IN THE PRESS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

"AMERICAN WILDLIFE ART" AUTHOR SPEAKS AT HISTORICAL SOCIETY PROGRAM

September 3, 2010

Dr. David J. Wagner, Curator and Tour Director for the Society of Animal Artists, a global organization headquartered in New York City, will be speaking at the Wort Hotel, Jackson Room, and signing copies of his book, American Wildlife Art at 4:00 p.m. on Wednesday, September 15. The program is co-sponsored by the Jackson Hole Historical Society and Museum and the Wort Hotel. It is free and open to the public.

Wagner wrote his Ph.D. dissertation on American wildlife art at the University of Minnesota, while he was Scholar-in-Residence at the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology. In addition to serving as Tour Director for Art and the Animal, Dr. Wagner has served as Curator for the Society of Animal Artists Sculpture Courtyard at the National Geographic Society in Washington, D.C. He has also served as Curator/Tour Director for The Horse in Fine Art of the American Academy of Equine Art; and various other exhibits including The Art of Robert Bateman. Dr. Wagner also proposed and directed the tour of the National Wildlife Federation Annual Photo Contest, and proposed and directed the tour of Arts for the Parks for its first five years.

Dr. Wagner wrote American Wildlife Art for Cornell University Press, which was released by Marquand Books in 2008. It is the standard reference book on the subject. The book was funded by a generous grant from the Robert S. and Grayce B. Kerr Foundation. Additional support was provided by James E. Parkman, Chairman, Susan K. Black Foundation, and the Newport Wilderness Society from a grant from the Peninsula Art Association and the Wisconsin Arts Board with funds from the State of Wisconsin. 

Dr. Wagner has given slide lectures about American wildlife art, including painting, sculpture, and conservation, at museums, nature centers, and parks in places ranging from New York City to Banff National Park in the Canadian Rockies to the Beijing Natural History Museum in China. His other area appearances are on Tuesday, September 14, at the noon lecture series at the Draper Museum of Natural History and Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, and on Friday, September 17, he will give the keynote address at the Annual Workshop of the Susan K. Black Foundation in Dubois.