Lxi Weber, Executive Director of the Star Valley Arts Council, called into the Weekday Wake-Up on Tuesday, February 17 for her monthly report. Weber discussed two different mural opportunities in both Cokeville and Alpine, and Art Exhibit coming to the Thayne Community Center, upcoming figure drawing and watercolor workshops, and the recently announced Spring Music Festival.

(0:00) This is Duke Dallin Dan on the SVI Radio Network. (0:04) At 8.34 it is the weekday wake up this morning as we head into this hour’s guest interview segment and a monthly report from the Star Valley Arts Council and Executive Director of the Arts Council, Lexi Weber joins me over the phone this morning. (0:16) Lexi, good morning, how are you today? (0:19) Great, how are you? (0:20) Hey, doing fantastic, appreciate the time as always and some exciting things happening over the next few months with the Arts Council.

(0:26) First off, more mural events and competitions or renderings if you will, kind of based on the one that happened in Thane recently, correct? (0:37) Yes, it’s all part of that same grant program that the State of Wyoming offered last year and we’re still receiving those funds from that grant. (0:46) So, Cokeville received that and they want to put a mural on their City Hall building and so they asked if we would help advertise that because it’s close enough, our artists can go there, so we would love for them to apply. (1:00) The wall is 42 feet wide, 11 feet tall, it’s a good size, it’s not as big as the one in Thane, but they’re offering $18,000 to the artists that they choose to paint it.

(1:10) And so the submission process is very similar, you come up with a design and kind of a mock-up of it and submit it on their website and then they’ll go through and choose based on what design they want. (1:25) They’ve got like a theme and all of this information on their website that will help give you an idea of what to put in that image, but it’s all on their website, it’s also going to be linked on our website just to make it a little bit easier to find. (1:39) Perfect, so that’ll take place in Cokeville, another mural will be painted, find the details on either starbodyarts.org or on the Town of Cokeville website for the information.

(1:50) A little similar but also a little different happening in Alpine. (1:55) Yeah, Town of Alpine is looking for artists to create digital art and it will be printed onto a canvas material and then used to cover a fence that is around that power station on the south side of the road when you go into town. (2:11) And so it’s quite a big fence and so they’re wanting four different artists to all use the same color palette which we are providing and then come up with an image in their theme and then they’ll compile those to all those images together and then make a mural type image.

(2:38) Something visually interesting to look at rather than the power station. (2:42) Yeah. (2:42) So they’re going to offer $2,500 to each of those four chosen artists and all that information is also on our website.

(2:53) Very cool, so kind of a unique situation in Alpine if you’d like to be involved and do some of that. (2:58) Of course the 250th celebration this summer and a lot of various coins kind of associated with that in the county and the municipalities and sounds like Alpine might be doing a coin challenge with the Arts Council. (3:12) They are.

(3:13) So they’re looking for artists that can design a challenge coin for them. (3:18) They’re offering $250 for that artist. (3:21) So this is just a digital image that you create another mock-up and then they can send that into these coin companies to have it printed in like a 3D format.

(3:33) It’s very cool. (3:35) So again all of that information is also on our website. (3:38) Perfect.

(3:39) Lexi Weber, Executive Director of the Starbody Arts Council on the weekday wake up this morning. (3:43) Lexi, it sounds like an art exhibit in the works at the Thane Community Center. (3:49) Yeah, this is an opportunity for public art, a public art exhibit at the Community Center.

(3:57) These exhibits are themed and this is new. (4:00) We just have our first one going up next week. (4:03) All of the upcoming themes are listed on our website.

(4:06) So anyone who is interested could plan ahead, create pieces in advance for those. (4:12) Anyone who’s interested in showing their art is welcome to apply. (4:16) And this isn’t just for fine art.

(4:17) It could be anything that can hang on a wall. (4:19) So it could be a quilt or some type of embroidery or stained glass, anything like that. (4:26) And they just give them to us.

(4:29) They submit their pieces. (4:30) We go through them, pretty much approve everything. (4:34) And then we get all the pieces.

(4:37) We gather them up and then we go hang them and make a nice display between the library and the DMV. (4:44) And that building just gets so much traffic because of sports and the library and food bank and the DMV (4:50) that this is just a great way to show your work in a way that hasn’t really been available before. (4:57) Yeah, that’s really cool.

(4:57) And so it sounds like the pieces are going to be switched out on a regular basis, (5:02) but it sounds like the gallery itself will be there for quite a while then. (5:06) Yes. (5:07) So our exhibits are going to be every quarter.

(5:10) We’re going to switch them out to something new. (5:12) Wow, that’s cool. (5:13) I love it.

(5:13) Perfect. (5:14) And are you taking exhibits now? (5:18) Yeah. (5:19) So our deadline for this show that starts next week is this Friday.

(5:25) So if you have something that already goes along with our theme, which is feathers and fur for this first one, (5:31) then we can still probably accept them. (5:34) Excellent. (5:35) Perfect.

(5:35) Lexi Weber, Executive Director of the Starbody Arts Council this morning. (5:38) A couple upcoming events. (5:40) Figure drawing happens in just about a month from now.

(5:43) Yep. (5:44) Wednesday, March 4th is our next session. (5:46) It goes from 7 to 9 p.m. (5:48) There’s a $10 fee to attend, which just helps us pay for our models and keep the program going.

(5:54) We have a registration form on our website to sign up to attend. (5:58) You don’t have to register to attend. (6:00) We can absolutely accept walk-ins, but pre-registering is just helpful to us so we know how many tables and chairs to set up.

(6:09) We have a lot of information about the classes and how to apply to be a model and even the suggested supply list, all of that on our website. (6:18) Okay. (6:18) Excellent.

(6:18) And a little after that, end of April, Watercolor Workshop as well. (6:24) Yep. (6:24) Watercolor Workshop on April 24th and 25th.

(6:28) This will be taught by Lester Lee. (6:30) He’s a professional artist coming from Cache Valley. (6:33) This is a Friday and a Saturday, and it’s from 9 to 3 both days.

(6:38) And it will be held at the Afton Civic Center, and then the registration fee is $200. (6:43) Lexi Weber, Executive Director of the Starbody Arts Council. (6:46) Lexi, I also wanted to ask, I saw a post, and it’s also on your website, a spring music festival has been announced.

(6:53) What’s this? (6:55) Yeah, so we are just helping the Music Federation program. (7:00) It’s run by Terry Lund and Daphne Arbazue. (7:05) And so anyone who plays a string instrument or the piano, and I think they might see those too, (7:13) they can prepare a piece, a memorized piece that they want to perform for judges that they bring in, (7:20) and then they get really good feedback.

(7:22) And then even the ones that are chosen as the very best of the best, maybe like 10, (7:27) get chosen to perform a concert for free at the Ford the following Monday. (7:33) Very cool. (7:34) And you can find more information on that as well at starbodyarts.org. (7:37) Lexi Weber, Executive Director of the Starbody Arts Council.

(7:40) Lexi, as always, appreciate your time, and thanks for all that the Arts Council does. (7:43) Thank you. (7:44) It’s all part of the weekday wake-up this morning on SVI Radio.