Wyoming Arts Council/Wyoming Folklife Collection
The Wyoming Arts Council is accepting applications for Folk & Traditional Arts Mentoring project grants, for the fiscal year 2022.
The goal of the Folk & Traditional Arts Program is to identify, preserve, and honor folk and traditional arts throughout the state. Joshua Chrysler, who is a Folklorist and Health & Wellness Specialist at the Wyoming Arts Council, said a classic Wyoming is the large ranching community present in the state. And there are a lot of traditional art forms associated with ranching: saddle making, leather carving, horsehair hitching, all of these are traditional art forms that are important to the communities from which they grow out of, said Chrysler.
Credit Image courtesy of Lifetime Arts
The Wyoming Arts Council has partnered with the Wyoming State Library and Lifetime Arts to train Wyoming-based artists and librarians on Creative Aging . Creative Aging is a way to address adverse health effects associated with aging, by practicing intentional arts engagement. And now, the Wyoming Arts Council is accepting applications from artists and librarians in the state who want to participate in this training.
Joshua Chrysler, who is the health and wellness specialist for the Wyoming Arts Council, said the pandemic has amplified loneliness among older adults. The arts can help. It s (COVID-19) really shown that issues that were already present for older adults like social isolation and loneliness, those have really been amplified over the past year, Chrysler said. This type of programming - we re able to help alleviate some of that, and hopefully improve the quality of life for some folks.