In the Soup: Retired CSU professor John Calderazzo reads in the library

Poetry books arrived this week. The first was “In the Soup,” the second book of poetry by John Calderazzo. John lives in the foothills outside the tiny town of Bellevue, Colorado just north of Fort Collins and Colorado State University. John taught literary nonfiction during his time in the M.F.A. Program in Creative Writing at CSU. He was one of my faculty mentors and I enlisted his expertise as a literary fellowship juror during my time at the Wyoming Arts Council. He still writes and teaches in that genre but explores poetry in retirement.

John writes of many topics but travel is a big one. He is a world traveler so writes about trips to Peru and other overseas locations. His U.S.-based poems are set on Flattop Mountain in Rocky Mountain National Park, Elk Mountain in Wyoming, and Santa Cruz Island in California.  He dedicates some to friends and colleagues. “Kraken” is dedicated to Richard Jacobi, whom I knew in Casper, Wyo. John hears from Richard and his wife, retired University of Wyoming professor Vicki Lindner, about recent falls which, at a certain age, leads to complications, something this person of a certain age knows only too well. After watching a video of his Peru nephew’s toddler son falling over as he tried to walk, John  writes: “I sense what’s reaching out for him—gravity, the Kraken,/tentacled monster of the deep—already taking/his measure.”

The natural world has always featured heavily in John’s writing. In “Gathering Voltage,” he’s in the mountains again, this time in a summer lightning storm. He and his brother-in-law crouch as a bolt hits nearby and he feels “the fatal breath of the sky.” On another day, he rides his mountain bike in a storm: “Shivering as I fly, I sense a lightning/bolt moving into position, gathering/voltage, checking its GPS, its terrible/book of names.”

The author is not always in the wilderness. Sometimes, “The Retired Professor Reads in the Library.” He’s researching a travel essay and is in the aisle with his books and “old-time reporter’s notebooks.” He moves aside to let a student pass and wonders if the young man just sees “Him again—the old guy.” Thing is, he’s “as happy as I was at 10, freed from class to roam the school library.” I know the feeling, the old guy with his walker, crowding the aisle, as he reads a book pulled from the shelves but not sitting instead at one of the tables reserved for the elderly. If asked, I might tell you that some of the glory in the library is being there in the crowded aisle with my friends, the books.

"The Darker Moods of My Father" took me back to my own youth in the 1960s and '70s. He contemplates his father's "darker moods" and his rants on Vietnam and antiwar protesters and "priests drunk on holy water." Meanwhile, the writer remembers "this thing/that wanted to cannon me into jungle mud/since I'd turned eighteen." The poem ends with a revelation about his parents, about how his mother cautioned her husband about going too far with his his diatribes and the father looks sheepish, "knowing he'd gone too far, back in those days/when it was still possible to go too far." Suddenly we're back in 2025, when every day is a lesson on going too far.

John’s book is published by Middle Creek Publishing and Audio: The Literature of Human Ecology. A fine-looking book, printed in a large and very readable sans-serif type. The publisher is based in Pueblo Mountain Road in Beulah, Colorado, which is located between Pueblo and the mountains. I mention this because there are many fine small publishers tucked into many small places. My old friend Nancy Curtis runs High Plains Press from her ranch near Glendo, Wyoming, just a few miles off I-25 down a rutted dirt road that can turn into gumbo during a heavy rain. Anhinga Press has two co-directors in Tallahassee but founder Rick Campbell supervises from his windswept outpost on the Gulf of Mexico (MEXICO!).

One more thing. Some small presses receive support through their local and state arts agencies or some get National Endowment for the Arts publishing grants. I should say they used to get grants but not anymore from the battered NEA and not anymore in Florida where the Governor is on a scorched-earth campaign against the arts and the liberal arts education.

A sad state of affairs. My career was based on connecting local arts groups and publishers to government funding which they had to match 1-to-1. Most of the time, the government dollar was matched many times over. The U.S. government is now in the hands of a wrecking crew that wants to demolish poetry and prose, arts and education. They want to destroy everything I hold dear.

John Calderazzo writes about everything I want to preserve and protect.

GoFundMe for my brother, Tim Shay

My brother Tim the postman/father/grandfather is undergoing radiation treatments at the Mayo Clinic Hospital in Jacksonville, Fla. The docs successfully operated on Tim a few years ago to remove a non-cancerous brain tumor. It grew back, this time with an unwelcome surprise of "atypical cells." Tim's large family depended on his paycheck but now he's on disability and things are a bit tight. If you've a mind to, please contribute to our family's GoFundMe site

I pray for Tim daily and keep sending him goofy cards to lift his spirits. 

Is Wyoming in the midst of a "death spiral?"

I get depressed thinking about the new state budget cuts. It's not clinical depression. More like a short-term funk brought on by knucklehead legislators.

The Gov announced a new round of cuts Tuesday at the Joint Appropriations Committee meeting in Cheyenne. Appropriate for the hottest day in four years, one swaddled in smoke from a wildland fire burning on the Colorado/Wyoming border. All the tall grass and timber nurtured during a wet spring is drying out and set afire by careless humans. Might be a fitting analogy here. State Government budgets nurtured by rising mineral royalties during the past 10 years are now undergoing slash-and-burn tactics by the careless Republican-centric legislature. I think I will run with that, even though the comparison is a bit of a stretch. Maybe a hidden meaning lurks within, as in something embedded in a Flannery O'Connor short story.

First, a few words from Gov. Mead. He's the guy in charge. He's the guy who has been saying for the past year (go here) that across-the-board budget cuts are dangerous for Wyoming and cause the state to "lose talent and skill." They will lead us into a "death spiral." Fewer state services and fewer state employees cause losses in the private sector and will send us into a spin we may not recover from. You want state parks with campgrounds and boat docks and bathrooms that work and helpful staff? You want loans and grants to help attract tourists to a revived downtown? You want roads that aren't pock-marked with potholes/ You want a professional highway patrol that comes to your aid when your truck skids off an icy road in January? You want to care for our veterans and elderly and disabled? You want someone to come in and put out that wildland fire that threatens your little house in the forest?

It takes money. "Doh!" says Homer Simpson, surprised that he didn't think of that. Homer's not much of a money manager. When he has to have an RV to keep up with the Flanderses, his request for a loan sets off sirens and red blinking lights at the dealership. Thing is, the state has a rainy day fund of a couple billion dollars. If we dip into that, no sirens go off. We do get wailing and gnashing of teeth from the same legislators who hate Obama enough to scuttle Medicaid expansion that would prevent some of the layoffs in the health care industry that we now are experiencing in Casper and elsewhere. Those same legislators despise gubment and the same gubment workers who plow their roads and clean the toilets at Guernsey and Glendo. "DOH!"

The legislature has dipped into the rainy day fund. It is raining -- hard. Legislators are being conservative (surprise!) and are taking only $180 million from the fund, believing that the energy downturn will last 10-15 years instead of the 3-5 projected by most experts. Coal will never come back, due to global warming. But who knows? A good war may erupt, causing Dick Cheney to replace his usual scowl with something akin to a shit-eating grin. His daughter Liz will be elected to Congress and immediately make coal a mandatory snack at schools and senior centers from coast-to-coast.  Laid-off coal workers can go back to work and legislators can do what they do best, socking away mineral royalties for a rainy day that they pray never will come.

In the interest of full disclosure: I was a Wyoming state employee, an arts worker, for 25 years. I now am a Wyoming state retiree. 

Republican Sequester brings pain to Wyoming

Sequester causes cuts in funding for special needs students: http://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/post/sequester-might-cut-funding-special-needs-students

Mayors from communities around Yellowstone National Park have petitioned Gov. Mead to use state funds to plow the park's roads so it will open on time for tourist season. Yellowstone's budget has been cut by more than $1.5 million due to sequestration. The Governor wonders why the state should have to spend money for federal obligations: http://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/post/governor-ponders-sequestration-help

Cheyenne Airport may have to shutter its air traffic control tower: http://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/post/cheyenne-regional-airport-might-lose-air-tower

"Misguided austerity policies" by conservatives lead to people falling through the cracks

I've written before about how right-wing ideology in Wyoming is driving budget cuts for mental health care. After another senseless massacre, we need to take a serious look about the lack of funding and services for those diagnosed with some form of mental illness. States have cut $4.35 billion in public mental health spending from 2009 to 2012, according to the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors (NASMHPD). Wyoming will join their ranks in 2013.

We recently had a case in Casper, Wyoming, where a young man murdered his father and his father's girlfriend and then committed suicide. No guns were involved; lethal weapons in this case where a compound bow and a hunting knife. The young man drove all the way from Connecticut to Casper to do this deed. That takes planning. The deed itself takes rage and focus and something else that we can't name.

What's at stake? Lynn Parramore writes in Alternet:

Thanks to the misguided austerity policies embraced by conservatives, more people are falling through the cracks. There are not enough psychiatric beds, treatment services or community support programs. Medication is expensive, and insurance companies routinely leave patients inadequately covered (the Affordable Care Act will hopefully address this problem by finally putting psychiatric illnesses on par with other health issues).

Mental healthcare workers have been laid off. Vulnerable people are neglected until their situation becomes acute – often after it’s too late. Many are incarcerated, often subjected to solitary confinement because prison officials don’t know what to do with them. Others are homeless –- as many as 45 percent of the people living on the streets suffer from mental illness.

"Misguided austerity policies" have caused the Republican-dominated Wyoming Legislature and Governor Mead to slash the state's healthcare budget. Let's hope they're prepared for the consequences.

Gallatin County, Montana, borders Yellowstone. Gallatin County Sheriff Brian Gootkin speaks about some of those budget-cutting consequences in the March 22, 2012, report to Congress by the NASMHPD:

Police forces are experiencing a significant increase in psychiatric emergencies, which is a direct result of mental health funding reductions. In Gallatin County, Montana — an area twice the size of Rhode Island, encompassing Bozeman and part of Yellowstone National Park — Sheriff Brian Gootkin oversees 48 deputies. He said his force is “experiencing a significant increase” in psychiatric emergencies, which he said was a “direct result of mental health funding reductions” and that his officers have become an involuntary component of the State of Montana’s emergency psychiatric response teams.

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He pleaded to federal lawmakers in Helena and in Congress to stop cutting funds for community-based mental health services. He reiterated that people in psychiatric crisis need to receive community-based mental health services staffed by licensed professionals — not in the back of a patrol car.

Sheriff Gootkin’s fear is that if we continue to go down this dangerous path, both public safety in Gallatin County and access to emergency medical care will be compromised. He concluded, “The result will have a huge impact, not only on people with mental illness, but the entire community.”

Onward and upward (and sometimes downward and dumbward) as Wyoming lurches into the future

American Bison at Utah's Hogle Zoo

The following comes from a University of Wyoming press release that appeared on Friday. It talks about Wyoming's and UW's commitment to the future in the form of computing power and connectivity. It's refreshing to see such forward-thinking planning on the part of a university that last summer removed a campus sculpture that dared to question global warming ("Carbon Sink"). But it's also the same university that opened a huge new visual arts building at the end of last year, and began raising funds to match a legislative appropriation for a renovated performing arts building. And remember Bill Ayers, the firebrand education reformer and one-time antiwar radical that UW tried to stop speaking on campus a few years back?

Okay, UW has a split personality, not unlike Wyoming's.

You gotta love this place for that. And sometimes, well, you gotta think of Nobel Prize winning writer William Faulkner. As the story goes, Faulkner was at a book signing in Montana when a woman said that she wished that Montana writers loved Montana like Faulkner obviously loved Mississippi. Faulkner's reply: "Madam, I hate Mississippi."

That probably left her speechless.

You don't have to love a place to write well about it. And you don't have to love a place to wish it a fruitful future.

So the new NCAR Wyoming Supercomputing Center (NWSC) was dedicated today. Go out and visit the new education center, which is open to the public on weekdays. After this week, you won't be able to visit Yellowstone, the new supercomputer, unless you have an appointment or you're running for president.

This is only one of the surprising bits in this article. DYK that the huge fiber-optic cable that laid the ground for the NWSC is called the Bison Ring (not to be confused with Wagner's Ring Cycle)? See above images for an explanation. And that another big computer has been installed at UW in Laramie with the name Mount Moran, after a peak in the Teton Range? I kind of like this trend that attaches Wyocentric names to tangles of wires and metal and electrons. Microsoft is building a new regional data center in Cheyenne. Wonder what its computer will be called? I suggest "Vedauwoo." Or possibly "Crazy Horse."

Here's the first few paragraphs of the UW release:

It began with laying hundreds of miles of fiber-optic cable, much of it buried under the ground along stretches of interstate that traverse the mountains and plains of Wyoming. Next week, the state’s evolution from primarily pulling minerals out of the ground to a sky’s-the-limit outlook for supercomputing will be complete.

The $74 million NCAR-Wyoming Supercomputing Center (NWSC), with a primary focus of atmospheric research, is slated to open Monday, Oct. 15, with a ceremonial dedication. Located at the North Range Business Park in Cheyenne, the $30 million supercomputer, dubbed “Yellowstone,” will be used by multiple University of Wyoming researchers and their students to model detailed simulations of hydrology, carbon sequestration, planet formation, efficiency of wind turbines, and much more.

Read the whole thing at http://www.uwyo.edu/uw/news/2012/10/supercomputer-opening-caps-years-of-effort.html

Bob Lynch of Americans for the Arts: Mitt Romney has a "misunderstanding" of how arts funding works

Mitt Romney wants to defund the National Endowment for the Arts. Once again, he's pandering to his supporters on the Far Right. And he doesn't understand how arts funding works. 

Robert Lynch, president and CEO of Americans for the Arts, said Romney has a 'misunderstanding' of how NEA funding works, in that the funding helps stimulate state and local arts councils as well as seed the growth of small businesses. Read Lynch's entire response at Americans for the Arts News

Action alert: Ask Wyoming Senators to restore crucial HIV/AIDS funding

Wyoming Equality's Joe Corrigan wrote a letter to concerned citizens today about a legislative cut in funding for much-needed HIV/AIDS meds.

Dear Friends,  

Yesterday we learned of a mistake in the Wyoming Health Department Budget regarding funding for HIV/AIDS Treatment.  The error cuts treatment funds by $400,000. If not corrected, it could cost the state matching funds from the Ryan White Care Act Part B.  I am asking you to please take the time today to email your Senator and Representative and ask them to restore these funds. Please prepare your own original email.  You can send your email to as many Senators and Representatives as you like. Please be as polite as possible.   Your letter may make all the difference in the world for the 135 currently people being helped by this program as well as future recipients.  Talking points are listed below.  Shorter letters are appreciated by our elected officials.

Read the rest at http://outinwy.blogspot.com

Find your Representative here, and find your Senator here. For a complete list of all Senators and Representatives visit the LSO Website.

Wyoming Arts Alliance holds advocacy luncheon Feb. 24 in Cheyenne

The upcoming week in Cheyenne is filled with events. But there’s one on Friday that you shouldn’t miss. Lyndsay McCandless, director of the Wyoming Arts Alliance, sends this info:

The Wyoming Arts Alliance in partnership with the Wyoming Arts Council invites you to join us for the “Arts Advocacy Luncheon for Legislators” on Friday, February 24, 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m., in the Herschler Building West Wing Atrium in Cheyenne. Join us to thank our Legislators for their support of the arts in our state! Please pass this information along to anyone who is interested in the arts in Wyoming: www.wyomingarts.org 

State budget cuts impact Wyoming's most vulnerable children and families

For the most part, Wyoming fares poorly in children's health care. It's not Alabama-bad, but statistics provided by national organizations regularly put us somewhere in the middle of the pack. This would seem to run counter to Wyoming's status as one of the few states that prospered economically during the past decade. 

The latest Wyoming Kids Count data report ranks Wyoming 28th when it comes to twelve criteria, including teen death rates, low birth weight babies, adequate prenatal care, etc. Here's a summary:

The child well-being indicators in the 2012 Wyoming Kids Count report show improvement over time for just four of the twelve indicators. Results have worsened over time across the remaining eight. Many Wyoming mothers do not receive adequate prenatal care, have difficulty finding a hospital to give birth, and they are often lacking in education about the risk factors that can negatively impact childbirth and child development. 

Whatever the topic -- health care, mental health, substance abuse, K-12 education -- Wyoming ends up ranked either in the bottom of the top tier or the top of the bottom tier. This runs counter to the idea that Wyoming can have it all -- or "do it all," as Gov. Mead said in his recent State of the State speech. We might be able to do it all, but we haven't yet.

This is why it's distressing to learn about cuts to my favorite non-profit organization. UPLIFT provides services to those families with special needs children. I've been a board member since 1998. I've also received UPLIFT services for my special needs children. More about that below. But first, here's is some background on the current budget cuts:

In 2011, thanks to UPLIFT, families of 717 children with special health care needs received support, advocacy, mentoring, and training with a positive impact on their skills in the following areas:

·         Ability to better care for their child at home

·         Ability to advocate for their child’s needs

·         Ability to access needed services

·         Reduction of family stress due to their child’s special health care needs

The most important piece of data indicated parents were better able to care for their children at home thus reducing the need for costly out-of-home place. The average annual cost for a child in out-of-home placement is $120,000.  UPLIFT support services average annual cost is only $1,500 per child.


In 2011 UPLIFT served children in 21 Wyoming Counties. UPLIFT currently maintains 5 regional offices to better serve children and families statewide. Current state budget cuts of 44% will result in the closing of offices and a significant reduction in the number of children and families that will be served.

UPLIFT is the only statewide family-run organization providing these support services and has been an active part of Wyoming communities since 1990. Over the past 5 years UPLIFT has served 3,600 children and their families. Current budget cuts will result in a loss of services to approximately 200 children annually. Without adequate funding, anticipated negative outcomes for families and communities might include increased out-of-home placement, juvenile justice involvement, school failure, and increased family stress.


If you're disturbed by these cuts, contact your state legislators and tell them to do something about it. I did. Here's my e-mail:


Dear Sen. Fred Emerich:

I was shocked to hear this week that Wyoming Department of Health budget cuts to UPLIFT will result in the closing of offices and a significant reduction in the number of children and families that receive crucial services from this non-profit organization. These cuts amount to 44 percent of the funding that UPLIFT receives from the state.

I urge you to support a bill that will restore this funding during the upcoming biennium.

Why is UPLIFT important? It’s been crucial to my family on several occasions. UPLIFT is the only organization in the state that provides one-on-one assistance to families whose children require Individualized Education Programs or IEPs. My son was diagnosed in kindergarten with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Without special help provided by an IEP, he never would have graduated and gone on to college (which he did). IEP meetings require parents to meet with a phalanx of administrators, teachers and counselors from the school. Parents are often clueless as to what they can request as far as special accommodations. UPLIFT provides family support specialists who accompany the parents during these school meetings. My wife and I received assistance from UPLIFT employees at IEP meetings at McCormick Junior High and East High School. All this was at no cost to us.


Our son is a community college grad and will attend CSU in the fall. He's doing just fine, thank you.

Eight years later, our daughter needed assistance to cope with a severe learning disability, epilepsy and Attention Deficit Disorder. UPLIFT staff assisted at IEP meetings. Later, after our daughter was treated in a mental health facility for bipolar disorder, UPLIFT provided crucial wrap-around support to help our daughter transition back to school and the community. This was paid for through the Wyoming Children’s Mental Health Waiver. This was a great thing because, without it, we never could have afforded the long-term mental health care or the transition services. These on-site support services cost much less than in-patient treatment at a mental health facility. The average annual cost for a child in out-of-home placement is $120,000.  UPLIFT support services annually average only $1,500 per child.

I am happy to report that our daughter, now 18, is a student in the music program at LCCC – and received a full scholarship. This would never have happened without crucial services provided by UPLIFT.

We read so much about Wyoming’s pioneer status and the difficulty its citizens have in receiving health care services. Here is an organization that fills a huge need in the state, one that would not be addressed without UPLIFT.

I am not just talking about families in Laramie County where UPLIFT’s main office is located. In 2011, UPLIFT served 717 children in 21 Wyoming counties through its five regional offices. In Fremont County, UPLIFT served 120 children. This county, as you know, is home to thriving communities in Lander and Riverton and Dubois. It is also home to pockets of grinding poverty, substance abuse and domestic violence, both on and off the Wind River Reservation. It’s not too much of a stretch to say that UPLIFT has saved lives in Fremont County.

Over the past five years, UPLIFT has served 3,600 children and their families. Current budget cuts will result in a loss of services to approximately 200 children annually. Without adequate funding, there will be increased out-of-home placement, juvenile justice involvement, school failure, and increased family stress.

I’ve been following the committee meetings leading up to the legislative session. I know that tough budget choices have been made – and will continue during the session. But this is one funding measure that is crucial to the well-being of Wyoming’s children. Please support Sen. Peterson’s amendment. Our families are counting on you.

Sincerely,

Michael Shay

Feel free to use any of my wording. You probably have your own story. Tell it.

In the meantime, contribute to UPLIFT here.

Wyoming Tribune-Eagle: Downtown "hole" plan gets mixed reviews

Eight years and counting for downtown's "hole" (WTE photo).

Build a spec building at the hole site in downtown Cheyenne? The idea is to add the building's cost to the sixth-penny tax vote later this year. Not everyone likes the idea, but who's got a better plan? Anyone? Anyone? Read the WTE story: Downtown "hole" plan gets mixed reviews

Wyoming scholarships available for National Main Streets Conference in Baltimore

As we've discussed at length here, Wyoming's downtowns have launched some innovative projects. I think of downtown Cheyenne's LightsOn! project and the arts-based redevelopment launched by Casper. There is the renovated Rock Springs downtown theatre, the roundhouse project in Evanston, the "living upstairs in downtown" program in Sheridan, and so on. But much more needs to be done. You can't have a great city or town without a thriving downtown. The Wyoming Main Street Program is leading the way. It is offering scholarships to the national conference:

The Wyoming Main Street Program is offering travel scholarships to a conference that will help participants revitalize and build vibrant commercial districts in Wyoming’s downtowns. Several scholarships are available for the National Main Streets Conference in Baltimore, Md., April 1-4, 2012. The trip includes a Wyoming Main Street sponsored pre-trip to Maryland and Delaware, March 29-31, to learn how Main Street principles are being applied in other communities. 

The conference brings together people from communities of all sizes to network, discuss issues, and learn new ideas and solutions for growing and developing downtown revitalization programs. This year’s conference will focus on taking Main Street to the next level by continuing to grow support, economic strength, and the national movement. The scholarships cover airfare to and from an applicant’s nearest airport and Baltimore, conference registration fees, and lodging during the pre-trip and conference. 

Scholarship applications are due to Wyoming Main Street no later than Feb. 3, 2012. Application packets must include a completed application form. Scholarships will only be offered to individuals who are residents of a Wyoming municipality and associated with, or supported by, one of the following organizations: local government, downtown association or its equivalent, downtown merchants association, urban renewal authority, downtown development authority, chamber of commerce, historic preservation organization, or other community organizations intended to revitalize a historic downtown. 

Notification of scholarship awards will be made from the Wyoming Main Street staff on or around Feb. 15, 2012. Recipients are asked to give a report to their local city/town council as well as the Wyoming Main Street Advisory Board about the information learned on the trip and how it will help their community. 

For more information, contact Wyoming Main Street Specialist Scott Wisniewski at 307.777.2934 or scott.w@wyo.gov. 

The Wyoming Main Street Program is dedicated to providing Wyoming communities with opportunities to strengthen local pride and revitalize historic downtown districts by utilizing the Main Street Four Point Approach. This approach means Wyoming Main Street strives to help downtown business owners improve the appearance of downtowns, build cooperation between downtown groups, help downtowns market their unique qualities and strengthen the economic base of downtown.

Applications available here. For information, contact Kim Kittel at 307.287.2170 or kim.kittel@wyo.gov.

Rep. Gingery's bill proposes much-needed boost in waiver program budget

From the Wyoming Public Media web site:

A Wyoming program that helps the disabled has a long waiting list, but a state bill to be introduced next year could help. 

Jackson representative Keith Gingery (R-Fremont/Teton) is the sponsor of the bill to be introduced during the upcoming legislative session would provide $28 million in state and federal funding for Wyoming's Home and Community Based Waiver Program. The waiver program provides services for people with disabilities. More than 450 people in Wyoming are waiting for adult, child or brain-injury waivers. 

Wyoming expects to spend about $214 million on the waivers over the next two fiscal years, with about half the cost paid with federal dollars. But Gingery said that the funding isn't enough to meet existing demand for the waivers.

This program provides much-needed support to those families challenged with long-term medical care that is usually only partially covered by insurance – if that family is insured at all. Guidelines of the waiver program are outlined here.

Support Rep. Gingery via e-mail at kgingery@wyoming.com

Now it's time to "occupy the arts"

Holly Sidford writes on the Grantmakers for the Arts site about the new report she authored, "Fusing Arts, Culture and Social Change: High Impact Strategies for Philanthropy," for the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy. Sidford is a strategic planner, program developer and fund-raiser with 30 years experience with cultural organizations and philanthropy. Here's her intro:

Every year, approximately 11 percent of foundation giving – about $2.3 billion in 2009 – is awarded to nonprofit arts and cultural institutions. The distribution of these funds is demonstrably out of balance with our evolving cultural landscape and with the changing demographics of our communities. Current arts grantmaking disregards large segments of cultural practice, and by doing so, it disregards large segments of our society.

Food for thought for all of us who work in the arts-funding biz.

For full report: http://www.giarts.org/article/fusing-arts-culture-and-social-change

Cross-posted from the Wyomingarts blog

Convergence Wyoming: Historic preservation not just for Earth anymore.

Milford Wayne Donaldson, California’s state historic preservation officer, will be a featured speaker at the Convergence Wyoming 2011 in Cody Oct. 6-8. He will speak about some of the finer points of historic preservation. And its most otherworldly ones. In 2010, Donaldson successfully sought historic preservation status for the Apollo 11 moon landing sites.

The reasoning behind the first-of-its-kind designation was simple: Scores of California companies worked on the Apollo mission, and much of their handiwork remains of major historical value to the state, regardless of where it is now or what it was for used for then.

“It has a significance that goes way further than whether it came from a quarter million miles away or not,” Mr. Donaldson said. “They are all parts of the event.” 

While Apollo 11 was indeed a landmark mission — during which Neil A. Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon and he and Buzz Aldrin apparently ditched their boots — it wasn’t exactly tidy. Worried about the weight of their landing capsule, the harried lunar explorers left behind tons of trash, including empty food bags, electrical equipment and, yes, several receptacles meant for bodily waste. 

There is also a collection of artifacts of historical note and emotion: Mr. Armstrong’s footprint, for example, and an American flag. Apollo 11 also left behind a mission patch from Apollo 1, in which three astronauts died in a fire, and a message from world leaders. 

And while some of the garbage might seem like, well, garbage, California is just one of several states seeking protection for the items in the face of possible lunar missions by other nations as well as a budding space tourism industry. 

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Mr. Donaldson said he hoped his commission’s vote might help goad the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization into placing the landing site on the World Heritage List, an international compilation of famed landmarks. 

“I think there’s a threat from private companies,” Mr. Donaldson said. “And with today’s technology, they could probably pinpoint this.” 

That said, Mr. Donaldson admitted that there were no “space cops” available to safeguard the state’s newest historical resource. But, like the Apollo astronauts themselves, he seemed optimistic that Friday’s vote might lead to bigger and better things. 

“Hopefully,” he said, “this will take off.”

Register for Convergence Wyoming at http://www.convergencewyoming.com/register-today/. Article source: New York Times

Wyoming legislators travel to Hawaii; state employees told to curtail travel

The Billings Gazette reports today that more than two dozen Wyoming lawmakers who traveled to Hawaii last month for a conference are costing the state about $50,000.

Read more at http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/wyoming/article_f56ff06e-d0e2-11e0-8621-001cc4c03286.html#ixzz1WISPqvWS

Meanwhile, state employees are being told to eliminate out-of-state travel and curtail in-state travel. Budget cuts, you know. Austerity measures must be put in place. Time to tighten your belts, you free-loading state employees.

Meanwhile, Wyoming's current budget surplus is $50 million and growing.

You do the math.

Rural states will be hurt the most with arts cutbacks

Kansas

Wyoming

From today's article, "Arts outposts stung by cuts in state aid," in the New York Times:

...much of America’s artistic activity does not happen in major recital halls and theaters; instead it occurs in places like Lucas [KS], population 407, where the cultural attractions include S. P. Dinsmoor’s Garden of Eden historic folk art site and where smaller arts organizations are highly dependent on state grants. 

This is also true in Wyoming. The big differences between Wyoming and Kansas?

Well, Wyoming has a population of 550,000 while Kansas tips the people scale at 2,853,000 -- about five times the Equality State count.

Kansas is flat while Wyoming is anything but. Wyoming is more white than Kansas -- 91 percent to 83 percent. Way above the 50-state average of 72 percent.

One other thing. Wyoming funds the arts a lot better than does Kansas.

Wyoming Arts Council budget: $2.1 million ($1.3 million from the state legislature)

Kansas Arts Commission budget: zero.

Why the difference. Well, the Know Nothings on the Radical Christian Right have a firmer hold on Kansas than on Wyoming. Yes, we have kooky Tea Party types in our legislature. This most recent legislative session told us that. But we can't hold a candle to Kansas.

As do most states, Kansas has a split personality. You have your city liberals and your rural conservatives. But worse -- the state's southern half is part of the Bible Belt. Not only are they conservative. They're bat-shit crazy as is the case with so many on the literalist Radical Christian Right. Remember the battles over evolution (science) vs. creationism in the curriculum.

No Bible Belt in Wyoming. O.K., we have the LDS influence in southwest Wyoming. The most radical Right of the 2010 GOP gubernatorial candidates was Ron Micheli from Uinta County. He's indicative of the very conservative leanings of the state's LDS population.

Here's an irony for you though. Our neighbor Utah, home of the international LDS conglomerate, has the nation's oldest state arts agency, established in 1899. Wonderful ballet and symphony and arts education programs in the Beehive State. But most of the politics is conservative, even reactionary. State firearm anyone?

Wyoming, as a rule, has a live-and-let-live attitude. Not always -- Judy Shepard, Matt's mom, could attest to that. When conflicts arise over art and the funding of art, the battle can get pretty brutal. The Grand Poobahs of the state's oil and gas industry were none too pleased recently with Chris Drury's public installation at UW. Entitled "What Goes Around Comes Around," it illustrates the link between the burning of coal and forest pine beetle infestations caused by global warming. The controversy over the work began with an incendiary piece in the Casper Star-Tribune, raged around the blogs for a day or two, and then died. Perhaps our state's leaders were away fishing in the Wind Rivers or wrapped up in Cheyenne Frontier Days. The fooferaw died out and now Drury's sculpture is drawing lots of visitors.

The biodegradable piece, part of the UW Art Museum's outdoor sculpture project, was partially funded by a grant from the Wyoming Cultural Trust Fund.

During these crazy times, Wyoming will not be immune from Radical Right attacks on art and arts funding. All gubment programs and all creativity will come under attack from these Know Nothings.

This leaves me with one final question: WTF is wrong with Kansas? With a little editing, this could be a book title.

Stuck outside of Hogtown with those Shuttle Launch Blues again

Insignia for the first shuttle launch

We were just outside of Hogtown when the first Shuttle went up. Other cars joined us along the side of I-75 to view history. We were disappointed, not with the launch, but with the fact that we weren't on the beach at Daytona. That was our goal when my wife Chris, my brother Dan and I left Denver two days before.

Stuff happens. A batch of bad gas in Mississippi, or maybe just an aging vehicle. We were stalled for several hours at a truck stop on the Florida panhandle. The car still wasn't running right when we pulled off the highway for the launch.

An impressive sight. Heard and felt it, too. After it climbed out of sight, leaving its contrail drifting in the clear Florida sky, we looked at each other and said, "Let's go to the beach."

All three of us had viewed many launches over the years, some from the beach and some from our backyard. My father worked for the space program out of Daytona, for NASA and G.E. Chris's father used to take her and her sister down to the beach to watch the spectacles. I heard "The Eagle has landed" via the car radio as my high school girlfriend and I were parked on the beach during a July thunderstorm (yes, I was paying more attention to the moon landing than to the business at hand).

I'd like to be on the beach today. To watch the launch and to be on the beach, my old haunt. Chris is in Daytona for her high school reunion. She'll see the launch with her sister and old Seabreeze High School "Fighting Sandcrabs" pals. I don't care much for reunions. But I'm miffed that I'm missing the last Shuttle launch.

Some of my progressive colleagues don't see the value of the space program. They contend that it's too expensive. They don't see the value in the scientific research. They don't understand why we have to send actual humans into space when robots can do the work cheaper and with less risk.

But "manned flight" (lots of women in space, too) is important precisely because it's in our genes to explore. One major benefit from the Space Shuttle are the fantastic images captured by the Hubble. They have opened up the wonders and terrors of our universe like nothing else. Colliding galaxies and collapsing stars and black holes and artistically-shaped nebulae and all of that space (what's with that dark matter?). We must go there to see these wonders and to figure out what they are and what they mean.

I grew up reading Tom Swift and then Isaac Asimov and Ray Bradbury. Sci-fi fed my imagination. And then came the space program. I had the great good fortune to live at the epicenter of Mercury and Gemini and Apollo.

One closing note: that first shuttle launch happened 20 years to the day after the first manned space flight by the Soviet Union. In 1981, we were still going toe-to-toe with the Reds in space and on the ground (Reagan was newly elected). Now that the U.S is Shuttle-less, guess who we will depend on to get groceries and extra batteries to the space station?

Those darn Russkis. History is a funny thing.

Hurry up with those flying cars -- Wyoming roads going to hell!

I thought I was seeing things when I read in last Friday's Casper Star-Tribune that Wyoming's roads are going to hell.

The road to hell may be paved with good intentions, but good intentions won't pave the roads through Wyoming.

Money will pave the state's roads, or else they will go to hell for decades without a substantial increase in funding...

Nice lede by reporter Tom Morton. His interview with Lowell Fleenor, district engineer for the central Wyoming division of WYDOT, yielded some great quotes:

"At current funding levels, there is no way the system will not deteriorate."

And...

"Due to funding constraints, WYDOT is moving from a transportation improvement program to a pavement preservation program."

This is bad news for all of us who depend on our roads to get from one place to another. Until jet packs and flying cars assume their rightful place in Wyoming garages, we will remain dependent on driving our four-wheeled personal mobility devices on paved roads.

There are several causes. Decline in federal revenue. Lack of Congressional action on a national highway bill. Low state fuel taxes, with Wyoming's 14 cents a gallon the lowest in the Rocky Mountain region. No action by the state legislature on raising fuel taxes or turning I-80 into a toll road or on retrofitting our cars with anti-grav devices.

Just kidding on that last one. Although that may happen before the legislature ever approves an increase in the fuel tax. Can't even say the "T" word in Wyoming.

So our roads go to hell.

Interestingly enough, Gov. Matt Mead has been talking up the importance of infrastructure. He’s proposed predictable, long-term revenue streams to fund municipalities and highways. His proposals have been rejected by the state legislature. The Governor’s motto is “Wyoming First.” At the Wyoming Association of Municipalities conference in Sheridan, he reiterated that and added that now is the time to invest in the state.

“I go the National Governors’ Association convention and Wyoming is in a much better place than almost every other state. We’re in competition with other states and they can’t do this now. Now is the time for Wyoming to do this. Our municipalities need this. Maintenance and building of infrastructure does not get cheaper with time.”

“If you want healthy economic development, you must have infrastructure.”

For more on this subject, read the CST's editorial in the July 6 edition: "Lack of Wyoming highway funding an emergency."

UPDATE: House GOP plans to cut $15 billion from transportation budget. See story at http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/fiery-words-over-gop-proposal-to-cut-transportation-funds/2011/07/07/gIQAm6fo2H_story.html. Guess we'll have to make do with travel on horseback over rutted trails. Back to the good ol' days!

ANOTHER UPDATE: Not too interested in this $250,000 flying car: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2011/07/the-flying-car-is-now-cleared-for-highway-use.html

Star Wars Festival "food-raiser" set for July 7

Is it possible that Darth Vader is a force for good in the universe?

We often rely on arts and music and creativity to lift our spirits during hard times. They also help turn on lights where darkness reigns.


Fellow prog-blogger and minister Rodger McDaniel announces this good (and fun) cause:


Highlands United Presbyterian Church announces its "Star Wars" Festival “food-raiser” for NEEDS. The STAR WARS FESTIVAL, is scheduled for 6:30-9:30 p..m., Thursday, July 7, at the Highlands United Presbyterian Church, 2390 Pattison Ave., Cheyenne . The public is invited to attend. Admission is FREE with the donation of any non-perishable food item or baby item such as diapers. All items collected will be donated to NEEDS, Inc. for its food bank.


A variety of events are planned as part of this family evening: 

6:30 p.m. - Intergalactic Meet-and-Greet
Want to meet Darth Vader, Imperial Stormtroopers or R2D2? Come early to the talk and meet some of your favorite characters from the Star War films. Bring your camera and take as many pictures as you like! Re-enactors include members of the Mountain Garrison of the 501st Legion -- www.501st.com. Members reside in both Colorado andWyoming.

Dr. Toby Rush presents "The Music of Star Wars"

7:30 p.m. -- Presentation: The Music of Star Wars 
This 90-minute multimedia presentation from UNC music professor TOBY RUSH, includes excerpts from all six films. Dr. Rush will present the music of Star Wars and explore how John Williams used the soundtrack to help tell George Lucas' epic tale.

9 p.m. -- Costume Contest
Wear your Star Wars costume! Guests are encouraged to dress as characters from any of the Star Wars films. A short fashion show, allowing guests to strut their stuff, will be held following Dr. Rush’s talk. Prizes will be awarded for the top outfits!

All this FREE with your donation for NEEDS! So bring the family, this is one event you don’t want to miss! And it’s for a good cause – with all foodstuffs to be donated to NEEDS Cheyenne. 

Highlands Presbyterian Church is located in north Cheyenne at 2390 Pattison Avenue. From Dell Range at Mountain, drive north onMountain Road to the intersection of Pattison and Mountain.

For more information, contact Rodger McDaniel, pastor of Highlands Presbyterian, at 307-634-2962 (church office) or rodger.mcdaniel@bresnan.net.