What's New

The latest developments in Hal and Teresa's professional lives...

• Teresa Jordan named Guest Editor for special literary edition of the Gilcrease Journal. The Gilcrease Journal, the publication of the The Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, Oklahoma, is a glossy, four-color, perfect-bound publication that has garnered many awards, including three-time recognition as the Best Publication of the American Association of Museums. The Gilcrease Museum houses the most extensive collection of Western American art in the world and this special issue, to be published in May, 2004, will pair literary works with traditional and contemporary Western art and artifacts. For submission guidelines, click here.

• Teresa Jordan to teach illustrated journal workshop at the Western Folklife Center in Elko, Nevada, July 31 - August 2, 2003. The illustrated journal provides a rich way to interact with your world, both interior and exterior. You don't have to consider yourself an artist -- or even have any previous experience with art -- to create a journal that is satisfying to yourself and to anyone else you want to share it with. In this workshop, we will work with both writing and illustration to help you come up with a way of working that fits your particular interests, skills and personality. For more information and registration, click here.

• Teresa Jordan named Artist in Residence for The MESA Arts and Humanities Residence Center in Springdale, Utah, March 15 - April 15, 2003. The residency provides Jordan the chance for concentrated work time in Zion National Park and its environs. She will present a reading of fiction and nonfiction at the Driftwood Lodge, 1515 Zion Park Blvd. in Springdale on Thursday, March 27, and the lecture "30,000 Years of the Horse in Art" at the St. George Art Museum, 47 E 200 N, on Thursday, April 3. Both events are free to the public and start at 7 p.m. She will also work with local elementary children on writing and journal keeping. Jordan is the fourth resident invited to The MESA, following on the heels of Sierra Leone author Syl Cheney-Coker, composer John Duffy from Maine, and Alabama artist Stephen Savage. Six other residents from across the United States, including artists, playwrites, and choreographers, will serve at The MESA in 2003.

• Why the Cowboy Sings: The Music Video will premier at the 19th National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nevada, January 25 through February 1, 2003. Hal Cannon, founding director of the Western Folklife Center in Elko, Nevada, and Taki Telonidis, senior producer for the Media Center at the WFC, have just completed a 15-minute music video based on their award-winning documentary, Why the Cowboy Sings. Technically ground-breaking, the video combines state-of-the-art High Definition Television (HDTV) technology with archival film to create a stunning centerpiece for the Western Folklife Center's museum at 501 Railroad Street in Elko, Nevada. After the Gathering, the video will air regularly in the Center's new video theater, and is free to the public.

• Hal Cannon awarded the 2002 Utah Governor's Award in the Humanities. Cannon is the first person to receive both the Utah Governor's Award in the Arts (1998) and Governor's Award in the Humanities. His involvement with the humanities in Utah began in the mid-1970s when he served as Utah's first state folklorist, a position more formally known as the Folk Arts Coordinator for the Utah Arts Council. In this capacity, he documented local culture and history and was the curator of an exhibit centered around the state's beehive symbol, which eventually toured to the National Museum of American Arts' Renwick Gallery in Washington, D.C. Cannon keynoted the 2002 awards ceremony with a talk entitled, "The Perils of the Humanities, or, How I Became Human." Read The Utah Humanities Council press release and the full text of Hal's address.

• Why the Cowboy Sings: The Documentary garners awards nationwide and will soon air on PBS. Produced by Hal Cannon and Taki Telonidis, the hour-long documentary is slated for release on PBS nationwide in the summer of 2003. It has won a Gold Special Jury Prize at the 2002 Houston International Film Festival and a Rocky Mountain Emmy Award for best television feature in 2002.

• "30,000 years of the Horse in Art" - the 2003 Humanities Lecture at the 19th National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nevada, February 1, 2003 - to be presented by Teresa Jordan. The theme for this year's Gathering, which takes place January 25 through February 1, 2003, is "The Year of the Horse." For tickets and a full calendar of events, visit the Western Folklife Center's Web site. Jordan, whose books on ranch culture - the memoir, Riding the White Horse Home; Cowgirls: Women of the American West, a collection of interviews with ranch women; and an anthhology of ranch women's poetry, Graining the Mare - have become classics in the literature of the rural West, has long had an interest in the art of the region. Her publications on the subject include the program essay, "The Genius of These States," for Unfettered Spirit: Art & History on the Open Plain, an exhibit of artists from the land curated by the Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art in Great Falls, Montana in 1998; and the foreword for Cowgirl Rising: The Art of Donna Howell-Sickles.

• Field Notes from Yosemite: Apprentice to Place, by Teresa Jordan, just released from Johnson Books. The second volume in Jordan's series of "Sketchbook Expeditions," Field Notes from Yosemite combines essays, watercolors, and journal observations from three summers Jordan spent in the High Sierra, 1999-2001, and follows on the heels of her earlier work, Field Notes from the Grand Canyon: Raging River, Quiet Mind, an illustrated journal that the Santa Cruz Sentinel deemed "exhilarating and inspirational."

• Teresa Jordan presents the 2002 Commencement address to the Oregon School of Arts and Crafts in Portland, Oregon on May 18, 2002. Jordan's association with OCAC dates back to 1989-'90 when, with author Kim Stafford, she taught a year-long course entitled "Writing for Artists." Read the text of Jordan's address.

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