President Dick Jay called the meeting to order promptly at 12:29, with the ring of the bell and welcomed everyone to today’s meeting here at the Nicolaysen Art Museum.

 

 

Kodi Merschat and Becca Steinhoff were our greeters today and Kodi introduced the members who brought guests:

Gary Pehrson led us in singing “We Will Rock You”

 

Deb Theriault gave us some history of the club from 1938-1941, more great stuff.

 

Errol Miller told us that the Windy City Striders had a race and Lynn Lockhart ran 6.2 miles.

 

Richard Schwahn nominated everyone who helped out with the outbound exchange event over the weekend.

Guy DeWitt nominated all who worked at the Food Bank last week and reminded us that we will be doing the Food Bank the first Monday every month.

Liz Becher nominated Fred Feth for going to Cheyenne for the presentation to the Governor and others.

 

Ryan Jay sponsored by Dick Jay and Ben Winckler sponsored by Lynette Boatright were inducted into the club today. Welcome aboard!!

Kendra Ziler was awarded her Blue Badge today, way to go Kendra!!!!

 

John Griffith announced that May 16-18 is District Conference and he encouraged us to attend. It will be in Nebraska this year. Windy at Dave True’s office will be handling hotel rooms again this year.

Mike Stepp is the prize chairman for the Duck Derby and has asked that anyone who can to please donate or help find prizes this year.

Barry Johnson announced that this past Saturday night District 5440 had their annual foundation dinner and he thanked everyone who attended. He also nominated as Rotarians of the week, Dick Shamley for becoming a Major Donor to the PH Foundation along with Bill Schilling, Glenn Januska, and Lisa Scroggins for becoming Paul Harris Society members. He also asked that if you have not received your invitation or lost it contact him for a replacement. He asked that we send back the RSVP whether you are attending or not as they need to be as accurate as possible with the count. He said that Governor Gordon will be attending the Gala. On April 18^th from 5-7 pm for part of the Centennial Celebration we will be installing gutter bins between the fire station and the David Street Station. Our Club was given a certificate of appreciation for the financial support of End Polio Now and he nominated Anthony Martinez and Peaches Lynch for running the Golf Tournament that made that possible.

 

Grace DuBay from NCHS was our SOM today, what a fantastic young lady!

 

John Griffith introduced our speaker today, our very own, Ann Ruble, the Executive Director of The Nicolaysen Art Museum. This week is the 30^th anniversary of the ground breaking of the building we are having our meeting in so she gave us a history of the Nic. The Nic is one of three museums in the State that is accredited by the American Association of Museums, along with The Museum in Jackson and the Buffalo Bill Center in Cody. The Slogan for The Nic this year is “From breaking ground to groundbreaking.” The museum started in June of 1967 by a group of women led by Mary Durham, they had a little house on the corner of Park and A streets that they started the museum in. In 1972 they moved to an old dust barn over on what is now Polar Street where the Burger King is across from Dairy Queen. That place was very worn down and became a problem so they moved to a bus barn and took on a mortgage and debt so then G.G. Nicolaysen paid off the debt for them and they renamed the Central Wyoming Museum to The Nicolaysen in his honor. The current home is about 25 thousand square feet with 8 galleries currently. They also have a vault that is under construction that holds currently about 8 thousand pieces. The New building opened a year after the groundbreaking with a Faberge’ show. Their vision is to be the cultural anchor for the community and are opening the space up for more community events. They also helped incubate Opera Wyoming because that fits with their vision. On April 23 they are going to help incubate the first professional dance company for Casper. Their Mission is to collect, preserve and exhibit works of art and use them as inspiration. They have an impressive mixture of art in the museum from some of the great masters to local artists. They have each Gallery with a different medium so that we get to see a good mixture whenever we visit. She said that they were able to replace the glass in the main entrance area so that it is UV protected glass so now they can use that area as a gallery as well. So now they have 10 different galleries they can use. They have exhibitions planned through next year and into 2021 already. They focus on the Rocky Mountain Region but do have artists from other areas that do exhibits. The room we were in will become the fifth grade art show from NCSD students in fifth grade here in a couple of weeks. This is great for the community and for the children who do not normally come to a museum, they come to see their art and have a chance to go throughout the museum to experience more art. They have currently five special collections that they can display. A big focus for the future is the Discovery Center with Art Education and Therapeutic Art. They work with 18 month olds to 18 year olds in the center. They partner with many other organizations in town to help the community. Therapeutic Art has been going for the last couple of years and they work with different organizations such as Wyoming Dementia Care who they partner with through the Here and Now program. They work with other organizations and the populations of people that those organizations care for to make art therapeutic. They have a program with the VA called Outside the Lines to help returning veterans think outside the lines, they work with different mediums like clay and photography. Creative Minds is a partnership they started with the Arc where they work with adults that have developmental disabilities. Creative Aging is another program where they go out to the different senior centers as well as have them come to the Nic. They are willing to launch more programs like this but they have to have a partner to work with to make it work. They have art from many small town artists around the state for sale as these artists do not have places to be able to sell their work so this is a great community outreach. They also are hosting some weddings and other events. Check out their website for more information on the different things they have going on. Thenic.org

 

President Dick Jay concluded the meeting at 1:28 letting us know that next week we will be back at the Ramkota with a speaker about the women of the Arlington National Cemetery.

 

“Be the Inspiration”