The Discovery Center at the NICis a hands-on, art-activity area for visitors of all ages. The goal is to encourage creativity and exploration through various activity "stations" and provide space for art education through classes and special programs. Check the Discovery Center calendar of programs, classes and activities.

For more information about Discovery Center programs,
please contact Lisa Vlastos or Jim Kopp at (307) 235-5247.


History
The Nicolaysen Art Museum & Discovery Center’s history begins in 1967, when Casper’s Mary Durham along with a group of friends hosted the first art show in a little white house that still stands at the corner of “A” and Park streets.

In 1972, the newly renamed Central Wyoming Art Museum found the room it needed in a former bus station on Rancho Road. This 7,000 square foot building provided more exhibit space as well as rooms for classes and other educational programs.

The Nicolaysen Art Museum & Discovery Center, known throughout the region as the NIC, has occupied its current 25,000 square foot location at 400 East Collins since 1990, when an extensive renovation of the 1924 Mountain States Power Company building was completed.

The NIC is a full service institution that offers programs to the city of Casper and to the state of Wyoming. The Nicolaysen serves a diverse audience and is a primary center for contemporary artists in the Rocky Mountain Region. In addition to exhibitions, education is the primary focus of this institution.


Our Collection: An overview

The museum began collecting in 1984. At that time the focus of the collections was extremely broad. In response to the evolving mission statement of the institution, the museum has periodically revised its Collections Management Policy to define the scope of the collection in a more focused and narrow manner. From the earliest stages of the development of the collections, the museum strived to set itself apart from other museums in the region. The NIC is the only major museum in the state to focus soley on collecting and exhibiting contemporary art of the Rocky Mountain Region.

The Permanent Collections are estimated to contain approximately 6,265 objects, including paintings, sculptures, textiles, drawings, photographs, prints and other works on paper. The collection is divided into several areas, the general permanent collection and two special collections: the Conrad Schwiering Studio and Illustrations by Carl Link.

General Permanent Collection

• The core of the general permanent collection is contemporary art created by local and regional artists or artists with strong ties to the region. Much of the artwork is greatly influenced by traditional Western art while other works are evocative of national Post-Modern and contemporary styles. The general permanent collection highlights the wide variety of media and styles found in contemporary art of the Rocky Mountain Region. Many of the recent acquisitions are from temporary exhibitions such as Jaune-Quick-To-See Smith, Kevin Red-Star, and Ted Waddell. Additionally, the collection includes a number of works created in the early to mid-twentieth century by artists of national and international significance.
  
  
• Conrad Schwiering Studio collection: The largest of the special collections is the Conrad Schwiering Studio collection, which was donated to the museum in 1999 by Bev and Jerry Southards, the artist's neice and her husband, along with other Schwiering family members. This special collection includes the content of the artist’s Wyoming studio at the time of his death in 1986. The collection --which illustrates Schwiering's process for creating art--contains sketches, studies and completed works as well as tools for creating art.
  
  
• The museum also holds furniture, personal items, and books owned by the artist. The collection contains many landscapes, for which Schwiering was best known, in addition to artwork of people and animals.

Illustrations by Carl Link

• Illustrations by Carl Link (1887-1968) comprise the second largest subcategory of the Permanent Collection. This collection includes approximately 2,000 drawings and works on paper by the German-America artist, commercial illustrator, and art educator. It came to the museum through a series of donations by one donor over a period of seven years, from 1984 until 1991. The initial donation in 1984 was one of the first acquisitions made by the museum and helped establish the museum as a collecting institution. Illustrations and paintings by Link can be found in museums throughout the West. Link immigrated to the United States in September 1914 and spent years teaching, designing costumes and theater sets, as well as creating portraits of actors and dancers in New York, before moving to the West. From 1936 to 1938, he taught art classes at Glacier National Park in Montana and at Lake Tahoe. In the 1930’s, he drew portraits of rodeo cowgirls and he developed a great interest in the West and Native American culture. In the late 1940’s, he purchased a home at Lake Tahoe where he taught art classes and created over 200 illustrations of costumes of people throughout the world for the World Book Encyclopedia. He continued to spend time at Lake Tahoe until his death in 1968. Most of the illustrations in the NIC’s collections are without dates but the majority of those that are dated were created during or after Link’s first stay in the West. Many portray the people Link encountered in the region or feature landscapes and scenes of the West.

Exhibitions:

Four new exhibitions opening Sept. 30 at the Nicolaysen Art Museum will look at one artist’s process and three other artists’ interpretation of the human medical condition.

Landscapes of Conrad Schwiering: Secrets from the Studio
Sept. 30, 2011 - 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.

This exhibition continues through May 6, 2012.
“We’ve designed this to be a touring exhibition that will travel to other museums throughout the United States for the next three years,” Curator Lisa Hatchadoorian said. “This will be the first time that the NIC and Casper have documented the collection and shared it with audiences beyond our borders.”

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.

In an interview several years before his death in 1986, he stated "I am different in that I am a part of the land. I record the things that I know as a way of breathing – a way of living."

The NIC’s Conrad Schwiering Collection – which was donated to the museum in 1999 by Bev and Jerry Southards, the artist's neice 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.

Events

NIC at Noon

Join us at noon on the first Friday of each month for NIC at Noon, the museum’s informal, monthly concert series where visitors are invited to bring in their lunch (or call ahead to Grant Street Grocery at 237-2539 and they will deliver your lunch to the NIC lobby) and hear performances by local musicians from
noon – 1 p.m.

There is no admission charge.

Art and music lover stopping by for NIC at Noon can also visit our galleries for FREE during the event to see our current exhibitions.