Wyoming Arts Council

Gregory Hinton presents "Out West" program Oct. 21 at the Sheridan Fulmer Library


greg hinton

About the program:

Sheridan Fulmer Library, in cooperation with the University of Wyoming’s American Heritage Center, Sheridan College Library and the Sheridan College GayStraight Alliance, will host author, filmmaker and historian Gregory Hinton at Sheridan Fulmer Library, 335 West Alger Street, Sheridan, on Oct. 21 at 6:30 p.m. in the Inner Circle.

Hinton, a Wyoming son, is the creator and producer of Out West, a historic national program series dedicated to illuminating the history and culture of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) communities in the American West. Partnering with western museums, libraries and universities, Out West programming – lectures, films, plays, gallery exhibitions – is now presented nationally.

“Many western historical institutions claim to want to tell all the stories of the American West,” said Hinton, “but when I went looking, I couldn’t find my community anywhere.” Then, on a 2009 stroll through the extensive film gallery of the Autry National Center in Los Angeles, Gregory Hinton noticed that the 2005 western film “Brokeback Mountain,” adapted from the 1997 short story by Annie Proulx, was not represented.

Hinton felt it deserved recognition. “Brokeback was commercially successful – over ten million people saw it,” said Hinton. “It was critically acclaimed, with multiple major film awards and it was a seminal film, for the first time telling the story of two rural western gay men in a realistic, relatable and compassionate way.”

Wondering what artifact might best represent the film at the Autry, Hinton remembered the two iconic intertwined shirts worn by actors Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal. They had been sold at charity auction for $100,000. He contacted philanthropist Tom Gregory, their owner.

“Six months later, with Mrs. Gene Autry officiating, the Brokeback shirts were installed in the Autry,” said Hinton. “Public response was so positive the museum generously invited me to create an LGBT western history series – lectures, films, plays and gallery exhibitions – which we decided to call, Out West at the Autry.”

The idea of Out West occurred to Hinton while he was a 2009 spring resident of Wyoming’s acclaimed arts retreat, Ucross Foundation. He came to finish Night Rodeo, a novel about his dad, G.C. “Kip” Hinton, editor of the Cody Enterprise from 1956-1962.

“Friends in Los Angeles, fearing for my safety, warned me not to come to Wyoming,” Hinton recalls. “And I didn’t realize until an orientation drive around the ranch that Ucross inspired settings in the original short story by Annie Proulx.”

Hinton believes that coming to Ucross was the best creative decision he ever made. He has since lectured at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West and was a 2011 Resident Fellow for his abstract, “Out West with Buffalo Bill.” He has also presented several programs at the annual Shepard Symposium on Social Justice. Hinton has recently co-founded “Out West in the Rockies,” a dedicated LGBT Archive of the American West at the American Heritage Center in Laramie.

“I wanted to come home to Wyoming, but I wanted to come home as who I am,” said Hinton, a long-time resident of Los Angeles. “Out West has made everything possible. L.A. can be tough on artists. When I need respect, I come home to Wyoming. Wyoming has been so good to me.”

About the presenter:

The son of a Montana newspaper family, Gregory was born on the Fort Peck Reservation in Wolf Point. He attended the University of Colorado at Boulder; graduating with a B.S. in Business Management. He holds a 2009 Residency at Ucross Foundation; and a 2011 Resident Fellowship at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West for his abstract, “Out West with Buffalo Bill.”

Hinton has published four critically acclaimed novels, including Cathedral City (2001); Desperate Hearts (2002), The Way Things Ought to Be (2003); and Santa Monica Canyon, (2007). He holds producer credits on seven feature films including “It’s My Party” (1996), which premiered at Sundance, and Circuit (2003.)

Hinton’s staged theatrical readings include “Beyond Brokeback” and “Diversity Day”. He produced three performances of the marriage equality play ‘8’, by Dustin Lance Black, in Colorado, Montana and Nevada. His newspaper play, “Waiting for a Chinook”, received its world premiere at the Snowy Range Summer Theatre Festival in Wyoming.

Gregory is a founding member of the Gay & Lesbian Rodeo Heritage Foundation and belongs to the LGBTQ Alliance of the American Alliance of Museums. He lives in Los Angeles and divides his time between California, Colorado, Wyoming and Montana.

FMI: Christina Schmidt,  Sheridan County Fulmer Public Library 335 West Alger Street, Sheridan, WY 82801; Program Coordinator Christina Schmidt, 307-674-8585, Ext. 129.


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