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P O W E L L, W y o. - Northwest College invites the Big Horn Basin to celebrate the arts during its April 7-10 Spring Arts Festival on campus.
The four-day Monday-Thursday affair encompasses a wide selection of arts that includes cinema, music, poetry, ceramics, drawing, photography and even art history. Each afternoon will be filled with free arts activities. The evenings are reserved for professional events.
From 1-3 p.m. each day, open drawing sessions will be held in the Cabre Building or outside in front of the building if weather permits. Community members are invited to rub elbows with NWC's art students in these free sessions.
During that same time slot on Monday, the college will open its ceramics studio and students will give wheel throwing demonstrations. At 3 p.m. the same day, the Northwest Studio Singers will preview their spring concert repertoire on the mall.
From 2-3 p.m. on Tuesday, the Raku firing method will be demonstrated outside the Cabre Building, and from 1-4 p.m. Wednesday, the up-and-coming Everyday Jones Band will play for the artists participating in the open drawing sessions. Thursday afternoon on the mall beginning at 1:30 p.m., the college's jazz band will fill the air with one of the American musical landscape's most native sounds.
The Monday and Tuesday evening events lead up to the Thursday finale. Movies starring Larry Bagby will be shown at 8 p.m. in the Trapper Rendezvous Lounge of the DeWitt Student Center. Bagby and his band will appear live on Thursday night. The Monday feature "Walk the Line" stars Bagby in the role of Marshall Grant, Johnny Cash's best friend and stand-up bass player. On Tuesday he's featured in "Saints and Soldiers" as the card-trick playing, cigarette-loving southern boy Shirl Kendrick. Also on Tuesday evening, the photo exhibit "Winter in Yellowstone National Park via the East Entrance: 2008 the Last Opportunity?" will open with a 7:30 p.m. reception in SinClair Gallery.
Poetry is the word on Wednesday evening. A one-hour open mic will be set up at 7 p.m. in the Nelson Performing Arts Center as an opening for Buddy Wakefield, the two-time Individual World Poetry Slam Champion featured on NPR, the BBC and HBO's "Def Poetry Jam." The New York poet successfully defended his title the second time at the International Poetry Festival in Rotterdam, Netherlands, against the national champions of seven European countries. Wakefield takes the stage at 8 p.m.
Thursday night is a double-header with art historian Henry Sayre speaking at 6:30 p.m., followed by the Larry Bagby Band at 8 p.m.
Sayre will present "Value in Art: Mystery behind a masterpiece" in Room 70 of the Fagerberg Building. Sayre's program focuses primarily on Edouard Manet's painting "Olympia," which caused an uproar when it was unveiled at the Paris Salon in 1865. Sayre is a Distinguished Professor of Art History at Oregon State University and author of "A World of Art."
The Northwest College Wind Band will perform at 7 p.m. in the Nelson Performing Arts Center Auditorium as an opening act for the Larry Bagby Band, which takes the stage at 8 p.m.
In November 2007, Bagby was nominated for best male vocal by the Los Angeles Music Awards. He was a competitor on the USA Network's "Nashville Star" and more recently performed his "Counting My Lucky Stars" on a "Cold Case" episode. He and his five-piece band keep their feet firmly planted in the country music tradition.
All the Spring Arts Festival outside events are subject to weather. Admission to all the events is free with the exception of the Larry Bagby Band concert. General admission to that performance is $8; NWC students, faculty and staff pay $4; senior citizens and all school-agers pay $6.
For more information about the NWC Spring Arts Festival, e-mail Mike Taylor or call (307) 754-6205 regarding the evening performances. For questions about the events featuring the NWC art and music departments, e-mail Elaine DeBuhr or call (307) 754-6128.