Annual Cowboy Festival & Symposium Just Around the Corner!

For the eighth consecutive year, the Booth Western Art Museum will host the Southeastern Cowboy Festival & Symposium, October 21-24, 2010. A visitor favorite, the annual event offers a wide range of activities the entire family can enjoy including two concerts by Riders in the Sky, gunfight reenactments, children’s activities, living history encampments, Native American dancing, arts and crafts, pioneer demonstrations and so much more! Featured artist for this year’s event is sculptor John Coleman, who will present a lecture and a workshop.

Thursday, October 21, visitors can meet featured artist John Coleman, and listen to Doc Stovall and the Tumbleweed Cowboy Band perform in the Museum atrium from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. Coleman, considered one of the leading sculptors of today, will present a lecture on his artistic style and career highlights in the Booth Theatre beginning at 7:00 p.m.

On Friday, October 22, the symposium portion of the event takes place with lectures on a variety of historical and artistic topics from 10:30 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. in the Booth Theatre.

10:30 am – Karl Bodmer: An Artist’s Perspective
Andrew Peters, noted landscape artist, Omaha, NE

11:30 am – Ansel Adams and His Legacy
Shannon Perich, Associate Curator of Photography, Smithsonian National Museum of American History

12:30 pm – Lunch Break (Museum Café open)

1:30 pm – New Frontiers: Collecting the West in the East
Sheila K. Hoffman, Curator of Collections, Rockwell Museum, Corning, NY

2:30 pm – The Bison: Western Art Icon
Robert B. Pickering, PhD, Senior Curator, Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, OK

Also on the 22nd, the Booth Art Academy will host a sculpture workshop for artists by featured artist John Coleman. For registration information and costs, please call 770-607-3686.

Friday evening, guests are invited to attend the Western Concert in the Booth Ballroom at 7:00 pm, featuring Belinda Gail and Jim Jones. Known as “America’s Western Sweetheart,” Gail has been honored by the Western Music Association and the Academy of Western Artists as female Performer of the Year and as Entertainer of the Year several times over the course of her career. Jim Jones is a gifted songwriter, instrumentalist and producer. He has been named the Western Music Association’s Male Vocalist of the Year and is in much demand at festivals and gatherings throughout the West. Tickets are $15 for not-yet members, $12 for Booth Museum members and $10 for students.

Two Saturday concerts at the Grand Theatre feature the internationally famous Riders in the Sky, who will be celebrating 6,000 career performances during the Festival & Symposium. Made up of Ranger Doug, Woody Paul, Too Slim and Joey, Riders in the Sky has been entertaining audiences since 1977. In 1982, they became the first exclusively Western music artist to join the Grand Ole Opry. The group has also provided music for several Walt Disney/Pixar albums, most notably “Woody’s Roundup Featuring Riders in the Sky” which was released as a companion album to “Toy Story 2."

Tickets for the 2:00 p.m. matinee are $25 for not-yet members, $20 for Booth Museum members and $5 for children 16 and younger. Tickets for the 7:00 p.m. evening performance are $25 for not-yet members and $20 for Booth Museum members.

During the day Saturday, October 23, an array of events for the entire family will be offered in the Cowboy Festival and Western Marketplace on the museum grounds. Entertainment includes re-enactments of the gunfight at the O.K. Corral, Western music and poetry throughout the day on two stages, fast draw competitions, humorous Western skits, demonstrations of traditional Indian dances, chuck wagon cooking, children’s activities and a living history encampment with demonstrations of pioneer skills from bygone days.

Food vendors at the event will offer homemade root beer, barbecue, hot dogs and other favorite festival food items. Activities will take place between 10:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m.

Admission to the festival grounds, including Booth Museum galleries, is $10 for not-yet members, $8 for seniors, $7 for students, $3 for children and free for active military and Booth members.

The weekend wraps up Sunday, October 24, beginning with Cowboy Church at 11:00 a.m. This non-denominational church service features cowboy prayers and Western spiritual music and is free for everyone. After the service, visit the Cowboy Festival and Western Marketplace between Noon and 5:00 p.m. on the grounds of the Museum, with the same activities as listed for Saturday taking place.

For more information about the 8th Annual Southeastern Cowboy Festival & Symposium call 770.387.1300 or visit http://www.boothmuseum.org/.