Gov. Mark Gordon has announced the recipients of the 2020 Governor’s Arts Awards, with curator and arts advocate Sue Simpson Gallagher of Cody being among them.

On a winter afternoon, Simpson Gallagher sat down in her sun-flooded gallery to talk about art, her lifelong association with artists and the governor’s award.

“I’ve been moved by the arts since I was a child,” she said. That childhood was heavily influenced by her parents, U.S. Sen. Al Simpson and his wife, Ann, who are patrons of the arts, as were her grandparents, aunts and uncles. There were also musicians and painters in the family.

“I can’t imagine a life without art, without expressions of creativity,” Simpson Gallagher said.

When her father was elected to the U.S. Senate, Simpson Gallagher thought her life had ended. But the move from Cody to Washington, D.C., had a huge silver lining: The family was able to frequent the world class museums there, including the Smithsonian Institution.

While the museums were wonderful ways to expand her exposure to the arts, Simpson Gallagher was homesick for the West. After graduating from high school, she entered Colorado College in Colorado Springs, where her brother Colin was also a student. There she studied art history, with a focus on Italian Renaissance painting, mostly because it would allow her to travel to Europe and view museums there, she acknowledged. 

When she had obtained her degree, Simpson Gallagher became the first curator of the National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson. While working there she established relationships with multiple artists who would become friends for life. 

Simpson Gallagher left Jackson to study at Columbia University in New York for her master’s degree in 19th century American art.

When she decided to open her own gallery in Cody 27 years ago, the appreciation for arts and her relationships with artists stood her in good stead. 

“I’m a curator at heart,” she said. “I love to exhibit art and I wanted that [exhibition] feel in my gallery.”

Because of that wish, the pieces are not stacked chock-a-block on the walls and around the floor space. Instead each one has its own space to breathe and occupy without being imposed on by its neighbor.  

The relationships she built as a curator and member on many museums’ board of directors keeps the gallery supplied with outstanding work from highly sought artists. 

“I had this network of friends that trusted me to represent them in a way that would make them proud,” Simpson Gallagher said. That trust includes consigning pieces of art that are valued at tens of thousands of dollars.

Part of the honor of being named as a recipient of the governor’s arts award is the esteem in which Simpson Gallagher holds past winners.

“These are people who I admire, people who inspire me, people who I aspire to emulate in their service to the arts,” she said. Included in that list of past winners are her mother, Ann Simpson, and her aunt, Lynne Simpson.

“They were two of the most influential people and arts advocates in my life,” Simpson Gallagher said.  

Being raised in a family of artists and appreciators of art, she said, nurtured her. “I totally drank the Kool-aid,” she laughed. “And I plan on being involved for a really long time.”

Simpson Gallagher serves on the boards of the National Wildlife Museum in Jackson as well as the Whitney Western Art Museum at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West. She was selected for the governor’s award for her service to the arts as a curator and arts advocate.

Because of COVID-19, the Wyoming Arts Council will honor this year’s recipients virtually and then in person in 2022.

Established in 1982, Governor’s Arts Awards winners are selected based on their substantial contributions made in Wyoming that exemplify a long-term commitment to the arts, with special consideration given to nominees whose arts service is statewide.

There are many nominations submitted for the awards each year, and the selection process is competitive. Nominations are submitted to the Wyoming Arts Council in October and reviewed in November by the Wyoming Arts Council Board. The board then sends recommendations to the governor for the final decision.

Nominations are open to any Wyoming citizen, business or community member. Award criteria includes: length of commitment to the arts, outstanding contribution or impact, breadth of support, involvement in special initiatives supporting the arts, artistic excellence/level of standards.

The Governor’s Arts Awards were first made possible by an endowment from the Union Pacific Foundation in honor of Mrs. John U. Loomis, a lifelong patron of the arts. Over the years, individuals and organizations from more than 30 Wyoming communities and statewide organizations have been honored for their dedication to the arts in Wyoming.

Other recipients of the award this year are Valerie Innella Maiers, arts educator and scholar from Casper; the late John Schiffer and Nancy Schiffer, arts patrons from Kaycee; and Margaret Wilson, dancer and arts educator from Laramie.