Buffalo Bill Center of the West Hosts Two Artists-in-Residence Starting June 20

From June 20^th to 24^th, Artist-in-Residence Glen Morovits will be present at the Cody Firearms Museum from 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. each day. Morovits, a charter member of the American Custom Gunmakers Guild, will demonstrate “basic gunstock carving and checkering,” the Museum states in a recent press release. Visitors will be allowed to watch Morovits work and this is included with admission to the Center of the West. Folks can even attempt gunstock carving under the guidance of Morovits.

Glen Morovits courtesy of the Buffalo Bill Center of the West

Joining the faculty of Eastern Wyoming College in January of 2019, Morovits started a new gunsmithing program at the school. He graduated from high school in western Wisconsin in 1977 and went on to university at Trinidad State Junior College (TSJC) where he earned a degree in Gunsmithing in 1981. After college, Morovits went to work at Dakota Arms in Sturgis, South Dakota.

In 1983, he became a charter member of the American Custom Gunmakers Guild. By 1988 he had left Dakota Arms to start his own company making custom rifles for individual customers where he also manufactured custom gunstocks for multiple national companies, which included Weatherby, Browning, Beretta, Dakota, Galazan, and Connecticut Shotgun. Further, he managed B Searcy Ent. where he manufactured “double rifles.”

One of Morovits’ custom stocks

In 2013, Morovits started his teaching career at TSJC where he taught stock-making. He enjoys passing on the art of gun making and continues to support the careers of his colleagues in the discipline.

Running from June 20^th through July 5^th, Artist-in-Residence Lee “The Boneman” Post will be available in the Draper Natural History Museum from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.  Access to Lee is also included with admission to the Center of the West. This unique workshop, taking place over the course of “two-and-a-half weeks,” features Lee’s process for articulating “an adult grizzly bear” and “an adult mountain lion” specimen. Visitors will be allowed to view the progress each day as the specimens are built “bone-by-bone.”

Lee “The Boneman” Post

Corey Anco, the Draper’s Interim Curator, says, “The Center of the West and the Draper Museum are thrilled to host Lee as a featured Artist-in-Residence, and we invite our visitors to take a moment to visit with Lee and the Draper staff during his time with us.”

Visitors will be able to watch the process in real-time in the Draper’s Seasons of Discovery gallery.

Lee Post lives in Homer, Alaska, and has had “a lifelong obsession with natural history.” Lee has more than 30 years of experience articulating specimens ranging from a “41-foot sperm whale, sea turtles, bears, horses, moose, lynx, caribou, birds, alligators, and wolves,” among others. He is the author of ten books on the preparation and articulation of animal skeletons and he teaches a Marine Mammal Articulation course each fall at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks. Specimens articulated by Lee and volunteer teams are already on display in five states and three different countries.