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Ucross, WY (November 25, 2020) -- Ucross Foundation invites the community to experience “Silent Nights at Ucross,” a month-long opportunity to visit the festively decorated grounds in the Park at Ucross. Thousands of Christmas lights adorn the trees in the Park, which will be lit daily from dusk to dawn from November 27 through January 11. The Ucross Chapel will also be open daily throughout the holiday season.
Powder River Energy Corporation has once again provided volunteer help with the Christmas tree lights. Special touches and additional decorations will be found throughout the grounds and in the Ucross Chapel. Due to public health precautions, a public event will not be held this year. “While it was a difficult decision to forego our annual Ucross Community Christmas Celebration, we have chosen to be abundantly cautious, especially at the holidays,” said Ucross President Sharon Dynak. “We hope the dazzling lights and magical outdoor setting of the Park at Ucross will bring joy and peace to our neighbors, friends and families this holiday season.” A special Ucross Christmas video, which will include a reading by Craig Johnson, will be created in early December and made available on Ucross social platforms and at ucross.org. In the spirit of holiday giving, Ucross will make donations to Sheridan People Assistant Food Bank in Sheridan and the Bread of Life Food Pantry in Buffalo. This year, in light of the Ucross Native American Fellowship initiatives, donations will also be made to organizations in our region who are working to help Native American families. The Park at Ucross and Ucross Chapel are located at the intersection of Highways 14 and 16 east in Ucross. For further information, visit www.ucross.org or contact (307) 737-2291 or info@ucross.org. CALLING YOUNG PLAYWRIGHTS: UCROSS AND THE BLANK THEATRE OPEN ENTRIES FOR NEW, NATIONAL AWARD11/10/2020
Ucross, WY (November 10, 2020) -- Entries are open November 10 through December 21 for an award that will support and nurture playwrights in the beginning of their careers. Ucross, a prestigious artist residency program, and The Blank Theatre, a Los Angeles institution celebrating 30 years of imaginative theater, today announced the newly created Ucross + The Blank Theatre – Future of Playwriting Prize, a one-of-a-kind award for young playwrights nationwide. Ucross and The Blank are partnering to showcase the importance of emerging artists across the country and to celebrate the innovative work that is asking questions and evolving theater as we know it. Submissions for the national prize open today through December 21.
The award will be given annually to an emerging playwright (ages 21 to 30) who best personifies the “Future of Theatre”: someone whose voice will shape theater for decades to come, and who will bring new thoughts and views to the American theatrical conversation. Eligibility and submission guidelines can be found at TheBlank.com. “The Blank has always supported and believed in young playwrights as seen through our Young Playwrights Festival and the incredible work we’ve produced over the years,” said Daniel Henning, the founding artistic director of The Blank Theatre. “This new award, developed alongside the Ucross team, will profoundly impact young, emerging voices by offering them monetary support, uninterrupted time and space during a residency, and a platform to showcase their work.” The chosen playwright will receive a $5,000 cash award, a professionally produced staged reading in The Blank Theatre’s Living Room Series (a new play development program), and a two-week residency at Ucross’s 20,000-acre ranch at the foothills of the Bighorn Mountains (including transportation). Two additional finalists will each be awarded $500 cash prizes. There is no entry fee. At Ucross, artists in residence experience an inspiring combination of solitude and community, with expansive time for private work, as well as lively exchanges at group dinners with fellow artists. Facilities include four visual arts studios, four writers’ studios, and two composers’ studios, and a large loft space suitable for dance and theatre collaborations. “Ucross is pleased to announce this new award with The Blank, as it expands our long-standing support of new and emerging artists across disciplines,” said Sharon Dynak, president of Ucross. “For years we have watched the amazing work and development happening at The Blank and are excited to welcome a winning playwright to our campus.” The Ucross + The Blank Theatre - Future of Playwriting Prize is made possible through the generous support of Deb and Ed Koehler and the Raymond N. Plank Philanthropy Fund. The Blank was founded in 1990 by Daniel Henning and the theater’s over 70 mainstage productions have won 13 LA Drama Critics Circle Awards, eight LA Weekly Awards, five LA Stage Alliance Ovation Awards, four NAACP Awards, 20 BackStage Garland Awards, four BroadwayWorld Awards, and received hundreds of other nominations. Named "One of the Best Theatre Companies in America" by the Drama League, The Blank was honored by the LA City Council and won the Hollywood Arts Council's Award "for pursuing artistic excellence and nurturing the next generation of playwrights.” The Blank has offered thousands of diverse theatre artists the opportunity to stretch their abilities in a safe, nurturing, equal environment and is one of the nation's most important developers of new work and artists. Very early in their careers, The Blank supported Stephen Karam (2016 Tony Award-winner for Best Play for The Humans); Doris Duke Artist Lauren Yee, the second most produced playwright in the United States; Max Posner, whose play The Treasurer was a Critics Choice in the New York Times; Aliza Goldstein (2017 LA Drama Critics Circle Award for Outstanding World Premiere Play for her ground-breaking play A Singular They; Austin Winsberg (First Date on Broadway and NBC’s Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist); Kit Steinkellner (creator of Sorry For Your Loss on Facebook Watch), to name only a few. Ucross was founded in 1981. Since its founding, Ucross has provided more than 2,500 residencies to established and emerging artists. Ucross provides a platform that nurtures and supports artists, many on the eve of major career breakouts. Ucross has been home to 10 Pulitzer Prize winners, eight MacArthur “genius” grantees, seven Tony Award winners, six National Book Award winners, and two Academy Award winners. Alumni include Billy Porter, Colson Whitehead, Yaa Gyasi, Annie Proulx, Terry Tempest Williams, Elizabeth Gilbert, Ann Patchett, Ricky Ian Gordon, and Adam Guettel. Nathan Gunn, Shaun Leonardo, and Ottessa Moshfegh amongst 28 artists selected for residencies in Wyoming’s majestic High Plains
Ucross, WY (October 26, 2020) — Ucross, a prestigious artist residency program and creative laboratory for the arts, today announced the Fall 2020 roster of artists in residence. Twenty-eight artists, working in a variety of disciplines, including visual art, writing, music, and performance art, were selected from nearly 300 applicants to receive uninterrupted time, studio space, and living accommodations on Ucross’s 20,000-acre ranch at the foothills of the Bighorn Mountains. Performer Nathan Gunn, multidisciplinary artist Shaun Leonardo, and writer Ottessa Moshfegh are among the artists scheduled for a Ucross residency this fall season. After a brief interruption in Spring 2020 due to the pandemic, Ucross welcomed back artists with new procedures and protocols in place to safeguard the health of the artists and Ucross staff. Ucross is a place that invites, and celebrates, distance and space for its fellows to let their work grow. “In this year of great turmoil, Ucross knows how important it is for artists to keep working,” said Ucross President Sharon Dynak. “First and foremost, we continue to support those efforts through the gift of uninterrupted time to concentrate on creative work and thinking. By providing this crucial time and space, in an environment of safety and natural beauty, we hope to be a small part of the healing process and the exceptional work that artists are creating in 2020.” The Fall 2020 list includes artists across the U.S., as well as artists coming to Ucross through partnerships such as the recently launched programs with The University of Houston’s Creative Writing Program and Cave Canem. Additional fellowship partnerships include the PEN/Hemingway Award, Ford Family Foundation, and Herb Alpert Award. The list also includes the most recent recipients of the Ucross Fellowships for Native American Visual Artists and Writers, which awards fellowships to Native American artists and writers at all stages of their professional careers. "I’m in deep anticipation for this residency named for a beloved mentor, Toi Derricotte, whose love has nurtured my being and my creative voice for the entire fullness of my adult life, ever since hers were the wide open arms to welcome 25-year-old me to my first Cave Canem Retreat for Black poets,” said Karma Mayet Johnson, the Fall 2020 Cave Canem Fellow at Ucross. Please find the full list of Fall 2020 artists in residence below:
At Ucross, artists in residence experience an inspiring combination of solitude and community, with expansive time for private work, as well as lively exchanges at group dinners with fellow artists. Facilities include four visual arts studios, four writers’ studios, and two composers’ studios, and a large loft space suitable for dance and theatre collaborations. Ucross was founded in 1981 by Raymond Plank. Since its founding, Ucross has provided more than 2,500 residencies to established and emerging artists. Ucross provides a platform that nurtures and supports artists, many on the eve of major career breakouts. Ucross has been home to 10 Pulitzer Prize winners, eight MacArthur “genius” grantees, seven Tony Award winners, six National Book Award winners, and two Academy Award winners. Alumni include Billy Porter, Colson Whitehead, Yaa Gyasi, Annie Proulx, Terry Tempest Williams, Elizabeth Gilbert, Ann Patchett, Ricky Ian Gordon, and Adam Guettel. Anthony Hudson to receive the sixth Ucross Fellowship for Native American Visual Artists and Brendan Shay Basham to receive the inaugural Ucross Fellowship for Native American WritersUcross, WY (October 7, 2020): Ucross, a prestigious artist residency program and creative laboratory for the arts in northern Wyoming, today announced its Fall 2020 Fellowships for Native American Visual Artists and Writers. The two awards represent an expansion of Ucross’s commitment to supporting contemporary Native American art and voices. The expansion of the already successful Ucross Fellowship for Native American Visual Artists to include literary artists was made possible through funds received from individuals as well as the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA).
Visual and performing artist Anthony Hudson and writer Brendan Basham will both be in residence at Ucross this fall. Hudson (Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde), who lives in Portland, Oregon, is the sixth recipient of the visual arts fellowship. Basham (Diné), based in Nashville, Tennessee, is the first recipient of the new literary fellowship. Hudson and Basham will each receive residencies that include uninterrupted time, studio space, and living accommodations on Ucross’s 20,000-acre ranch at the foothills of the Bighorn Mountains. Each Fellow is also awarded a $2,000 stipend, as well as opportunities to present their work publicly, at Ucross and elsewhere. “We are honored to award our Native American Fellowships for Visual Artists and Writers to these two accomplished artists,” said Ucross President Sharon Dynak. “Anthony and Brendan are bringing fresh perspectives to our world through their creative work. We are glad to recognize their achievements and nurture the further development of their art and writing.” Brendan Shay Basham: Brendan Shay Basham (Diné) is a fiction writer, poet, educator, and a former chef, born in Alaska and raised in northern Arizona. His work has appeared in the Santa Fe Literary Review, Red Ink, Yellow Medicine Review, Juked, Cloudthroat, and Sheepshead Review. He has been awarded two Writing By Writers Fellowships, a Truman Capote Trust Fellowship, and a Tin House Fellowship. He was also a nominee for a 2016 PEN / Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers and a 2018 Pushcart Prize. He teaches literature and generative writing workshops at the undergraduate and graduate level. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the Institute of American Indian Arts. He is at work on his first novel. Currently, he serves as the Writers in Schools Coordinator with Southern Word, a literacy nonprofit teaching poetry and performance to Tennessee youth. Anthony Hudson: Anthony Hudson (Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde) is a multidisciplinary artist, writer, performer, and filmmaker based in Portland, Oregon. Anthony is perhaps best known as Portland’s premier drag clown Carla Rossi, an immortal trickster whose attempts at realness almost always result in fantastic failure. Anthony & Carla host and program their film series Queer Horror - the only ongoing, exclusively LGBTQ horror screening series in the United States – at Portland’s historic Hollywood Theatre, where Anthony also serves as its Community Programmer. Anthony was named a 2018 National Artist Fellowship from the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation, a 2018 Western Arts Alliance Native Launchpad Artist, and a 2019 Oregon Arts Commission Artist Fellow. Anthony's first professionally produced theatrical play, Looking for Tiger Lily, adapted from Anthony’s touring solo show of the same name, will make its world premiere at Artists Repertory Theatre. Located on a 20,000-acre ranch in the high plains of Wyoming, Ucross welcomes 100 artists from a variety of creative disciplines each year and provides meals, accommodations, and uninterrupted time to work and create. Annie Proulx's The Shipping News, Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat Pray Love, Adam Guettel's The Light in the Piazza, Ricky Ian Gordon's operatic adaptation of The Grapes of Wrath and Michael R. Jackson’s A Strange Loop are just a few of the acclaimed works that have been created in part during Ucross residencies. UCROSS, WY (September 10, 2020) — Ucross and the University of Houston Creative Writing Program today announced a new partnership to support UH writers at Ucross in northeastern Wyoming. The Raymond Plank – University of Houston Fellowship in Creative Writing, named in honor of the founder of Ucross, will provide a four-week residency and stipend to one writer each year. Onyinye Ihezukwu has been selected as the first award winner and will come to Ucross this month.
"As a shift from routine and everyday life, I expect that my time at Ucross will expand my creativity and enable me to push forward a work in progress,” says Ihezukwu. “I look forward to interacting with both other artists and nature on such a close scale." Onyinye Ihezukwu is a Nigerian-born writer whose fiction largely explores contemporary socio-spiritual themes. She held a 2015-2017 Wallace Stegner Fellowship at Stanford University, and she also has an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Virginia. She’s currently working on a PhD in Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Houston. Her work has appeared in Zoetrope: All Story, The Virginia Quarterly Review, and The American Scholar, among others. “Ucross is honored to select Onyinye Ihezukwu as the first recipient of the University of Houston-Ucross Fellowship,” said Ucross President Sharon Dynak. “Her strong writing, literary accomplishments, dedication, and wide-ranging life experience will make her a wonderful fit for our program. As she describes it, her work ‘depicts stories of Nigerian women within Africa and America, as they grapple with issues of identity, family, love, and trust.’ We look forward to supporting this emerging writer with the gift of time and space to focus on her work.” The Raymond Plank - University of Houston Creative Writing Fellowship at Ucross was established in 2019 through an endowed gift from the Raymond N. Plank Philanthropy Fund. Ucross Trustee Deborah Koehler, who serves as Executive Director of the Fund, was instrumental in connecting Ucross to UH. Ucross, WY (July 21, 2020) -- The Ucross Art Gallery is pleased to announce that it has reopened to the public as of July 20, 2020. The exhibition, Entwined: Jennifer Reifsneider + Martha Tuttle has been extended through October 23, 2020, with hours Monday through Friday from 10 am to 4 pm. Entwined showcases 24 contemporary multidisciplinary works by Ucross Fellows Jennifer Reifsneider and Martha Tuttle that incorporate various elements including fabric, sculpture, paint, and fiber techniques such as weaving, spinning, crocheting, and knitting.
“We look forward to being able to share this unique exhibition with the community again after closure this spring,” said Ucross President Sharon Dynak. “This beautiful work from Jennifer and Martha reflects a depth of multi-faceted engagement with the world, and leads us to find fresh ways to encounter and interpret our complex lives and surroundings.” Jennifer Reifsneider has exhibited her work in more than 70 solo and group exhibitions across the United States, most recently in the Montana Triennial at the Yellowstone Art Museum, the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, Center for Craft in America, and the Craft and Folk Art Museum. Her work is in private and public collections, including at the Museum of Modern Art / Franklin Furnace Artist Book Archive and the Yellowstone Art Museum. Reifsneider participated in High Desert Test Sites as part of the artist collective, Constellation Lab. She’s the recipient of an Investing in Artists grant from the Center for Cultural Innovation, and an Artist’s Innovation Award, made possible by the Montana Arts Council, an agency of State Government. She was an artist-in-residence at Ucross in 2000 and 2017. Reifsneider was raised on a working farm in rural southeastern Pennsylvania. She earned her BFA from Rochester Institute of Technology in 1995 and MFA from California State University, Long Beach in 2011. She lives in Missoula, Montana. Martha Tuttle works between painting and textile. Her fabric-based wall works and sculptural interventions engage with the nuances of form and the hopeful fluidity between states of matter. Recent solo exhibitions include Baccante by the Sea (Geukens and De Vil, Belgium), Dances with Atoms (Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago) and I long and seek after (Jack Tilton Gallery, NYC). She was an artist-in-residence at Ucross in 2016, and has also received residencies from The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, The Sharpe-Walentas Studio Program, The Josef Albers Foundation, and The Beinecke Rare Books Library. She received a B.A. from Bard College in 2011, and an M.F.A from the Yale School of Art in 2015. Born in Santa Fe, NM, she now lives and works in Brooklyn, N.Y. Ucross, WY (May 28, 2020) – Ucross announced today that it was selected to receive a grant from the Amazon Literary Partnership to support its program and operations. Ucross is among a list of sixty-six 2020 Amazon Literary Partnership Grant Recipients, collectively awarded a total of more than $1 million. The funds to Ucross will support residencies for two emerging writers from the High Plains or Intermountain West regions.
The Amazon Literary Partnership (ALP) has a goal of helping writers tell their stories and find their readers, empowering writers to create, publish, learn, teach, experiment, and thrive. Since 2009, ALP is committed to uplifting and amplifying the voices of overlooked or marginalized writers by supporting the literary community through grants to writing programs and nonprofit literary organizations including groups like Ucross whose mission is to support artists from all backgrounds at all stages of their careers. “We’re honored that the Amazon Literary Partnership program recognized Ucross with this support, which will provide emerging writers from our greater region with the gift of time and space to create,” says Sharon Dynak, President and Executive Director of Ucross. “We’re thrilled that ALP has recognized Ucross’s continued commitment to supporting a diversity of voices, and we look forward to welcoming the soon-to-be selected writers to the breathtaking setting of Wyoming’s High Plains.” In addition to selecting artists from a diverse range of backgrounds, Ucross is committed to supporting artists and writers from the Native American community. The Ucross Fellowship for Native American Visual Artists has supported the work of contemporary Native American artists since 2018. Ucross expanded the Fellowship program to include Native American writers in 2020. “The Amazon Literary Partnership grants are awarded to innovative groups whose core mission have a deep impact on the lives of writers and the broader literary and publishing community,” said Alexandra Woodworth, Amazon Literary Partnership manager. “We are proud to support all of this year’s ALP grant recipients and applaud their commitment to nurturing a vibrant and diverse literary landscape.” UCROSS, WY (May 26, 2020) – In the past three months, Ucross artist alumni have received an unusually high number of high-profile, prestigious honors and awards, including the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction to Colson Whitehead and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama to Michael R. Jackson. (Jackson’s win for his musical A Strange Loop marked only the tenth time a musical has won in the Drama category in the 102-year history of the Pulitzer Prizes.) Whitehead’s win was also historic, as it marked his second Pulitzer Prize, placing the author in a rare group of two-time winners, including William Faulkner and John Updike.
Six Ucross alumni received Guggenheim Fellowships in a variety of disciplines, including choreography, film/video, drama/performing arts, fine arts, and fiction from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Six drama alumni received Lucille Lortel Award nominations (with one win), and two visual artists were named Pollock-Krasner grant recipients from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation. One writer won a prestigious Whiting Award, and the Library of Congress reappointed Joy Harjo to a second term as the United States Poet Laureate. For a full list of award recipients, see below. “It has been a quiet yet challenging spring everywhere, no less for artists and arts organizations. So it was extremely exciting to see the national awards roll in for Ucross alumni in literature, the visual arts, and the performing arts,” says Sharon Dynak, President and Executive Director of Ucross. “This is important recognition for the artists and it also underscores how meaningful artistic creativity is to the world. The mission of our residency program – located on a 20,000-acre ranch in northeast Wyoming – is to support individual creators with space and time to work. Their time in Ucross bears amazing fruit in future years, and 2020 has been an especially fruitful year so far.” For nearly 40 years, Ucross has been dedicated to supporting the creation of new work, from a diverse range of artists, working across disciplines at varying stages of their professional careers. The recent prizes, awards, and fellowships are among a long list of Ucross alumni achievements that include 13 Pulitzer Prizes, nine MacArthur “Genius” Awards, seven National Book Awards (including two winners in 2019), eight Tony Awards, 85 Guggenheim Fellowships, two Academy Awards, and many more. These distinguished honors – some of which have been awarded to works created in part at Ucross – serve as a testament to the power of the “time and space” and the High Plains experience that Ucross provides. Pulitzer Prizes – 2020 Pulitzer Prizes, announced on May 4, were awarded to Michael R. Jackson’s musical A Strange Loop in the Drama category and Colson Whitehead’s novel The Nickel Boys in the Fiction category. Jackson worked on his musical during two separate residencies at Ucross. He also provided a sneak peek to attendees of Ucross’s first New York Gala & Awards Dinner in 2018. In addition, the organization’s first Ucross Spotlight event coincided with the premiere of A Strange Loop at Playwrights Horizons in New York --more-- City. Two additional two Ucross alumni were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize: Ann Patchett for her novel The Dutch House in the Fiction category and Jeanine Tesori (with David Henry Hwang) for Soft Power in the Drama category. Guggenheim Fellowships – Announced in April, six Ucross alumni were among the 175 scholars, artists, and writers honored with 2020 Guggenheim Fellowships from the John S. Guggenheim Foundation: Moyra Davey (Film-Video), Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (Drama and Performance Art), Alex Ketley (Choreography), Helen Mirra (Fine Arts), Sigrid Nunez (Fiction), and Helen Phillips (Fiction). Lucille Lortel Awards – Six Ucross alumni were nominated for Lucille Lortel Awards, which recognize off-Broadway artists and productions. One alumnus, Dave Malloy went on to win in the Outstanding Musical category for Octet. Other nominees were: Aziza Barnes for BLKS in the Outstanding Play category; Eisa Davis for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Musical in The Secret Life Of Bees; Michael Jackson for A Strange Loop and Jeanine Tesori for Soft Power in the Outstanding Musical category; and Matthew Dean Marsh for We’re Only Alive for A Short Amount of Time in the Outstanding Solo Show category. Ucross alumni have recently received additional honors and grants: visual artists Rhona Bitner and Munson Hunt were awarded Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grants in contemporary art; Ling Ma received a Whiting Award in Fiction for her novel Severance; John Kelly, Sheila Tousey, and Jennifer Kidwell (who plans to come to Ucross soon) were named recipients of the Mabou Mines 2020 “Ruthie” Award named in honor of Ucross alumna Ruth Maleczech; Tanya Barfield was named the winner of the PEN/Laura Pels Theatre Award; Peter Rock was named a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award for his novel The Night Swimmers. Ucross, WY (March 16, 2020) — Today, Ucross announced it will temporarily close in response to the coronavirus crisis. The closure will impact current artists in residence, as well as those scheduled for residencies during the spring. Ucross will reopen as soon as it is deemed safe, and it will stay in close contact with all artists to update them on when the residency program may resume. The Ucross Art Gallery will also be closed to the public during this time and public meetings at Ucross will be postponed.
“While there have only been three reported COVID cases in Wyoming and certainly none at Ucross (population 25), out of an abundance of caution, we’ve elected to suspend our residency and public programming,” said Sharon Dynak, Ucross’s President and Executive Director. “It is difficult to plan for the future in the face of such extreme uncertainty and ambiguity, but the health and safety of our fellows, staff, their families, and the community is our top priority. As a result, we have made the difficult, necessary decision to temporarily close our doors.” Ucross is assisting current residents with early departure, and the staff will work with all artists affected by the closure to reschedule their residencies at a future time. Ucross will continue to monitor developments regarding the outbreak and guidance from local and state officials in the coming weeks. As the situation evolves, new information or any adjustment to the closure will be shared with our community through email and social media, and all updates will be posted on our website (ucross.org). Ucross was founded in 1981 by Raymond Plank and has provided more than 2,200 residencies to some of the world’s most accomplished artists. Ten artists are in residence at one time, typically a mix of four visual artists, four writers, and two composers. Located in northeastern Wyoming at the foothills of the Bighorn Mountains, the artist residency program is situated on a historic 20,000-acre ranch at the confluence of three creeks in Ucross, population 25. Its connection to the land, its vast open spaces, and its view of the contemporary American West have proven to be inspirational and uniquely generative for artists. Residencies are awarded to nearly one hundred artists each year. Ucross has been home to 10 Pulitzer Prize winners, eight MacArthur “genius” grantees, seven Tony Award winners, nine National Book Award winners, two Academy Award winners, and an Emmy Award winner. Through its residencies, partnerships, and support of emerging artists, it continues to have an impact on the cultural dialogue of the country and the world. Alumni of the program include Billy Porter, Colson Whitehead, Yaa Gyasi, Annie Proulx, Terry Tempest Williams, Elizabeth Gilbert, Ann Patchett, Ricky Ian Gordon, Adam Guettel, and Joy Harjo. About Ucross Foundation Located in northeast Wyoming in the foothills of the Bighorn Mountains, Ucross fosters the creative spirit of deeply committed artists and groups by providing uninterrupted time, studio space, living accommodations, and the experience of the majestic High Plains, while serving as a responsible steward of its 20,000-acre ranch. Residencies are awarded to nearly one hundred artists each year. Ten artists are in residence at one time, typically a mix of four visual artists, four writers, and two composers. Since its establishment in 1981, Ucross has provided more than 2,100 residencies to writers, visual artists, and composers, including such distinguished fellows as Annie Proulx, Terry Tempest Williams, Colson Whitehead, Elizabeth Gilbert, Ann Patchett, Ricky Ian Gordon, Bill Morrison, Theaster Gates, Anthony Hernandez, Tayari Jones, Academy Award and Tony winners Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, National Book Award winners Susan Choi and Sigrid Nunez, recent Emmy Award winner Billy Porter, and current United States Poet Laureate Joy Harjo. National partners of Ucross include the Sundance Institute Theatre Program, the Herb Alpert Award in the Arts, the Whiting Foundation, the Pew Fellowships in the Arts, the Alliance of Artist Communities, the Alley Theatre, the Dramatists Guild Foundation, UCLA’s Center for the Art of Performance, and the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel. In 2020, new collaborations have begun between Ucross and the University of Houston’s Creative Writing Program, and the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University. The Ucross Art Gallery is a significant cultural resource for surrounding communities and beyond. For further information, visit ucross.org. UCROSS ANNOUNCES NEW EXHIBITION ENTWINED: JENNIFER REIFSNEIDER + MARTHA TUTTLE TO OPEN FEBRUARY 14Public workshop and reception with the artists to take place Sunday, April 19UCROSS, WY (February 13, 2020): Ucross is pleased to announce the opening of a new exhibition in the Ucross Art Gallery with work by Ucross Fellows Jennifer Reifsneider and Martha Tuttle. Entwined showcases 24 contemporary multidisciplinary works that incorporate various elements including fabric, sculpture, paint, and fiber techniques such as weaving, spinning, crocheting, and knitting. The exhibition opens on February 14, and it will be on view through May 15, 2020. Gallery hours are M – F 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Saturdays by appointment.
A workshop and public reception are scheduled for Sunday, April 19 in conjunction with the 2020 Celebrate the Arts festival in Sheridan. The artist-led fiber workshop will take place from 12:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. at the Raymond Plank Center in Ucross. Materials will be provided. Please RSVP before April 10 by calling 307-737-2291. The opening reception with artists talks will take place from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. in the Ucross Art Gallery. Both the workshop and reception are free and open to the public. “We are honored to present the work of Jennifer and Martha in our new exhibition, Entwined,” said Ucross President Sharon Dynak. “Their work reflects a depth of multi-faceted engagement with the world, and leads us to find fresh ways to encounter and interpret our complex lives and surroundings. “Each work in this exhibition tracks a single element from a simple source to tell stories that help us notice ways a material is inextricably contingent on and bound to what we both do and do not see,” writes Yasmeen Siddiqui (a writer, editor, teacher, and Ucross alum) in the exhibition essay. “Reifsneider and Tuttle have made offerings: ways of seeing celestial and earthly phenomena as they permeate our consciousness.” Jennifer Reifsneider has exhibited her work in more than 70 solo and group exhibitions across the United States, most recently in the Montana Triennial at the Yellowstone Art Museum, the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, Center for Craft in America, and the Craft and Folk Art Museum. Her work is in private and public collections, including at the Museum of Modern Art / Franklin Furnace Artist Book Archive and the Yellowstone Art Museum. Reifsneider participated in High Desert Test Sites as part of the artist collective, Constellation Lab. She’s the recipient of an Investing in Artists grant from the Center for Cultural Innovation, and an Artist’s Innovation Award, made possible by the Montana Arts Council, an agency of State Government. She was an artist-in-residence at Ucross in 2000 and 2017. Reifsneider was raised on a working farm in rural southeastern Pennsylvania. She earned her BFA from Rochester Institute of Technology in 1995 and MFA from California State University, Long Beach in 2011. She lives in Missoula, Montana. Martha Tuttle works between painting and textile. Her fabric-based wall works and sculptural interventions engage with the nuances of form and the hopeful fluidity between states of matter. Recent solo exhibitions include Baccante by the Sea (Geukens and De Vil, Belgium), Dances with Atoms (Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago) and I long and seek after (Jack Tilton Gallery, NYC). She was an artist-in-residence at Ucross in 2016, and has also received residencies from The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, The Sharpe-Walentas Studio Program, The Josef Albers Foundation, and The Beinecke Rare Books Library. She received a B.A. from Bard College in 2011, and an M.F.A from the Yale School of Art in 2015. Born in Santa Fe, NM, she now lives and works in Brooklyn, N.Y. |
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Photo credits: Board and staff photos courtesy of William Coupon; additional website images courtesy of Martirene Alcantara, Trine Bumiller, Jennifer Garza-Cuen, Bill Megalos, and Neerja Kothari: video on homepage courtesy of Bill Megalos.
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LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Ucross Foundation acknowledges with respect that it is situated on the aboriginal land of several Indigenous communities, including the Cheyenne, Crow, and Lakota nations. Indigenous people continue to live in this area and practice their teachings and lifeways. Today, this region remains an important place for many Indigenous peoples. As a Wyoming institution, we recognize and respect this historical context and are working to build reciprocal relationships with the Native nations on whose lands we are situated. In partial fulfillment of that commitment, Ucross established a Fellowship for Native American Visual Artists in 2017, which will expand to include Native American writers in 2021.
Ucross Foundation acknowledges with respect that it is situated on the aboriginal land of several Indigenous communities, including the Cheyenne, Crow, and Lakota nations. Indigenous people continue to live in this area and practice their teachings and lifeways. Today, this region remains an important place for many Indigenous peoples. As a Wyoming institution, we recognize and respect this historical context and are working to build reciprocal relationships with the Native nations on whose lands we are situated. In partial fulfillment of that commitment, Ucross established a Fellowship for Native American Visual Artists in 2017, which will expand to include Native American writers in 2021.