FindSpirit Your

by Amanda Byzewski

The Museum and the Western Spirit Art Show Committee are gearing up for the 42nd Annual Western Spirit Juried Art Show & Sale. This year’s show will be a bit different due to the construction at the Museum, but you can still expect the same great quality of pieces! We will have just under 200 juried pieces in the main show, a few less than last year given our loss of the East Gallery. However, we are excited to feature over 100 pieces in the Vandewark Miniature show, in it’s new home in the newly revitalized Cheyenne Room. We are grateful to our new group of jurors for this year’s show for doing a great job selecting artwork that represents the contemporary west. Our jurors include Guadalupe Barajas, who many of you may know from the CFD Western Art Show in July; Chrystal DeCoster, the owner of Western Stars Gallery in Lyons, Colorado; and Michelle Sunset, the Curator at the University of Wyoming Art Museum in Laramie. They had the difficult job of going through the nearly 500 entries we received for the show this year.

Your first chance to check out the art is online at www. oldwestmuseum.org/spirit. If any art speaks to you, you can purchase it at the Opening Reception on March 11th starting at 6:00pm. If you can’t make it to the Opening Reception but don’t want to miss your chance on a piece, please contact me at amanda. byzewski@oldwestmuseum.org for a proxy purchase form. Art will be available for regular purchase online or at the Museum starting March 12th through April 23rd.

In addition to purchasing regular art, miniatures, and enjoying great food at the Opening Reception, you have a chance to watch several of our artists work live! Four of our artists will create a “Quick Draw” where they will work on a piece for an hour at the event, then the pieces are auctioned off to support the Museum!

We are looking forward to sharing all the hard work the committee, staff, and artists put into this event starting on March 11th!