Lander Event: Exhibition Opening Reception at Pioneer Museum on Friday, November 6

The Wyoming Committee for the National Museum of Women in the Arts (WYNMWA) is bringing the statewide traveling exhibition, Wyoming Women to Watch, to Lander, Wyoming where it will be on display from November 6 to January 15 at the Lander Pioneer Museum. To celebrate the exhibition’s Lander residency, WYNMWA invites the community to join in a free opening event on Friday, November 6 from 6pm to 8pm at the museum. 

The traveling exhibition features work from the 2027 cohort of Wyoming Women to watch,  Jodie Atherton (Laramie), Oakley Boycott (Lander), Katie Christensen (Laramie) and Kayla Clark (Laramie).  All four Wyoming women were nominated by Beth Venn, Executive Director at the Neltje Center, for the National Museum of Women in the Arts’ (NMWA) global exhibition of contemporary artists’ books, Women to Watch: A Book Arts Revolution, with Clark being selected for inclusion in the national show in Washington D.C. 

The celebratory opening event will include an engaging artist talk, an opportunity to sit with Lander artist Oakley Boycott as she performs SILENCE, and time to view the art on exhibit while enjoying light refreshments and a cash bar. The artist talk  will explore the participating artists’ experiences as creative professionals born and raised in Wyoming; highlight their individual art forms, inspirations, techniques, and approaches; and celebrate their work and its inclusion on the national stage. Oakley Boycott will be sitting in performance of SILENCE throughout the day in the lobby of the Lander Pioneer Museum and will conclude the performance at 6:30pm. The artist talk will begin at 7pm. 

Wyoming Women to Watch is an artist-curated exhibition which features works from all four Wyoming women artists who were selected for consideration in NMWA’s Women to Watch: A Book Arts Revolution. The breadth and diversity of the show illustrates the vast, creative, and multi-faceted nature of book arts and its varied interpretations and will travel to venues in Ucross, Jackson, and Casper after its tenure in Lander.

“The Lander Pioneer Museum is excited to host the Wyoming Women to Watch exhibit,” says Museum Director Randy Wise. “Featuring artists from across Wyoming, including Lander’s own Oakley Boycott, the show will present the creative work of talented women who are blazing new trails with their art.” 

WYNMWA is proud to partner with the Lander Pioneer Museum, an organization dedicated to the history of the Lander Valley from prehistoric times to the present. Founded in 1886, it is the first history museum in Wyoming and a perfect location for a celebration of Wyoming’s women artists, who are actively making history with their groundbreaking and unique works. The Museum serves as an educational, historical, and cultural institution whose goal is to interpret artifacts that reflect the human and natural history of the Wind River area. During the exhibition’s tenure in Lander, Oakley Boycott will sit in additional performances of SILENCE on November 5 and November 7 during museum hours. 

The WYNMWA exhibition is a localized celebration of the larger Women to Watch project, which is the National Museum of Women in the Arts’ hallmark exhibition series featuring national and international artists whose work is underrepresented on the global stage. Presented every two to three years, the series is a unique collaboration between NMWA and its global outreach committees, such as WYNMWA, and is designed to support the careers of women and nonbinary artists across regional and international art scenes. The committee network works closely with local curators to create shortlists of artists, from which finalists are selected to exhibit at NMWA. For this edition, WYNMWA is one of sixteen participating national and international committees; Kayla Clark will represent Wyoming at the national exhibition opening in April of 2027. 

Join in the celebration, meet the participating artists, engage with the  varied forms of book art, and support Wyoming women in the arts at 6pm on November 6 at the Lander Pioneer Museum.

WYNMWA’s participation in its second Women to Watch exhibition is thanks in large part to a generous donation from Presenting Sponsor The Raymond Plank Philanthropy Fund. For more information about the artists, upcoming events, and the Wyoming Committee, or to make a tax-deductible donation, please visit wynmwa.org.