Rock Springs / Wyoming / United States
We are a non-profit multi-arts center begun in 1966 by a local science teacher with a great love for art and a vision for his school and community. Its beginning started much earlier -- 1939 -- when the first painting was purchased to hang in the local high school. In the summer months, Mr. Elmer Halseth would travel America to buy paintings, drawings and prints for the students of Rock Springs. He used nickels and dimes gathered from school carnivals, bake sales and donation jars during the school year. The first painting purchased, Shack Alley, by Henrietta Wood, became the nucleus for the permanent collection that now makes its home in the Community Fine Arts Center. Mr. Halseth became the first director of the Center as well as a State Representative and was a supporter of the arts until his death in 1991. The Rock Springs High Schools permanent collection totals nearly 500 original American paintings, prints, works on paper, and photographs. Much of the collection, once called one of the best collections of contemporary art in the Rockies" ( Time, Nov. 24, 1952 ), is permanently on display at the center and art gallery. Artists represented in the collection include Norman Rockwell, Grandma Moses, Loren McGiver, Elliott Orr, Edward Chavez, Paul Horiuchi, Ilya Bolotowsky, Raphael Soyer, and Rufino Tamayo. Paintings by well known Wyoming, Western, and local artists are also on display. The collection continues to grow through purchases and donations.
