From its live theater in Jackson to the Cheyenne Symphony and the array of museums in Laramie, Wyoming certainly doesn’t lack for cultural outlets.

Wyoming Arts Council

And the Wyoming Arts Council is dedicated to seeing that arts organizations throughout the state continue to grow and prosper. “We try to be a resource for them,” says Rita Basom, manager.

“We work with them not only for grant funding for the arts projects and programming they might be doing, but also serve as an information source through our website, our newsletter and various other publications and outlets we provide.”

Wyoming has a rich tradition of visual and performing arts, and all of its communities work to preserve and grow that, Basom says.

“The arts organizations do depend on us, so we get our folks out there,” Basom says. “We’ve got a great connection with the artists and arts organizations in our state.”

Partnership with Wyoming Travel & Tourism

The council ties its efforts in with Wyoming Travel & Tourism officials, piggybacking cultural tourism information onto natural resource and other destination packets that go out to prospective visitors. It's also helping tourism become a bigger part of Wyoming's economic development.

The organization also is working to restore general operating support to arts organizations, something it used to do and that is sorely needed across the state, Basom says.

“It’s pretty easy to approach businesses and foun­dations about a special project, because their name can be all over it,” she explains.

“But when you’re soliciting funds to pay the electricity bills and staff salaries, that’s difficult to get. We used to have that support category in our budget, but it was stopped when we had a drastic reduction in federal funds. But we’ve been building our program back up, and we’re hoping to restore that fund and be able to give grants that are large enough to really make a difference.”