Community Fine Arts Center

FACT: A local science teacher founded this non-profit multi-arts center in 1965 with a great love for art and a vision for his school and community.

A cultural gem in southwest Wyoming’s high desert country, the Community Fine Arts Center in Rock Springs features a unique collaboration between the City of Rock Springs, Sweetwater County and the local School District # 1.

A local science teacher founded this non-profit multi-arts center in 1965 with a great love for art and a vision for his school and community. However, the seeds for this vision were planted 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.

Allen Keeney, a Rock Springs High School art teacher, served as the second director from 1971 to 1991. Mr. Keeney was instrumental in bringing the symphony, ballet, and theatrical performances to Rock Springs that are now an intricate part of how the center serves this community.

The Rock Springs High School’s permanent collection totals over 500 original American paintings, prints, works on paper, photographs and three-dimensional works.

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.

Paintings by Norman Rockwell, Grandma Moses, Loren McGiver, Elliott Orr, Edward Chavez, Paul Horiuchi, Ilya Bolotowsky, Raphael Soyer, and Rufino Tamayo compose some of the permanent collection along with paintings by wellknown Wyoming, regional, and local artists. The collection continues to grow through purchases and donations. Under the direction of Gregory Gaylor (1991-2000), a second collection was started that is owned by the county with over 50 works currently listed.

The Community Fine Arts Center features a changing exhibition schedule of local, regional, and painters, sculptors, printers, photographers, and artists. National traveling exhibitions are also calendared, offering traditional and nontraditional displays of contemporary art in America.