UCROSS — Ucross, the artist residency plan in northern Wyoming, recently welcomed the recipients of the spring 2022 Fellowships for Indigenous American Visual Artists and Writers. Acclaimed visual artist Savannah LeCornu and previous Montana Co-Poet Laureate M.L. Smoker will be in home for the future two months, obtaining uninterrupted time and house on Ucross’ 20,000-acre ranch at the foothills of the Bighorn Mountains.
LeCornu is a visual artist and theater maker originally from Ketchikan, Alaska, who resides in Bellingham, Washington. She is part of the Tsimshian (Wolf Clan), Haida, Athabascan and Nez Perce tribes and Very first Nations Nisga’a. LeCornu generally draws and paints in the two common and digital formats her artwork is centered on symbolizing indigenous men and women and artwork forms.
A poet, Smoker is Nakoda, Dakota and Lakota from the Fort Peck Reservation in Montana. She served as co-poet laureate for the state of Montana from 2019-2021, along with Ucross alumna Melissa Kwasny. In 2021, Smoker was named an Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow.
As component of their Ucross Fellowships, LeCornu and Smoker will every single get a residency that incorporates a studio, living accommodations and foods by a qualified chef. Ucross will also existing each artist with a $2,000 award and a stipend to defray vacation expenditures, as very well as the option to current their operate publicly.
LeCornu’s perform will be showcased in a long term exhibition at the Ucross Artwork Gallery. Smoker already presented her perform.
On March 25, she gave a examining at a devoted Ucross Uninterrupted reception at the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Presented biannually, the awards symbolize Ucross’ motivation to supporting contemporary Indigenous American artwork and voices.
“We are pleased to welcome Savannah LeCornu and M.L. Smoker to our ranch and facilities, and we are honored to give them with uninterrupted time and area to focus on their artistic operate,” Ucross President William Belcher said.
LeCornu is finest acknowledged for her “Still Here” series, which highlights the perseverance of modern indigenous peoples, as properly as her “Indigenize Series,” which returns indigenous names to stolen land.
Smoker’s initially assortment of poems, “Another Try at Rescue,” was revealed by Hanging Loose Push in 2005. In 2009, she co-edited an anthology of human rights poetry with Kwasny entitled, “I Go to the Ruined Position.” She acquired a regional Emmy award for her do the job as a author/specialist on the PBS documentary “Indian Relay.” A children’s graphic novel she co-wrote will be revealed at the close of April.
In 2022 and 2023, the recipients of the Ucross Fellowship for Native American Visual Artists and Writers are funded, in aspect, by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.
The future connect with for applications for the Ucross Native American Fellowships for Visual Artists and Writers will start off June 1.