Western Voices
Winter 2008
Click the links below to read more of the articles from the Center's Winter 2008 newsletter.
A Letter from Patty
Faculty Director and Chair of the Board
Twenty years ago, we came back from a trip to discover that our cat had an artistic streak. Driven to creativity by boredom, she had come upon a ball of string. Filling the idle hours while awaiting our return, the cat carried the ball hither and thither, trailing and depositing the string all around the house... Read more
La Mythologie De L'Ouest
The American West Goes to France
Tim Brown, Researcher
This September our research associate, Tim Brown, was invited to Touen, France, to speak at a symposium on Western American Art. The Musée des Beaux Arts of Rouen had organized an exhibition of nineteenth- and twentieth-century paintings... Read more
Welcome to Shale Country
Center Workshop Helps Chevron Understand the Possibilities and Potential Pitfalls of Oil Shale Development on Colorado's Western Slope
Jason Hanson, Researcher
Oil shale is the popular term for a dark-colored rock rich in a substance that can be refined into many of the oil products our society depends on today. The most bountiful oil shale beds in the world are found along the T-shaped border of Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah... Read more
Climate Change and Rocky Mountain National Park
Tim Brown, Researcher
The Center of the American West has long enjoyed a close relationship with the National Park Service, and we anticipate that we will increasingly work with the NPS on various projects as the agency prepares for its centennial anniversary in 2016... Read more
Center Spotlight
Buzzy Jackson, Researcher
I've been working at the Center in one capacity or another since 2005, when I taught the certificate class, "Introduction to the American West." 2005 was a big year for me: my dissertation, A Bad Woman Feeling Good: Blues and the Women Who Sing Them, was published... Read more
Ivan Doig Receives the 2007 Wallace Stegner Award
September 27, 2007 Kurt Gutjahr, Events Coordinator
Each year, the Center of the American West presents the Wallace Stegner Award to an individual who has made a sustained contribution to the cultural identity of the West though literature, art, history, lore, or an understanding of the West. This year, the Center bestowed this award on Ivan Doig... Read more
"My Father's Stories: Remembering Oklahoma" Eva Marie Garroutte's Modern Indian Identity Lecture
October 25, 2007 Kurt Gutjahr, Events Coordinator
Each semester, the Center of the American West, hoping to make a contribution to the cause of better understanding between Indians and non-Indians, invites contemporary Indian speakers to tell their stories in way that confirm the compatibility of tradition with innovation. This fall our speaker was Eva Marie Garroutte... Read more
Common Ground - Noise to Substance
Elaine Tucci, Executive Director
The Center was thrilled to host its 11th annual Words to Stir the soul event this November, honoring local public officials and public servants for their dedication and service to our communities. It is not often in this cynical world that we hear a call to honor those who serve in this capacity... Read more
Words to Stir the Soul: Celebrating our Public Servants
November 7, 2007 Kurt Gutjahr, Events Coordinator
Every year, The Center of the American West pays tribute to the literature of the American West. This year, we celebrated not only the prose that defines this landscape but also the public servants who constantly define and reshape the West... Read more
Branching Out
Shawna Riley, Student Assistant
If you asked me what I do at the Center, I would have to give you a different answer each day. This September, thanks to the Center's Hoffman Scholars program, my job took me to Nebraska as a member of a film crew. My Hoffman Scholars adventure began with a ficus tree... Read more
Upcoming Events
As we look back on it, 2007 was a great year for events, and we have set up 2008 to follow in its footsteps. On February 7, the Center will bring Professor John Hausdoerffer to discuss the paintings of George Catlin... Read more
Life After College
Audrey Powell, B.A. Environmental Studies and Center of the American West Certificate graduate
It was my pleasure to work for the Center of the American West last summer, assisting Patty with her annual Gilder Lehrman seminar on Visions of the American Environment. The experience I gained allowed me to accept a job with the Project WET International Foundation this August... Read more
Academic Programs at the Center of the American West
Roni Ires, Academic Program Coordinator
The Center of the American West offers a multifaceted academic program for students interested in studying and engaging the West from the Center's unique perspective. Here are some academic program highlights of the Fall 2007 semester... Read more
Growing in the Online World
The Center's Website Amber Blais Wilson, Community Relations
Have you seen the Center's website (www.centerwest.org) lately? it's chock full of exciting changes designed to make it more interactive and fun! Our favorite new element is our news page, which features articles by, for, and about the Center. Readers can even sign up to be notified when new articles are posted... Read more
New York times Interview Draws Questions About Abandoned Mine Count
Patty Limerick and Tim Brown
On November 11, the new York Times Sunday Magazine ran an interview with Patty Limerick on the recent resurgence of Westerns in Hollywood. As part of that interview, Patty mentioned offhand that "No one is going to make a film about the 500,000 abandoned mines in the West... Read more
Acknowledgement of Contributions
Click here to download a list of the Center of the American West's friends who helped make this year a success. We extend our sincere thanks for your support of the Center of the American West.