CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Music. Experimental art. Chocolates.
To celebrate the one-year anniversary of its Cheyenne Creativity Center, nonprofit organization Arts Cheyenne hosted the opening reception of its “Whatever Art” gallery Friday night. From 5 to 8 p.m., local residents mingled inside the creativity center and viewed a variety of artworks from 22 artists.
Friday’s gallery, which featured more than 50 creations from over 20 artists, was jokingly labeled “Whatever Art,” according to Arts Cheyenne assistant director Desirée Brothe.
The name “was actually a placeholder on a previous show, and we were trying to come up with a name,” Brothe told Cap City News in a phone interview. She is also the director of the Wyoming Women’s Business Center and operates her own visual arts business, Magpie Creations. “But we kind of thought it would be a fun concept to just really leave the art show that open was to whatever anybody wanted to submit.”
The facility was also the premier venue for Cheyenne ArtWalk’s monthly “First Friday ArtWalk,” which is a collaboration between downtown Cheyenne venues and businesses. February’s theme was “Chocolate Walk,” where each building provided its own serving of homemade chocolates to passersby.
The more than 20 artists featured in Cheyenne Creativity Center’s gallery — which ranged from creators in Laramie and Albany counties to those from Colorado — really did submit “whatever,” as creations on display consisted of a broad range of 3D and 2D mediums. Artistic mediums included ceramic, stoneware and enamel on metal as well as photography, oil on canvas, acrylic, pastel, charcoal, watercolor and CGI drawings.
Moreover, the gallery space itself is something of a collective art creation for Arts Cheyenne, which was formed in 2012. The facility was formerly the space for Wyoming Trophy and Engraving and sat vacant before Arts Cheyenne picked it up. Members of the nonprofit arts organization formerly hosted its board meetings at Laramie County Library and long yearned for their own space.
“It was sort of a pipe dream for Arts Cheyenne,” said Mike Morris, an organization board member and musician. Morris performed on his guitar at the creativity center Friday as part of the celebration. He told Cap City News the center “represents probably the biggest degree of evolution” for the organization.
Prior to 2023, there were many considerations when deciding on opening a facility for local artists, Brothe said.
“It has to be the right type of space,” Brothe said. “You can get a little messy in it, and it can accept a wide variety of artists … so we knew in taking on our current location that we wanted to offer rotating gallery space, that we wanted to try out a retail gift shop, and that we wanted workshop space. And those were the first things we launched with in early 2023.”
Another perk of the creativity center is the space it provides to up-and-coming local creators. Arts Cheyenne aims at propping up emerging artists — artists who are early in their career and likely don’t have experience entering their work into galleries or placing them on public display, Brothe said.
The creativity center currently rents out studio space to six artists, Bill Lindstrom, executive director of Arts Cheyenne, told Cap City News.
The facility has also allowed Arts Cheyenne board members to host their own open studios and classes. For a full list of upcoming events, visit the organization’s online schedule.
According to Lindstrom, Cheyenne Creativity Center is just the beginning of Arts Cheyenne’s efforts to expand creative enrichment in Laramie County. The nonprofit organization has many more events and initiatives planned for the future, such as its Kinetic Art Program, its Arts & Aviation Center Project, the mobile art gallery ArtHaus and August’s 2024 Arts Cheyenne Celebration.
