You might come to the Library for a book, a meeting, or a quiet place to study or work. But what if you discovered something unexpected: a new perspective, a moment of inspiration, or a piece of art that makes you pause and reflect?
Just outside the doors of the Library’s Ordway Auditorium, the Ordway Gallery offers just that. Thoughtfully curated by Leah Shlachter, Adult Programs Coordinator, the gallery brings compelling visual art into this shared community space, inviting visitors to explore new ideas, see the world through someone else's eyes, and experience the many ways art can inspire, challenge, and connect us.
A Window into the West: Heap-o-Livin’
The gallery’s current exhibition, Heap-o-Livin’, features the historic work of Wyoming photographer Lora Webb Nichols (1883–1962).
Nichols received her first camera in Encampment, Wyoming, in 1899 at just sixteen years old, just as a local copper mining boom was transforming her hometown. What began as a personal passion soon grew into a lifelong vocation. By 1906, Nichols was working for hire as a photographer, developing prints in a darkroom she built herself at home. When the copper industry collapsed, she established the Rocky Mountain Studio—providing photography and photofinishing services that helped support her family through changing times.
Over her lifetime, Nichols created and collected approximately 24,000 negatives. Heap-o-Livin’ follows her journey from her family's Encampment homestead to her later years in Stockton, California, showcasing a remarkable body of work where photography was seamlessly integrated into the rhythms of daily living.
Tenderness, Community, and Everyday Magic
Rather than focusing solely on grand landscapes or staged portraits, Nichols captured the raw, intimate fabric of early 20th-century life. Kitchens, porches, backyards, sidewalks, and open pastures become the backdrops for planting gardens, raising children, playing music, and enjoying quiet companionship. Through her lens—and through the negatives she purchased from local amateur photographers whose work she developed—a tight-knit, largely female community emerges.
Marked by tenderness and equality, these photographs reward slow looking. They offer a deeply authentic way of seeing the American West—one built not on romanticized mythologies, but on everyday attention, continuity, and human connection.
Why Art Matters in a Library
Exhibitions like Heap-o-Livin’ remind us why having a dedicated gallery space in a public library is so transformative:
Democratizing Access: The Ordway Gallery brings world-class visual art out of formal museum settings and places it in an open, barrier-free space where everyone in Teton County can encounter it daily—no admission fee required.
Sparking Civic Curiosity: Pairing visual history with our literary collections deepens our understanding of the region. A patron coming in to borrow a book can walk away with a profound new perspective on Wyoming's history and heritage.
Fostering Connection: Art invites us to slow down, share a moment of contemplation, and start conversations with our neighbors.
The Teton County Library Foundation & Friends is immensely proud to support the Ordway Gallery and the extraordinary curations that Leah works to bring to our community. The next time you visit the library, take a quiet moment to wander through Heap-o-Livin’—and experience the magic of history, art, and storytelling.