by Kira Withrow, Moab Museum
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| Air Mail: Letters of Politics, Pandemics, and Place – New book by Amy Irvine and Pam Houston will be discussed |
Back in Fall of 2019, while the Museum building was undergoing major renovation, the Museum held a series of speaker events in the mostly-empty exhibit space. Tuesdays at the Museum featured speakers and topics ranging from science research to ranching to dinosaurs and beyond, which often drew a full house and sparked lively conversation. Later, during the Exhibit Previews held in February 2020, the Museum welcomed community members to tour the Museum and solicit feedback during the final phases of exhibit installation. We kept hearing a common refrain: bring back Tuesdays at the Museum!
Since then, much has changed. The Museum postponed its reopening and doors still remain closed as the community responds to COVID-19. This didn’t stop the staff from innovating new ways to bring the Museum to your own home. Now, Moab Museum is thrilled to announce a new lineup of fall programming adapted for delivery during the pandemic. Tuesdays with the Museum, a series of six Zoom events, will be held twice monthly through November. With storytelling and discussion, the series is designed to entertain and foster inspiration while learning about the cultural and natural history of Southeast Utah.
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| Activist and award-winning journalist Jacqueline Keeler discusses indigenous identity with Guy “Eagle” Gilleshammer |
The event lineup is diverse: community members can look forward to a film screening and discussion with local aeronautical daredevil and “Arch-Flying Cowboy,” Tim Martin; a conversation about the history of labor in southeast Utah with author Christian Wright; and a discussion about the past and present realities of voting in Utah with Carey Dabney, President of the League of Women Voters. The events are sure to entertain, too: a film screening of My Canyonlands: The Adventurous Life of Kent Frost will showcase the remarkable story of the late canyon country adventurer, activist, and local legend Kent Frost with his nephew Jeff Frost.
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| Learn about Kent Frost’s adventurous life with his nephew Jeff Frost. |
The new Tuesdays series also includes events that explore contemporary topics. Jacqueline Keeler, Diné activist, journalist, and Executive Editor of Pollen Nation Magazine, and Lone Eagle AKA Guy Gilleshammer ThM, Metis elder, initiated medicine man, and keeper of oral traditions present Belonging and Theft: An Indigenous Conversation on Native Identity. While discussing their forthcoming book, Air Mail: Letters of Politics, Pandemic, and Place, Amy Irvine, sixth-generation Utahn and author of Desert Cabal, and Pam Houston, author and co-founder of the non-profit Writing by Writers, will trace their written correspondence from their friendship born during the pandemic.
All Tuesdays with the Museum events, which will be held on Zoom and simulcast on Facebook Live on the Museum’s page, are free to the public. To attend, download Zoom for free on your computer, tablet, or cell phone and find the links and webinar on the Museum’s website, moabmuseum.org.
Schedule: All events will begin at 6:30 p.m. Mountain Time.
September 15: Canyon County on Strike: Coal Miners, Labor Unions, and Women in the Workforce in Southeast Utah – a discussion with Moab-based author Christian Wright, author of Carbon County USA: Miners for Democracy in Utah and the West
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| Daredevil pilot Tim Martin flies through Wilson Arch |
September 22: Belonging and Theft: An Indigenous Conversation on Native Identity – speakers Jacqueline Keeler and Lone Eagle AKA Guy Gilleshammer ThM will explore topics of identity pertinent to Indigenous individuals and communities today.
October 6: State of the Vote, Then and Now – a discussion contextualizing the history and legacy of voting in southeast Utah with Carey Dabney, League of Women Voters
October 27: Air Mail: An Exchange Between Authors – a conversation with authors Pam Houston and Amy Irvine about their forthcoming book, Air Mail: Letters of Politics, Pandemics, and Place
November 3: My Canyonlands: Film Screening and Discussion – a screening of My Canyonlands: The Adventurous Life of Kent Frost and conversation with Kent’s nephew and frequent adventure companion Jeff Frost
November 17: The Arch-Flying Cowboy: Stories from Tim Martin – a film screening and discussion with daredevil pilot Tim Martin
Membership in the Museum has benefits! For more information about becoming a member and to see our expanded website, visit moabmuseum.org.
Red Cliffs Lodge, on the banks of the mighty Colorado River, is home to the Moab Museum of Film & Western Heritage. The lodge is built on the old George White Ranch, a key location for nine of the big westerns including Rio Grande, Cheyenne Autumn, Ten Who Dared, The Commancheros, and Rio Conchos.
The late George White was founder of the Moab to Monument Valley Film Commission, the longest ongoing film commission in the world.
In the museum one can learn more about film locations, how the sets are built, and how the filming process is managed on nature’s own sound stage. On display in the museum are production photographs, movie posters, autographed scripts, props from the many pictures filmed in the area, and displays about the western ranching heritage. For information, call Red Cliffs Lodge at 435-259-2002.
Through the magnificent landscapes of southeastern Utah, writers have been inspired and stories born here. Zane Grey, the famous western novelist, traveled through the area in 1912. His visit inspired him to write his book Riders of the Purple Sage. The book was made into a movie starring Ed Harris and Amy Madigan, and filmed on locations around Moab.
| A partial list of stars that have made movies in Moab John Wayne, Maureen O'Hara, Henry Fonda, Lee Marvin, Rock Hudson, Jimmy Stewart, Richard Boone, Anthony Quinn, Mickey Rooney, Shirley Temple, Kris Kristofferson, Billy Crystal, Robert Duvall, Gene Hackman, Bill Murray, Jack Palance, Susan Sarandon, Geena Davis, Ted Danson, Tom Cruise, and many more. |
