The New West

University of Wyoming Art Museum, July 8, 2023 – May 18, 2024

To commemorate the University of Wyoming Art Museum’s 50th anniversary since its humble beginnings as a corkboard in the Fine Arts Department, the museum presents an exhibition exploring its place in the American West, a region imbued with the emotional subtexts of freedom, independence, and wilderness. The museum re-presents “traditional” narratives to highlight Indigenous voices, place landscapes in historical perspective, and examine the history of collecting the art of the American West. Using the permanent collection, guest curator Robert Martinez collaborated with Art Museum curators to develop an exhibition that he says, “challenges the visitor to change their mindset and note whose perspective is missing. Whose story is not being told and why.” This expansive exhibition spans three galleries of works in the Art Museum’s permanent collection, and additionally features an installation in the museum’s Rotunda and a film screening in the Wyoming Gallery Theater. Terry Maker’s Cowgirl Hat Ball, composed of 500 straw hats, stands both as a celebration of Western culture and a challenge to gendered assumptions. The sculpture, 10 feet in diameter, is a mystery at first glance, but quickly reveals itself to be comprised of a familiar accessory and icon of the region: Western hats. Dana Claxton’s short film, Say It’s Ok (2006), screening in the Wyoming Gallery Theater serves as either an entry point or a finale for The New West exhibition. It features an Indigenous boy pondering through identity and survivance.