Socially Engaged Work
As an artist I love working on projects that engage community members, not just artists.
I am a co-founder of Wyoming Art Party, with June Glasson and Adrienne Vetter, a local artist run organization whose mission is to organize community art projects and shows that connect individuals scattered throughout Wyoming, who work in different regions, disciplines (fine arts, writing, music, craft) and from different backgrounds, with the aim of celebrating work that truly represents art in Wyoming as it is, rather than as it is thought to be. Wyoming Art Party organizes inclusive projects that celebrate and engage our local communities.
I also an a co-founder of SALT: Science Art Liberation Team, with Bethanne Garramon Merkle and Brandon Gellis. As SALT we create pieces and experiences which re-establish art and science as equal disciplines. We integrate these fields as they originally developed, through collaborative exploration to better understand our world and life experiences.
As a solo artist that works in the public realm, I also work to include the community in my projects. See some of the socially engaged projects below:
MLK Days of Dialogue Community T-shirt and Printmaking Workshop, February 2019:
The University of Wyoming MKL Days of Dialogue committee approached Wyoming Art Party to see if we would be interested in hosting a Community Tshirt and Print Making Workshop. They wanted a creative event off campus in a safe space where students and community members could get together to create some great personal art and discuss race dynamics in our community. Their theme this year was celebrating black women. After many discussions with the committee, including acknowledging the “noticeable absence”of women artists of color in our community, we decided to carry on. We have noticed and acknowledged this absence before, and while we have no answers, it has again started this dialogue within our art group, which this event is about- dialogue. Racism is not talked about enough in our community. White people too often are afraid of talking about race- for fear of miss-stepping or offending. It will never get better if we don’t talk about race openly and honestly. As white women, we in Wyo Art Party are committed to using our privilege to create a safe space to have this dialogue. As queer women we also acknowledge that the rights we enjoy today, came about because of the work and sacrifices of queer black woman before us. TO honor this legacy we, with guidance form the committee, created a series of line images that celebrate black women hairstyles, combined with prints of famous quotes by black women and MLK (selected by the committee). We ended up loving this project and look forward to work with this group in the future.
Topographic Experimentations in Time and Space
with Brandon Gellis, JJ Shinker and Meg Thompson
The Topo-X Project – The transitionary observation, projection and outreach exploration project.
A series of 3-dimensional, time-based and digitally-augmented work inspired by the natural world, and human interactions with it.
Opening Reception May 4th, 2018 from 7:00 PM to 8:30 PM, University of Wyoming Berry Biodiversity Center
See many more projects on the Wyoming Art Party website.
