Ideas for Next Year

Brainstorm Session:

This internship has been a great opportunity to learn about graphic design, art, and my personal goals. I would like to continue working for the Works of Wyoming Gallery and The Business Center. Some of the projects that I would like to work on include working with a variety of organizations on behalf of WOW and leading art lessons (since the position is AmeriCorps, it is expected that I volunteer at places other than WOW and WWBC, so this is perfect), and helping generate show ideas that go along with the mission statement.


Here are some of the beginnings of those show ideas.

Gallery Show Ideas That I would like to work on (and would like to see happen)


Volunteerism and Civic Engagement


Everyone volunteers x number of hours (maybe 5) and the show will be composed of works inspired by or created from the experience. The work could include why volunteerism is important.


I also think that it would be great to include a list of organizations including but not limited to


The ARC
The Cathedral Home for Children
Big Brothers, Big Sisters
Various old folks homes
High school art students
Partners of the Americas
Soup Kitchen
Interfaith Good Samaritan


Golden Key and Special ED project.

Golden Key would like to work with some students from the ARC and/or the high school and have a formal reception with them and the community. The GK Presedent really wants to work with persons with disabilities and give them a chance to dress up and have fun and I thin that the this type of show at the WOW gallery would be a great opportunity. All work sold could go 50% to the ARC (or another program, like special Olympics), and 50% for WOW. Maybe GK could sell art from the workshop in the Union (we did this for Partners of the Americans and raised over $400 for the organization.)

More show/event ideas that relate back to our mission --- Mostly just for ideas of events that could relate back to social awareness and issues of those in Laramie. These could probably tie into one or two events as well, I just broke them down so that we could weed out the ones we don't want (and the ones we do).


Cultural shows/events

Dia de Los Muertos - we already talked about this some.

Black history Month (other months) - no specific ideas here either, but I will have a body of work that focuses on AA issues by November (for the UpGallery). Maybe ABSL (Association of Black Student Leaders) or WASA (Wyoming African Student Association) could work with us on this.

Hip hop culture (not to be confused with rap, hip hop is very social justice oriented and focuses on the oppressed of all races) - this could go with a Latino History month or Black History month. We could possibly round up enough street artists and work from WOW artists to pull this off. This could also go along with the mural and the idea of street art (one of the 4 aspects of hip hop culture). Hip hop is deeply connected to social justice issues...

Social Justice Issues (any issue that affects society, positively or negatively that can be related back to justice.)

A show dedicated to the education of social issues that affect individuals in this community. Can be personal or a friend. Everyone is or knows someone who is affected by some sort of social problem. (60% of Americans have struggled with depression and WY is one of the worst states for domestic violence and suicide. In this sense awareness about the stigmas toward depression or

ways to prevent domestic violence could be addressed.) Why not illustrate these problems beautifully and show that there is hope of some kinds especially through honesty.

Womanism (or something to do with gender studies) - no specific ideas here...Maybe we could break down the negative stereotypes about Laramie and Wyoming. This really could go along with the Fabulous Women show and simply be a deeper understanding, for us, about how it relates back to our mission.

Native American Day (many places/people call it Columbus day, but we could celebrate Native American Day along with South Dakota). I just talked to some girls in the American Indian Studies program at the University and the issue of the Arapaho language dying came up. There are less than 100 fluent speakers in the US and they are all over the age of 50. Maybe we could have an elder come teach a language workshop and an artist teach another workshop (using some more Arapaho terms and cultural explanations).

The Figure Show is arguably about social justice as well.

In additions to these ideas, I have also been working on some of my personal goals for WOW (how I want to help) and some ideas for what I want my job description to be...Maybe I will post them too. But for now check out my summer goals.