Episode Details

EP 22 Rebecca West

Wendy Corr:

Well, hey there, folks. Welcome to The Roundup. We are a Cowboy State Daily podcast, and we focus on interesting people in the Cowboy State. And this state has so many interesting people, but this one, this guest, today, you're gonna remember this guest. It's gonna be a great, great conversation.

First though, I want to make sure that we give a proper shout out to the Wyoming Business Alliance. We want you to also discover other great podcasts in the cowboy state, and one of those is the "Business from the Basement" podcast with the Wyoming Business Alliance. It's a fantastic resource for anybody who is a business person in Wyoming, you're going to want to check out the podcast and all of the resources that the Wyoming Business Alliance has to offer. So don't forget to go check that out.

But after you check out this podcast, because I have known our guest here, oh my gosh. I think I moved to town in '98 and Rebecca West and I were part of the leadership of a small service organization called Venture club. And so that's where Rebecca and I first crossed paths at that time, Rebecca, this would have been around 2000 or so.

Rebecca West:

I think something like that, yeah, maybe a little bit before that, but around.

Wendy Corr:

'99-2000, and you then were at the museum. You were at the Buffalo Bill. At that time, it was called the Buffalo Bill Historical Center. And you had been there for about five years. Hadn't been there too long, but she then rose up through the ranks, and now Rebecca West is the executive director of this prestigious museum that we now call the Buffalo Bill Center of the West.

So I want to say hello, Rebecca West, so glad to have you as our podcast guest this week! It's been, it's been a whirlwind month for you. You've been gone a lot.

Rebecca West:

It has, yeah, and thanks, Wendy, it's always good to talk to you. And I think about the old days when we were working together for Venture Club, which was a subset of Soroptimists International, I recall, and it was always wonderful to spend time with you. So it seems like both of our careers have evolved quite a bit since then.

Wendy Corr:

They have, yes! And you've been on the road. Tell us about your travels. We were talking about this before we got started today, all the places that Rebecca has been just in the last month. Take us on a world tour, Rebecca.

Rebecca West:

My first trip was to New York, and there was an important fundraiser that is supported by one of our trustees, and it's the National Trust for Scotland. And you're probably thinking, What's the link between Wyoming and Scotland? But there was a really strong presence of different Scottish artists and immigrants back in the old west.

But today, if you look at not just people in Wyoming, but all over the United States, that US-Scotland connection is very much there, and the preservation aspect is there too, because the National Trust preserves castles and historic sites in Scotland, and certainly the Buffalo Bill Center of the West does a lot of preservation too.

So that was stop number one. And I also did some museum visits there. And then I went to the University of Wyoming foundation fundraiser in Laramie by way of Casper, because it's so hard to get to Wyoming from New York. So I got picked up at the Casper airport, went to the Laramie fundraiser.

Was home after that wonderful gala for a few days, and then went to Belgium, so stayed in Brussels and for an opening in Liege, which was at a museum called La Boverie and it's for the Ars Mechanica, which is a firearms exhibition that opened up several wee