Wyoming Arts Council

Former WAC board chair Bruce Richardson part of Aug. 8 Saturday U at Spear-O-Wigwam

Featured News | July 29, 2015

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Retired (but not retiring) UW/CC prof and past Wyoming Arts Council board chair Bruce Richardson will present as part of Saturday U at the Spear-O-Wigwam Mountain Campus Aug. 8. Bruce’s will talk about the fact that “Wyoming has more arts activity than any state in the Rocky Mountain region except Colorado.” ‘Tis true! Here’s more:

A summer session of Saturday U, the University of Wyoming’s popular free one-day college education program, comes to Sheridan on Saturday, Aug. 8.

The day begins with coffee and pastries at 8:30 a.m. at Spear-O-Wigwam — the Sheridan College mountain campus — followed by opening remarks at 8:50 a.m. The lodge is located approximately 28 miles from Sheridan in the Bighorn Mountains on the northeast edge of Park Reservoir. For directions, visit www.sheridan.edu/site/spearowigwam/location.

Each Saturday U term features lectures from three outstanding UW professors or community college representatives. Following the lectures, all three professors will participate in a final roundtable discussion. Participants may attend one, two, three or all four sessions. No registration is required, and the event is free and open to the public. The roundtable discussion and luncheon will be held outdoors, weather permitting.

In its seventh year, Saturday U is a collaborative program that connects top UW professors with lifelong learners. Offered six times a year — twice each in Jackson, Gillette and Sheridan — Saturday U is sponsored by the university, the UW Foundation and Wyoming Humanities Council, and presented locally by Sheridan College and the Ucross Foundation.

Listed below are program topic descriptions and UW professors lecturing in the Spear-O-Wigwam lodge:

9-10 a.m. — “Early Paleoindian Lifeways in the High Rockies,” Marcel Kornfeld, Department of Anthropology professor.

The Rocky Mountains were occupied at the same time — approximately 14,000 years ago — as the rest of the American continents. The area of Middle Park in Colorado was extensively and continuously settled shortly after that.

“It provides archaeological evidence of the adaptive strategies of the first Americans — Paleoindians — as they made their living in these high altitudes,” Kornfeld says.

10:15-11:15 a.m. — “Arts Activity in Wyoming and Its Impact,” Bruce Richardson, UW-Casper Department of English, senior lecturer.

Wyoming has more arts activity than any state in the Rocky Mountain region except Colorado. This conclusion emerges from six years of studies and requires a look at the reality of making art in a state with more writers, painters, dancers and photographers than most others, Richardson says.

“What does this vibrant arts community mean for our state and its citizens?” he asks.

Participants will learn how the state benefits from art, and how Wyoming can enhance its artistic future in light of current trends.

11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. — “Bringing together wildlife science, wild lands management and the public since 1953: The UW-NPS Research Center in Grand Teton National Park,” Harold Bergman, Department of Zoology and Physiology professor, and director of the UW-National Park Service (NPS) Research Center.

The greater Yellowstone area contains some of Wyoming’s best known wildlife, wild lands and natural wonders. It also attracts the largest crowds of any region in the state. The UW-NPS Research Center, located in Grand Teton National Park, has provided the Park Service with scientific knowledge to help manage the region’s wild beauty and natural inhabitants, and also visitors.

Since moving to Grand Teton’s historic AMK Ranch in 1976, UW and NPS have jointly provided more than $3.5 million to support more than 600 research projects.

“In turn, this knowledge has helped the region’s wildlife prosper and enabled the public to enjoy the area’s natural features while having the least detrimental impact on it,” Bergman says.

For more information about the Sheridan program, visit the Saturday U website at www.uwyo.edu/saturdayu/.

The fall semester of Saturday U begins Oct. 10 with a session in Jackson.

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