Master’s degree in Public Administration, both from UW. He lives in Laramie with his wife, Paula.

Albert Haskins
University Physical Plant employee Albert Haskins worked with many of the artists in Sculpture: A Wyoming Invitational to install their work around campus. He lives in Laramie.

Paul Harrison
Paul Harrison is currently the Director of Laramie Parks and Recreation.

John Henry
Over the past 30 years, John Henry has produced monumental and large-scaled sculptures for museums, cities and public institutions across the United States, Europe and Asia. He has created some of the largest contemporary metal sculpture (90 to 100 feet high) in the US. His work is designed, engineered, fabricated and erected at his Chattanooga, TN studio.Henry, along with Mark di Suvero, Kenneth Snelson, Lyman Kipp and Charles Ginnever, were founding members of ConStruct, the artist-owned gallery that promoted and organized large-scale sculpture exhibitions throughout the US. He is the curator of the Outdoor Museum of Art at Chattanooga State College and actively promotes the arts. He has served on numerous advisory boards, including the Board of Trustees for the National Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts and the International Sculpture Center. Since, was named Chairmen Emeritus of the ISC board in 2008. 
Henry’s 55-ft tall, red River High is east of the Laramie Recreation Center.
 
Melanie Howlett
Through art, Melanie Howlett introduces her students to concrete experiences, which reach across disciplines and increase their understanding of themselves, others and the world. Learn how this 34-year veteran art teacher from Starrett Junior High, Lander, WY, conducted the ultimate field trip to Laramie to visit the University of WY Art Museum’s sculpture exhibit. See the exciting results of the interactive art/language arts unit that she developed and carried out with 120 8th grade students.

Travis Ivey
Laramie artist Travis Ivey was born in Cheyenne, WY and spent his childhood in the Midwest, regularly returning to Wyoming for the summer and visiting his grandparents in South Carolina. He became serious about his artwork when he returned to Wyoming and finished high school. He enrolled as a non-traditional student at the University of Wyoming, and, since 2007, has served as the ASUW representative on the University of Wyoming Art Museum National Advisory Board and the committee for Sculpture: A Wyoming Invitational. He graduated with a BFA degree recently. Ivey’s work is in numerous private and public collections, including the University of Wyoming and the Wyoming State Museum.

Dale Jones
Dale Jones is a professional structural engineer and has been involved in the design of many types of projects, including buildings and bridges. He is currently working on converting a 95 year old jail building in Trinidad, Colorado into modern office space.

David Jones
Originally from Augusta, Georgia, David Jones received his BFA in sculpture from the University of Georgia in 2000. For the following year, he worked in the Sloss Metal Arts Artist-in-Residency program in Birmingham, AL, casting iron. In 2004 he received his MFA in sculpture from the University of Tennessee. He moved to Laramie, WY with his wife, Ashley Hope Carlisle. Jones is a Preparator for the University of Wyoming Art Museum and an adjunct professor in the Art Department.

Pat Jones
Pat Jones currently works at the University of Wyoming Physical Plant. He assisted with the installation of sculptures for Sculpture: A Wyoming Invitational in the summer of 2008. He lives in Laramie.

Nita Kehoe
Nita Kehoe is the Gallery Director and Professor of Art at Central Wyoming College in Riverton, WY. She has a MFA from University of Cincinnati and an MA from University of Iowa. As a practicing artist, she exhibits nationally and internationally. The human form influences her sculptures and paintings. She lives in Lander, WY.Charmaine Locke
Charmaine Locke creates intimate sculpture and drawings that often explores and defines Mother Earth imagery and mythology. She has exhibited widely throughout the United States since 1977 and her work is included in many private and public collections. She has her husband, sculptor James Surls, have organized many pivotal events in the greater Houston area before relocating to Carbondale, Colorado. Both are considered to be visionaries in their community work for the arts. 
Locke’s bronze sculpture Open Book is on view at the Albany County Public Library on Grand Ave.

Jeffrey Lockwood
Jeff Lockwood is a Professor of Natural Sciences and Humanities whose academic appointment is split between the Department of Philosophy and the MFA Program in Creative Writing. His work at UW for 20 years has been in the field of entomology, specializing in grasshopper and locust ecology and management. A few years ago he began a metamorphosis which has now formally taken him into research, creative work, and teaching in the fields of the philosophy of ecology, natural resource and environmental ethics, and nature and spiritual/religious writing (along with the first-ever writer's course in "Interstellar Message Composition" through a NASA-funded collaboration with the Institute dedicated to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence). He has published more than 100 scientific and technical papers, and his popular writing has been recognized with the John Burroughs Award, a Pushcart Prize, and inclusion in the Best American Science & Nature Writing anthology.

Howard Major
After graduating with a BA from Western Michigan University, Howard Major taught high school social sciences and was an active supervisor of extra-curricular activities. He completed a Master of Library and Information Science degree and served as director of Learning Resources at Jackson, Michigan Community College. There, he led the transformation of a traditional college library into a full-service learning resources center, taking advantage of emerging educational technologies. Major completed a doctorate in educational leadership with an emphasis in educational technology systems in 1980 and began a career in community college leadership. Major is the Dean of Arts and Humanities at Laramie County Community College in Cheyenne, WY where he supervises 22 faculty members and is actively involved with college-wide initiatives.

Mike Massie
Wyoming State Senator Mike Massie has served 15 years in the state legislature. He is the executive director of Child Development Services of Wyoming, a non-profit organization devoted to preschool developmental disabilities. He lives in Laramie.

Peter Moran
Peter Moran is an associate professor of elementary education at the University of Wyoming. His teaching responsibilities include undergraduate courses in teaching art in the elementary school and methods of teaching social studies for elementary education majors. He also teaches a variety of graduate courses in curriculum and instruction, public policy in education, and history of education in the United States. Dr. Moran is n the early stages of developing a book on the integration of the arts into different content areas in the elementary school curriculum.

Jesús Moroles
After a year of studio work in Italy in 1980, Jesús Moroles purchased his first large diamond saw.  Within 3 years, he began building his studio in Rockport, TX.  The effort was a family affair with the artist’s parents Jose and Maria, his brother, Hilario, his sister, Suzanna, and brother-in-law, Kurt Kangas as integral parts of the Moroles Studio. This facility is unequaled in the country for the making of large-scale granite sculpture. A prolific sculptor, Moroles has more than 2,000 works of art in esteemed private, museum, corporate, and public collections worldwide.  He has had more than 130 one-person exhibitions and over 200 group exhibitions. He has lectured extensively about his work and the issue of public sculpture, and serves on the board of the National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Moroles received his BFA in fine arts from the University of North Texas.  In 1994, he was honored as a Distinguished Alumnus.  In 2008, he received the National Medal of the Arts.  He lives and works in Rockport, TX.

Moroles’ created the granite and steel work, Granite Windows for Sculpture: A Wyoming Invitational. It is located on UW’s Prexy’s Pasture.

Charles Parson
Parson is a sculptor, teacher, and muralist.  He has created large-scale site-specific sculpture, wall constructions, and performance art for exhibitions nationwide and is in public collections. His work is often interactive, incorporating sound components into his work. He is the Senior Chair of the Art Department at the urban-based Community College of Denver. His art-related employment activities include designing and producing exhibits at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, where he is a contract muralist/illustrator.
Parson is the recipient of the Alliance for Contemporary Arts 1999 AFKEY Award from the Denver Art Museum; Innovation in the Arts Award from the Colorado Federation of the Arts; and Museum Educators of the Year Award from the Colorado Arts Education Association.
Molto Allargando, a 65-ft long work in steel, glass, plastic, and turf, is located on UW’s Prexy’s Pasture.

Carl Reed
Born in Nyack, NY, Reed grew u p in the Hudson Valley and continues an unbroken lineage of artists, craftspersons, and designers. His mother was an artist from Sweden. His parents were products of the Arts and Crafts Movement. 

Reed has had numerous solo and group exhibitions and his commissions for large-scale sculpture include Colorado College, University of Northern Colorado, University of Florida, Kaiser-Permanente, and the Front Range Community College. He is represented by Robischon Gallery, Denver.

Reed’s Braced Ring with Outlyer is at the west end of UW’s Prexy’s Pasture.Joe Sanchez
An employee of the UW Physical Plant, Joe Sanchez assisted artists in Sculpture: A Wyoming Invitational with the installation of their work. He lives in Laramie.John Schiffer
Wyoming State Senator John Schiffer is originally from Chadron, NE. His work in the senate includes serving as Vice President and Senate Majority Floor Leader. Schiffer is also a rancher and has served in the US Navy. He lives in Kaycee.Nancy Schiffer
Nancy Schiffer is a member of the Wyoming Art Council Board and is actively involved with the arts. She and husband, Senator John Schiffer, live in Kaycee.

Steven Siegel
For more than twenty years, Steven Siegel has created sculptures and site-specific, temporary works from discarded or recycled material for museums, sculpture parks, corporate lobbies, nature conservancies, and universities around the world. Often, the location for his work is remote and out of the way places in the landscape. 

Siegel is the recipient of a Mid-Atlantic Foundation grant, New York Foundation for the Arts grant, ArtsLink Collaborative Projects Award, a Ford Foundation grant, and a National Endowment for the Arts grant. He has an MFA from the Pratt Institute and MA and BA degrees from Hampshire College, Amherst, MA.

Siegel’s three week long residency in Laramie during June 2008 resulted in It Goes Under, a 175-ft long site-specific work located along the Laramie Greenbelt, Commerce St entrance on the West Side.Rachael Sisneros
As the University Construction Design Contract Specialist, Rachael Sisneros oversees many engineering projects around campus. She lives in Laramie.

James Surls
James Surls is an internationally-renowned artist who has had numerous exhibitions and whose works are in the public collection of such major museums as the Dallas Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, the Museum of Modern Art, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Seattle Art Museum. 

A graduate of Sam Houston State Teachers College in Texas and Cranbrook Academic of Art, Surls and his wife, Charmaine Locke, are recognized for their work with the Lawndale Alternative Space in Texas. Surls is a recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and, in 1993, received the Living Legend Award from the Dallas Contemporary Art Center. Surls and Locke live in Carbondale, CO.

Surls created a new work for Sculpture: A Wyoming Invitational. In Circle is a stainless steel work located on Prexy’s Pasture. Allen Trent
Allen Trent is the chairperson of the Department of Educational Studies at the University of Wyoming. As an elementary teacher, he taught 1st, 4th and 6th grades in urban arts magnet schools in Ohio. His teaching and research interests include the arts in education, integrated curricula, action research, and democratic, culturally responsive teaching.

Ursula von Rydingsvard
Ursula von Rydingsvard's wood sculptures resonate with a sense of history and human presence. Their varied shapes and surfaces, while abstract, suggest the human figure, landscape elements, household utensils, and farm implements. Her work is partially influenced by memories of the German work and refugee camps where she spent the early years of her life before immigrating to the United States. 
von Rydingsvard has had numerous exhibitions, including solo exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art; the CAPP Street Project, San Francisco; the Denver Art Museum; and the Center for Contemporary Art, Warsaw, Poland. Her sculpture is included in such major public collections as The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Brooklyn Museum, and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. Her outdoor work has been installed at the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden; the Storm King Art Center, Mountainville, NY; and the Laumeier Sculpture Park in Saint Louis, among other sites. 
Lent by Neltje of Banner, WY, Doolin Doolin is located on sculpture terrace of the UW Art Museum.

Margaret Wilson
Margaret Wilson is an associate professor in Theatre & Dance, where she specializes in teaching modern dance, 20th century dance history, kinesiology and vertical dance. Her choreographic interests follow biographical studies, including ….the body through which the dream flows… (2007), which explored the creative spirit in women across disciplines and through time. She and her partner, Neil Humphrey, present an annual performance of vertical dance at the Vedauwoo Recreation Area. Wilson is interested in the interface between art and science and understanding the common threads, which link all disciplines. She is the co-organizer of a campus conference on multidisciplinary study entitled Revisioning the (W)hole which celebrates interdisciplinary work at the University of Wyoming and beyond.