Joy Harjo accepted the Ucross Award for Distinguished Achievement in the Arts at the WYO Performing Arts and Education Center in Sheridan, Wyoming, on Saturday, Feb. 25. Presented by Ucross, the renowned artist residency program, the award recognizes an individual’s extraordinary impact on the nation’s arts and letters.
“Thank you for all you have done and all you continue to do to support the arts, share and celebrate Native voices, and champion poetry, art and music,” said Ucross President William Belcher, as he presented the award to Harjo. “We are in awe of all you have accomplished, and we are honored that you are part of our Ucross community and part of what made our first 40 years so incredible.” Harjo, a member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, was an artist-in-residence at Ucross in 2013, as part of Ucross's long-time partnership with the Sundance Institute. She just completed three terms as the 23rd Poet Laureate of the United States, from 2019 to 2022, and was the first Native American to hold the post. Harjo has written 10 books of poetry, several plays and children’s books and two memoirs. As a musician and performer, she has produced seven award-winning music albums. Her many honors include the Ruth Lily Prize for Lifetime Achievement from the Poetry Foundation, the Academy of American Poets Wallace Stevens Award, two NEA fellowships and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Harjo is a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, Board of Directors Chair of the Native Arts & Cultures Foundation and the first artist-in-residence for the Bob Dylan Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In Wyoming, Harjo gave a free community craft discussion at Sheridan College on Feb. 24, where she guided a packed hall of students, faculty and community members through her process, and a performance of music and poetry at the WYO Performing Arts and Education Center on Feb. 25, accompanied by her longtime musical collaborator, Larry Mitchell. When Belcher presented Harjo with the Ucross Award for Distinguished Achievement in the Arts at the end of the evening, the crowd gave a standing ovation. Harjo is the second artist to receive the Ucross Award for Distinguished Achievement in the Arts. The first was Pulitzer Prize-winning author Annie Proulx at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City in 2018. Proulx is a former Ucross artist-in-residence and member of the Board of Trustees. Harjo’s visit kicked off Ucross’s 40th Anniversary celebration. Since 1983, Ucross has supported more than 2,600 writers, visual artists, composers and choreographers with the gift of uninterrupted time and studio space on its 20,000-acre ranch in northern Wyoming. Like Proulx and Harjo, many alumni go on to have distinguished careers after their residencies, including Terry Tempest Williams, Elizabeth Gilbert, Ann Patchett, Ricky Ian Gordon, Theaster Gates, Tayari Jones, Sigrid Nunez, Academy Award and Tony winners Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, Emmy Award winner Billy Porter and Pulitzer Prize winners Michael R. Jackson and Colson Whitehead. Photos by Matthew Gaston Ucross will present the internationally acclaimed performer, musician, and writer Joy Harjo with the Ucross Award for Distinguished Achievement in the Arts during her performance at the WYO Theater in Sheridan, Wyoming, on Saturday, February 25. Harjo will be the second artist to receive this award; the first was the Pulitzer Prize-winning author Annie Proulx, a former Ucross artist-in-residence and member of the board of trustees, at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City in 2018.
“We are thrilled to celebrate the international achievements of Ucross alumna Joy Harjo with our local community as part of our 40th Anniversary festivities,” said Ucross President William Belcher, who will present the award to Harjo on Saturday. “Joy is one of the nation’s most beloved and respected artists. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to enjoy and honor her craft.” Harjo recently concluded her historic third term as the 23rd Poet Laureate of the United States. A member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, she was the first Native American to hold the post and the second poet laureate to be appointed a third term in the position’s history. She has written 10 books of poetry, several plays and children’s books, and two memoirs. As a musician and performer, Harjo has produced seven award-winning music albums. Her many honors include the Ruth Lily Prize for Lifetime Achievement from the Poetry Foundation, the Academy of American Poets Wallace Stevens Award, two NEA fellowships, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Harjo is a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, Board of Directors Chair of the Native Arts & Cultures Foundation and the first Artist-in-Residence for the Bob Dylan Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She first came to northern Wyoming 10 years ago as an artist-in-residence, through Ucross’s partnership with the Sundance Institute. “The imagination finds refreshment in lands rich with plants and creatures of all kinds,” Harjo said after her residency. “Ucross is rich in spirit food.” First, Harjo will give a free community craft discussion at Sheridan College on Friday, February 24, at noon. The artist will guide the audience through her process of writing, composing, and performing. The event, held in Sheridan College’s Whitney Center for the Arts, rooms 234/235/236, is free and open to the public, with no advance registration needed. On Saturday, Feb. 25, Harjo will give a performance of music and poetry at the WYO Theater, accompanied by her longtime musical collaborator, Larry Mitchell. Mitchell is a Grammy Award-winning producer, engineer and performer who has toured the world playing guitar with well-known artists including Tracy Chapman, Billy Squier, Ric Ocasek, and Miguel Bosé. In his original compositions, Mitchell skillfully weaves guitar textures that showcase his virtuosity as a solo artist and ensemble player. The evening will begin in the WYO lobby at 6 p.m. with a VIP reception, featuring an artist meet-and-greet and refreshments. At 7:30 p.m., Harjo will take the main stage to perform with Mitchell. General, student and VIP tickets are available at wyotheater.com. The two events are part of Ucross’s ongoing celebration of its 40th anniversary. Since 1983, Ucross has supported writers, visual artists, composers and choreographers with the gift of uninterrupted time and studio space on its 20,000-acre ranch. Like Proulx and Harjo, many alumni go on to have distinguished careers after their residencies, including Terry Tempest Williams, Elizabeth Gilbert, Ann Patchett, Ricky Ian Gordon, Theaster Gates, Tayari Jones, Sigrid Nunez, Academy Award and Tony winners Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, Emmy Award winner Billy Porter and Pulitzer Prize winners Michael R. Jackson and Colson Whitehead. Ucross and Houston Ballet have joined forces to establish an exciting new resource for choreographers and dancers, the Lauren Anderson Dance Residency at Ucross. The new fellowship will provide Houston Ballet choreographers and performers with four weeks of uninterrupted time and space at the acclaimed artist residency program in northern Wyoming. The partnership was announced at the ribbon-cutting ceremony and dedication of the Lauren Anderson Dance Studio in the Koehler Performing Arts Center at Ucross on December 17. It is funded by a generous donation by Deborah and Edward Koehler and the Raymond Plank Philanthropy Fund. Constructed as part of the Ucross 40th Anniversary Campaign, the state-of-the-art studio and performing arts space is connected to the Ucross Art Gallery through a glass vestibule. While the building’s exterior design reflects the iconic profile of the Big Red Barn, the new construction offers several unique features. Large accordion-style glass doors open onto a concrete patio, allowing artists to cross between the sprung-floor dance studio and the open air. The patio, which provides a stunning view of the Bighorn Mountains, doubles as an outdoor viewing area for public performances. A green room, private bathroom and second-story observation room are also part of the 2,200 square-foot performing arts building. Lauren Anderson and Deborah and Edward Koehler, all of Houston, Texas, were the eponymous honored guests at the dedication. The first Black principal ballerina at Houston Ballet, Anderson performed leading roles across the world to great critical acclaim from 1983 to 2006. Today, she conducts master classes and gives lectures for Houston Ballet’s Education and Community Engagement program. Anderson will help select recipients of the residency named in her honor. Deborah Koehler, as executive director of the Raymond Plank Philanthropy Fund, provided a generous $1.175 million leadership gift to the organization as part of the ongoing Ucross 40th Anniversary Campaign to support the construction of the new building. Koehler is a former trustee of the Ucross Foundation. From 2019 to 2022, she served on the board, helping the organization envision and launch the 40th Anniversary Campaign. “We are so excited to dedicate this beautiful new rehearsal and performance space in honor of our favorite dancer and world-class prima ballerina, Lauren Anderson, and announce a new partnership between Ucross and Houston Ballet,” Koehler said. “The Lauren Anderson Dance Studio and residency will provide first-class facilities and resources to allow Ucross dance and choreography residents to fully explore and develop their talent and creativity.”
Anderson said she was thrilled about the groundbreaking new space, as well as the unique opportunities that the residency will provide. “If you want to dance, there has to be a special place to do it,” Anderson said. “And now there is a place, and a space, and the means. Dancers don’t always have the means to do this type of thing. And now they will.” The Lauren Anderson Dance Residency at Ucross will be awarded annually. In addition to private access to the state-of-the-art dance studio, the selected fellow will enjoy four weeks of uninterrupted time, living accommodations, meals by a professional chef, staff support and the experience of the majestic High Plains on Ucross’s 20,000-acre ranch in northern Wyoming. The award also includes a stipend provided by the Houston Ballet. “Ucross is greatly honored to work with Lauren Anderson and the Houston Ballet on this partnership, which comes at a key moment in our residency program’s history,” said Ucross President William Belcher. “For the past 40 years, Ucross has been known for its outstanding studios for writers, visual artists and composers. Now, with the addition of this stunning new dance studio and performance space, Ucross will attract more world-class dancers, choreographers and multi-disciplinary groups.” Applications are now open to the Ucross dance residency in Fall 2023, due March 1 at 11:59 p.m. MT. Learn more. Ucross, the renowned artist residency program in northern Wyoming, will present the internationally acclaimed performer, musician and writer Joy Harjo in a free community craft discussion in partnership with Sheridan College and a ticketed evening of music and poetry at the WYO Performing Arts and Education Center with Grammy Award-winning performer Larry Mitchell during the last weekend of February.
Harjo recently concluded her third term as the 23rd Poet Laureate of the United States. A member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, she was the first Native American to hold the post and the second poet laureate to be appointed a third term in the position’s history. Harjo first visited northern Wyoming 10 years ago for the Sundance Institute Playwrights and Composers Retreat at Ucross. She experienced three weeks of uninterrupted time and space to focus on the creative process on the residency program’s 20,000-acre ranch. “The imagination finds refreshment in lands rich with plants and creatures of all kinds,” Harjo said of her residency. “Ucross is rich in spirit food.” Ucross is partnering with Sheridan College to present a craft discussion with Harjo on Friday, Feb. 24, at noon. The artist will guide the audience through her process of writing, composing, and performing. The event, hosted in Sheridan College’s Whitney Center for the Arts, Rooms 234/235/236, will be free and open to the public, with no advance registration needed. On Saturday, Feb. 25, Harjo will head to the WYO Performing Arts and Education Center, accompanied by her longtime musical collaborator, Larry Mitchell. Mitchell is a Grammy award-winning producer, engineer and performer who has toured the world playing guitar with well-known artists including Tracy Chapman, Billy Squier, Ric Ocasek and Miguel Bosé. In his original compositions, Mitchell skillfully weaves guitar textures that showcase his virtuosity as a solo artist and ensemble player. The evening will begin in the WYO Theater lobby at 6 p.m. with a VIP reception, featuring an artist meet-and-greet and refreshments. At 7:30 p.m., Harjo will take the stage to perform music and poetry with Mitchell. General, student and VIP tickets are available at wyotheater.com. “We’re thrilled to bring Joy Harjo, one of the nation’s most beloved and respected poets, to our region. This is a can’t-miss event,” said Ucross President William Belcher. “‘An Evening of Music and Poetry with Joy Harjo’ is also the kickoff to our 40th anniversary year, which will include many community-oriented events and activities. It’s an honor to celebrate this moment with our community, and we are grateful to do so with an artist as inspiring and accomplished as Joy Harjo.” Harjo is the author of nine books of poetry, including the highly acclaimed An American Sunrise; several plays and children’s books; and two memoirs, Crazy Brave and Poet Warrior. Her many honors include the Ruth Lily Prize for Lifetime Achievement from the Poetry Foundation, the Academy of American Poets Wallace Stevens Award, two NEA fellowships, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. As a musician and performer, Harjo has produced seven award-winning music albums, including her newest, I Pray for My Enemies. She is a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, Board of Directors Chair of the Native Arts & Cultures Foundation, and the first Artist-in-Residence for Tulsa’s Bob Dylan Center. Harjo lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Ucross had a big year. In the first weeks of 2022, we published The Ucross Cookbook, and The New York Times printed a rave review. We received major grants, including two from the National Endowment for the Arts and one from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts in support of the Native American Art Curatorial Convening. Longtime President Sharon Dynak announced her retirement, and William Belcher took the helm. Ucross Fellows moved audiences across the world with events ranging from a poetry reading by M.L. Smoker in Santa Fe to a live-streamed discussion with Judith Freeman and Tina Barney via Zoom to Jalan Crossland and Brandon Hobson in The Park at Ucross. The "town" of Ucross grew — to population 26. We partnered with incredible organizations to better serve more artists, including Black poets through Cave Canem and female jazz composers through the Berklee Institute for Jazz and Gender Justice. Artists opened their studio to the public during the inaugural Ucross Founder's Day. On the same day, we launched the 40th Anniversary Campaign, with the goal to raise $5 million by the end of 2023. The Ucross Art Gallery opened in the fully renovated Big Red Barn with the exhibition Time, Mark, Memory: Ucross at 40, curated by Leah Ollman and featuring the work of 15 visual arts alumni. Just last weekend, we hosted a ribbon cutting for the Lauren Anderson Dance Studio and Koehler Performing Arts Center, celebrating with Lauren Anderson, the first African American principal ballerina for a major company, as well as the building's lead donors Deborah and Edward Koehler, Houston Ballet leadership, and many members of our community. And most important of all? We provided uninterrupted time and space on our beautiful ranch in northern Wyoming to 138 visual and interdisciplinary artists, writers, composers, and choreographers from 30 states and five countries. Your support has made this all possible. We hope that you will consider including Ucross in your year-end giving. As a nonprofit organization, we rely on individual donations to support each artist's residency, which costs approximately $11,000. Your tax-deductible gift will also help us serve as a cultural resource for our local and national communities by supporting our free exhibitions, events, and programs. DONATE HERE. Thank you. LOOKING TO THE FUTURE...2023 marks the 40th Anniversary of our artist residency program. We have a number of exciting offerings in store for future artists-in-residence, alumni, and regional community members. First up: We are bringing three-term U.S. Poet Laureate and Ucross Fellow Joy Harjo to the WYO Performing Arts and Education Center in Sheridan for an evening of art and music on February 25, 2023. Learn more and get tickets here. Ucross will host a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new Lauren Anderson Dance Studio and Koehler Performing Arts Center on Saturday, December 17, at 11 a.m. with the Sheridan County Chamber Ambassadors. Free and open to the public, the festivities will include a dedication, a brief performance, remarks, and refreshments. Ucross is known for its outstanding studios for writers, visual and interdisciplinary artists, and composers. The addition of a state-of-the-art dance studio and multi-purpose performance space will further set the residency program apart and attract more world-class dancers, choreographers, and multi-disciplinary groups to Ucross, Wyoming, as well as provide an additional space for public events. The new building, which connects to the Ucross Art Gallery through a glass vestibule, is designed to reflect the iconic profile of the Big Red Barn, but it offers several unique features. In addition to the vestibule, a set of large accordion-style glass doors open onto a concrete patio, allowing artists to cross between the studio and the open air. The patio, which provides a stunning view of the Bighorn Mountains to the west, also doubles as an outdoor viewing area for public performances. In attendance will be honored guest Lauren Anderson of Houston, Texas, for whom the studio is named. Anderson danced with Houston Ballet from 1983 to 2006, performing leading roles in all of the great classical ballets, appearing across the world to large audiences and widespread critical acclaim, and in the process, becoming one of Houston Ballet’s most beloved stars. She was one of the first African-American ballerinas to become a principal dancer at a major ballet company anywhere in the world. Since 2007, Anderson has been the associate director of the Houston Ballet’s Education and Community Engagement program, for which she conducts master classes at area schools and lectures to students on dance and her historic career as one of America’s most distinguished African-American ballerinas. Deborah and Ed Koehler, for whom the performing arts center is named, will also join the festivities. Deborah Koehler, as Executive Director of the Raymond Plank Philanthropy Fund, provided a generous $1.175 million leadership gift to the organization as part of the ongoing Ucross 40th Anniversary Campaign to support the construction of the new building. Koehler is a former trustee of the Ucross Foundation. Aubrey A. Mailloux of Casper, Wyoming, will give the first performance in the new dance studio. Aubrey grew up dancing in her hometown of Casper before moving to New York to attend SUNY Purchase College Conservatory of Dance. She has received training from Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Kansas City Ballet, Ballet Austin, Butler Ballet, and Snowy Range Summer Dance Festival. Light refreshments will be served. This event is free and open to the public. The dance studio is located at 30 Big Red Lane, a half-mile east of Highways 14 and 16 East, with entry through the Ucross Art Gallery. The Ucross Community Christmas Celebration will be held in the Raymond Plank Center later that day, at 4 p.m. Details are here. Ucross today announced the launch of an open call for applications for general studio residencies and The Ford Family Foundation Fellowships. Selected Fellows will enjoy uninterrupted time and space on the nonprofit’s historic 20,000-acre ranch in Fall 2023, when Ucross will be celebrating the 40th anniversary of its renowned artist residency program. Applications are due March 1, 2023, by 11:59 p.m. MT. “Ucross is a gift of time and space to focus but also a place where artistic work felt valued and nourished, by Chef Cindy (Brooks)'s food, of course, but also by everyone’s kindness here,” said novelist Gabriela Jauregui of Mexico City, Mexico, after her Ucross residency in September. “Aside from finishing my novel revisions, I managed to start another book. I enjoyed living through at least three seasons in two weeks listening to the wind, looking at the stars, biking back and forth to (my studio), and getting to know fellow Ucrossers and their work.” General studio residencies are open to visual artists, writers, composers, choreographers, interdisciplinary artists, and performance artists, as well as collaborative teams. Emerging, mid-career, and established artists are encouraged to apply. The Ford Family Foundation Fellowships at Ucross are dedicated to mid-career visual artists from Oregon. Through this partnership, two artists will be selected to attend over the Fall 2023 and Spring 2024 sessions. Applications are reviewed by a rotating panel of professionals in the arts and humanities. The quality of the applicant’s work and project description are given primary consideration. Approximately 50 artists will be invited to the Fall 2023 session, with a maximum of 10 in residence at one time. Ucross provides each artist in residence with a private studio, living accommodations, meals prepared by a professional chef, staff support, a $1,000 stipend, and the unparalleled experience of the majestic High Plains of Wyoming. Since the first residencies were awarded in 1983, more than 2,500 artists have participated in the program. Distinguished Ucross Fellows include Annie Proulx, Terry Tempest Williams, Elizabeth Gilbert, Ann Patchett, Ricky Ian Gordon, Bill Morrison, Theaster Gates, Anthony Hernandez, and Tayari Jones. Recent National Book Award winners Susan Choi, Sigrid Nunez, and Sarah M. Broom have been residents, as have Academy Award and Tony winners Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, Emmy Award winner Billy Porter, recent Pulitzer Prize winners Michael R. Jackson and Colson Whitehead, and three-term United States Poet Laureate Joy Harjo. Artists may learn more and apply here. Updates (December 15): Due to effects from the recent blizzard, the fireworks and cannon have been cancelled. However, we are thrilled to announce that the Craft Family will be joining the festivities for a surprise performance. Learn more below. The 10th annual Ucross Community Christmas Celebration will be held at 4 p.m. sharp on Saturday, December 17, at the Raymond Plank Center. The family-friendly festivities are open to all, with free tickets available here. Following a decade of tradition, bestselling author and Ucross neighbor Craig Johnson will give a special reading of a new short Christmas story featuring his beloved character, Walt Longmire. In addition, the Buffalo High School Balladiers will sing Christmas carols, and Ucross will offer crafts for children and festive refreshments. The evening will culminate with cannon fire, fireworks, and the lighting of Christmas trees in The Park at Ucross. In the spirit of Christmas, Ucross invites guests to bring canned goods and non-perishable food items for families in need. After the event, Ucross staff will distribute the donated items to several local community food pantries. “We look forward to enjoying our annual Christmas traditions with our friends and neighbors,” said Ucross President William Belcher. "And we are grateful for this surprise addition of the Craft Family." The beloved Craft Brothers band and their musical family members will close the show as we all celebrate the season with their famous harmony. The festivities will conclude with the lighting of the Christmas trees, which the Powder River Energy Corporation team will again volunteer to string with lights across The Park at Ucross. The day’s festivities will also include a special event at 11 a.m., when Ucross will host the ribbon-cutting and dedication for the new Lauren Anderson Dance Studio and Koehler Performing Arts Center. The public is welcome to attend. Details are available here. The Raymond Plank Center is located at the intersection of Highways 14 and 16 East in Ucross (Google Maps directions here). For further information, call 307-737-2291. Photos from the 2021 festivities by Ucross Fellow Anna Paige Time, Mark, Memory: Ucross at 40 features work from 15 visual artists, maximizing the use of the new spaceUcross, the acclaimed artist residency program in northern Wyoming, announced today that it will reopen the Ucross Art Gallery on November 4 with a new exhibition titled Time, Mark, Memory: Ucross at 40. The public is invited to the opening reception on Friday, November 4, at 6 p.m. The gallery, which has been closed for 12 months to undergo a major renovation as part of the nonprofit organization’s 40th Anniversary Campaign, extends Ucross’s mission into its community by offering exhibitions, events, and educational arts activities to the public. The newly renovated interior of the Ucross Art Gallery features a two-story central room, allowing for large-scale works of art, such as sculptures and installations. In addition, the gallery offers expanded wall space, a digital media room, art receiving and storage space, a collaborative meeting room, and upgraded lighting and technology, as well as vastly improved accessibility. “We are excited to show the community what we’ve been working on,” said Ucross President William Belcher. “The renovation and updated gallery design make large group shows like Time, Mark, Memory: Ucross at 40 possible, and Leah Ollman has done a wonderful job developing a show that fits the new space.” THE EXHIBITION Curated by Ucross Fellow and arts writer Leah Ollman, Time, Mark, Memory features the work of 15 contemporary visual artists from Ucross’s impressive roster of visual arts alumni. Ollman is an accomplished arts journalist, essayist and critic. She has been writing about art for the Los Angeles Times since 1987, and she has served as corresponding editor for Art in America since 1997. Her articles and reviews have also appeared in such publications as The Brooklyn Rail, Sculpture, Paris Review Daily, Photograph, Art in Print, History of Photography and ARTnews, among others. She started work as a guest curator for Time, Mark, Memory in late 2021. “Time became the throughline of this exhibition not only because the show celebrates an anniversary — the 40th year of the Ucross residency program — but because a residency is, essentially, a gift of time,” said Ollman. “I wanted to consider how ‘residency time’ differs from ordinary time and to reckon more broadly with how time is experienced, physically, intellectually, and emotionally.” The Ucross alumni-artists selected for Time, Mark, Memory include recipients of many prestigious awards and honors in the field, including Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant awards, United States Artists Fellowships, Creative Capital Awards, the Herb Albert Award in the Arts, Guggenheim Fellowships, and others. The exhibiting artists include Michael Berman of Silver City, New Mexico; Arminée Chahbazian of Calistoga, California; Jennifer Garza-Cuen of Corpus Christi, Texas; Munson Hunt of Santa Fe, New Mexico; Shanti Grumbine of New Paltz, New York; Sharon Harper of Cambridge, Massachusetts; Lisa Hochstein of Santa Cruz, California; Elizabeth Hohimer of Marfa, Texas; Bill Morrison of New York, New York; Jenene Nagy of Riverside, California; Sarah McKenzie of Boulder, Colorado; Stephen Vitiello of Richmond, Virginia; Sarah Walker of New York, New York; Anne Wilson of Chicago, Illinois; and Katarina Wong of Santa Fe, New Mexico, New York, New York, and Havana, Cuba. The new gallery provided Ollman with the opportunity to fill the space with a variety of media and forms, including photographs, sculpture, audio installation, video, and mixed media. The works range from Hohimer’s Laying Halfway in the Shade in dirt-dyed cotton to Morrison’s short film LIGHT IS CALLING to Hunt’s Torso, a 150-pound sculpture in charred walnut. “Whatever their medium, whether fiber or film, paint, pencil or photography, the 15 artists in the show engage with the complexity of time and make its elusive nature materially compelling,” Ollman said. “My own Ucross residency almost a decade ago was a tremendously formative and nourishing experience. Curating this show was an honor for me and a way to pay tribute to both the generous enterprise that is Ucross and to the residency program's nearly 1,000 visual arts alumni.” Time, Mark, Memory will run from November 4 through January 20. The exhibition is sponsored by the Wyoming Arts Council, with support from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Wyoming Legislature, and Arete Design Group. THE GALLERY
Upon reopening, the Ucross Art Gallery will host three exhibitions annually, each showcasing works by contemporary artist-alumni, including an exhibition focused on recipients of the Ucross Fellowship for Native American Visual Artists. Time, Mark, Memory: Ucross at 40 is the first in a series of three alumni exhibitions that together are designed to celebrate Ucross’s 40th anniversary as a residency program. Since 1983, Ucross has provided visual and interdisciplinary artists, writers, composers, and choreographers with uninterrupted time, studio space, living accommodations, and the experience of the majestic High Plains on its 20,000-acre working cattle ranch. “The Ucross Art Gallery is connected to our mission and our investment in community engagement,” Belcher said. “It will allow us to champion artists beyond their residency, and it will provide relevant and meaningful arts programming to visitors of all ages.” The gallery’s renovation is a key component of the 40th Anniversary Campaign. Ucross has been working with Arete Design Group, a Sheridan-based architecture firm, and O’Dell Construction, as contractor, on the project since October 2021. The Ucross Art Gallery is located at 30 Big Red Lane in Ucross, Wyoming. Starting November 4, the gallery is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., or by appointment. Entry to the gallery is free and open to the public. Free tickets to the opening reception are available via Eventbrite. Ucross announced today the launch of a new volunteer program in support of the Ucross Art Gallery, which will reopen this fall after an extensive renovation. The nonprofit arts organization is seeking volunteers who are interested in local history, contemporary art, and community engagement. No prior experience is necessary.
“This is an exciting opportunity to take part in Ucross’s vision for the future and its connection to the local community,” said Ucross Communications and Special Events Manager Caitlin Addlesperger. “We are looking for individuals who are passionate about the role that the arts play in the region, as well as those interested in Ucross’s mission, artists, and programming.” Ucross Art Gallery is an extension of Ucross’s mission to foster the creative spirit of 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. The gallery presents three exhibitions each year. Each exhibition is accompanied by related educational programming including public workshops, artist talks, and guided tours. The exhibition schedule focuses on outstanding Ucross alumni, and it includes an annual show featuring the recipients of the Ucross Fellowship for Native American Visual Artists. Ucross Art Gallery volunteers will welcome visitors to the space, answer questions about the program and community, support public events, and assist customers in the gift shop. Training will be provided. Volunteers will enjoy special gallery benefits, including invitations to exclusive events, a gift shop discount, and a recognition luncheon, among other benefits. A limited number of volunteer positions are available. The application deadline is October 10, with training slated to begin October 21. To apply, click here, call 307-737-2291, or fill out a print application at 30 Big Red Lane in Ucross. Upon reopening this fall, the Ucross Art Gallery’s hours of operation will be Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. or by appointment. The Ucross Art Gallery is free and open to the public. |