Humanities series adds workshops

Funding cuts won’t impact 2025 plans

The Arts and Humanities Trapper Creek workshop and lecture series has been expanded from two to six events and will proceed as planned in 2025 despite funding cuts to Wyoming Humanities programming.

Barbara Fiedler of Shell developed the concept of bringing artists, musicians, scholars and creatives to the rural foothills of the Big Horn Mountains to foster creativity, open dialogue in the community and to create lasting bonds with visiting artists and lecturers.

After laying the foundation in 2024, Fiedler has been eagerly spreading the word about this year’s workshops and lectures, which are set to begin with the return on May 17-18 of Jesse William Green, a four-time Emmy Award-winning executive producer and director with a passion for storytelling.

Recent developments have threatened the event’s future beyond this year.

“I was notified of the new administration’s cancellation of the National Endowment of the Arts funding, which does affect Wyoming Humanities,” Fiedler said. “But luckily, I have received their grant money for 2025 and so all the workshops will proceed. Next year is another story.”

Fiedler told the Standard last spring that the program was conceived in the summer of 2023, when one of Fiedler’s triplet sisters, Peggy, visited and was taken in by the local people and landscapes. “She said to me one night, ‘You know, this would be a great place to do an artist’s retreat or workshop,” Fiedler recounted. “This is really her brainchild.”

Fiedler turned the idea over in her head and soon began researching funding options and grant opportunities, eventually finding support through Big Horn County Citizens for Economic Development and Wyoming Humanities. 

“Wyoming Humanities loved the idea,” she told the Standard. “There are workshops and retreats in larger communities around the state, but there really isn’t anything like that in rural communities like ours. I mean, Shell is 83 people.”

Her sister helped her apply for a Spark Grant, which was awarded to the program and went toward funding the first lecture series. Fiedler also injected her own money into the program and welcomes donations from the broader community to support the workshops series longevity.

2024 recap

Fiedler said she was “very pleased” with last year’s series, which featured a three day “Digital Storytelling: Capturing Oral Stories” workshop in August that was led by Green and a “Nature Journaling with Watercolors” workshop in September by Diane Fiedler.  Diane is Barbara’s sister and a former university lecturer in the Boston area.

“We had to start small,” Barbara said. “But I was very pleased with how the first year went.”

Green “did a fabulous workshop on the digital storytelling, focusing on the Johnson County cattle wars,” said Barbara. “He took the last day to tape so participants got to see how a live interview works and how to put it all together.”

Diane is a watercolor teacher who taught at various colleges in the Boston area and shows at a gallery in Maine. “You love your siblings, of course, but you never get to see them doing what they do for a living and actually observe them,” said Barbara.  “ The women loved her. She had all these creative ways to use watercolor.

“I was very proud of them both.  For our grant, we had to ask attendees to provide evaluations and there was not a single evaluation that was negative.”

2025 schedule

To fund this year’s programming, Barbara said she applied for slightly under $10,000 in Wyoming Humanities funding. She received nearly the entire amount, which allowed her to build up the schedule from last year.

Here are this year’s programs, dates and costs:

• Jesse William Green: “Digital Storytelling and Production,” a two-day workshop May 17-18. Cost is $100; seniors and students are free.

• “Bringing Together People and Place in Working and Public Lands in the Greater Big Horn Basin,” a one-day workshop panel June 21.  This afternoon lecture, moderated panel, and audience Q&A will explore the oversight and stewardship of working and public lands across the American West, and more specifically, the northern Wyoming.  There is no cost, but donations will be accepted at the door.

• Erik Kvale: “Three Million Years of Geologic Calamity in the Shell Valley,” a one-day field trip on July 19. This will be a one-day exercise in which that language is interpreted for the recent geologic past of Shell Valley and the Big Horn Mountain front. The focus will be on cataclysms that effected Shell Valley and the surrounding areas over the past 3 million years.

• Susan Barnett: “From Romance to Pop: Western Art at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West,” a one-day guided tour on Aug. 9.  This private guided tour offers a first-hand, behind-the-scenes look at classic western landscapes to the current modern expressions of Western people and place. Transportation will be provided from Shell to the Buffalo Bill Center of the West (BBCW) and back to Shell, with lunches provided by Shell Store.  The cost is $50 at the BBCW.

• Diane Fiedler: “Journaling Nature with Watercolors,” on Sept. 13-14 at a site in Shell to be determined.  Cost is $150.

• Sara Silberman: “Capturing the Spirit of Wyoming with a Painting Knife,” a three-day workshop for established oil painters planned for Oct. 3-5.  Cost is $250.

For more information about the workshop and lecture series, visit https://www.ahtc-wy.org.

The future

Fiedler is passionate about the arts and humanities and the series, saying, “This area really doesn’t have anything like it. Listening to others, learning from people in all walks of life brings greater meaning to you and your life.  You can gain greater respect for people who are like you and who are different than you, giving you a little broader perspective.”

But at the same time, she acknowledges that the future is in doubt beyond this year.

“I won’t be able to apply for Wyoming Humanities grant funding,” she said. “They have been so good to me and this project; it really is tough to see their good work stopped. I will continue to meet my grant requirements for 2025.”