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Pre- & Post-Visit Activities

The Nicolaysen Art Museum is dedicated to providing and developing high-quality tours and programs for school groups. In order to enhance the learning experience during museum visit, we have developed a curriculum-oriented pre- and post-visit activities program for teachers to use in conjunction with a trip to the Nicolaysen Art Museum. The pre- and post-visit activities program is designed to guide students through a process of learning how to understand and appreciate art and encourage personal expression. The activities correspond to the National Educational Standards, WY Educational Standards and NCSD Essential Curriculum.

Julie Speed: Snug Harbor

February 1- May 12, 2013

Julie Speed is inspired by a limitless number of sources including art, history and everyday experiences. She works in a variety of mediums, including oil painting, collage, gouache, drawing and etching. Explore how artists use shape and color to create art and learn geometric concepts in a fun way.

Click Here to Download the Lesson Plan

Haley Hasler: Balancing Act

February 1- May 12, 2013

Colorado artist, Haley Hasler, uses self-portraiture to explore concepts of identity, womanhood and modern feminity. Hasler’s paintings show the image of the woman who takes on many roles and who can do it all! Explore Haley Hasler’s self-portraiture to understand how the artist communicates her ideas through her art, learn the basics of drawing the human body and create a mixed media self-portrait.

Click Here to Download the Lesson Plan

Justin Hayward: The Art of Landscape

September 28, 2012-January 3, 2013

Originally from Traverse City, Mich., Justin Hayward (b. 1980) now lives in Casper where he is a full-time professor of drawing and painting at Casper College. Many of his paintings and drawings have unbelievable photographic quality. The artist’s attention to detail make his paintings look as though they are photographs! That comes from the artist’s love of the great masters of the past, hours of studying their techniques and hours of perfecting his own skill. Hayward creates art that has been inspired by the work of other artists, as well as by his own life experience.

Click Here to Download the Lesson Plan

Marta Amundson

September 28, 2012-January 3, 2013

According to Marta Amundson, she has made art in many forms since the time she was old enough to hold a crayon. The artist’s mother taught her how to use a sewing machine and her grandmother taught Marta how to quilt. At first, Marta made bed covers and later she started making fiber art. (Fiber art is a style of fine art which uses textiles such as fabric, yarn, and natural and synthetic fibers.) The artist’s inspiration comes from nature around her, especially wildlife. Marta likes to travel to see different animals and spends countless hours observing animals at the zoo. Later in the studio, she draws animals from her photographs that become applique or quilted silhouettes in her works. The artist’s quilts are very personal. Their subject matter is about things she cares about the most: environment, family, and endangered animals. Endangered animals are animals that are facing a high risk of becoming extinct or disappearing forever because they are threatened by the changing environment.

Click Here to Download the Lesson Plan

Mission- Biomes: The Landscapes of Conrad Schwiering

Students will be introduced to the concept of biomes and learn to identify different biomes through educational video and group discussion. Students will enhance their visual literacy while experiencing art work depicting different biomes. Students will practice creative expression when constructing their own 3-D miniature biome model using clay and found objects, including recycled materials. Hands-on sensory experience will promote the use of observation, and develop students’ descriptive and expressive vocabulary.


Click Here to Download the Lesson Plan

Persistence in Clay: Contemporary Ceramics in Montana - Josh DeWeese

January 27 - May 16, 2012

When Josh Deweese creates a pot, he explores the idea of how the beauty and materials of the pot will enhance an individual’s everyday experience. He is also intrigued by the natural elements involved in the firing process. A professional artist from Montana, he is considered to be one of the leading artist, in his community.

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Persistence in Clay: Contemporary Ceramics in Montana - Adrian Arleo

January 27 - May 16, 2012

For over fifteen years, Adrian Arleo has been creating sculpture that combines human and animal imagery in a variety of ways. A professional artist from Montana she is considered to be one of the leading artists in her community.

Click here to download lesson plan

The Landscapes of Conrad Schwiering: Secrets from the Studio

September 30- May 6, 2012

This exhibition - which includes more than 75 paintings, drawings, sketches and other experimental items from the museum’s Conrad Schwiering Collection – tells the story of the land and landscape that inspired the passion and determination in one of Wyoming’s most beloved artists. Although the work space Schwiering built in Jackson Hole is well known, it was really the outdoors and the land that was his studio.

Raised in Laramie, Schwiering first fell in love with the Grand Tetons as a young boy during excursions with his father. The spectacular view of the Teton Range made a lasting impression on him and inspired a passion and determination to become an artist. He dedicated his life to recording the many moods of the mountains and high plains.

The NIC’s Conrad Schwiering Collection – which was donated to the museum in 1999 by Bev and Jerry Southards, the artist's niece and her husband, along with other Schwiering family members – features more than 3,000 sketches, studies and completed works as well as the content of his studio at the time of his death in 1986.

Click here to download lesson plan

Kysa Johnson: Terrible Beauty: Pollutants and Plagues

September 30- January 8, 2012

Johnson’s paintings combine the traditions of landscape, still-life and battlefield paintings with a detailed look at the pollutants, pathogens, and pharmaceutical cures for disease in our culture.

Click here to download lesson plan