Visual Arts Fellowships

The Wyoming Arts Council’s Visual Arts Fellowships were created in 1986 and are based on the artist’s portfolio, honoring the work of Wyoming visual artists whose work reflects serious and exceptional aesthetic investigation.

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About the Visual Arts Fellowship

The Wyoming Arts Council’s Visual Arts Fellowships are $5,000 unrestricted awards of merit, based on the artist’s portfolio, honoring the work of Wyoming visual artists whose work reflects serious and exceptional aesthetic investigation. Artists working in any media, including film and video, may apply. Applications are juried by noted artists, curators, and others in the visual arts from outside the state. Up to three fellowships may be given each year, and jurors may also select honorable mentions.

Recipients of the Visual Arts fellowships exhibit their work in the Wyoming Arts Council Biennial Exhibit, held every two years at a major visual arts institution or museum in the state.

2024 Visual Arts Fellowship Info

2024 Application Window: April 10 – June 10, 2024

The winners of this year’s fellowship will exhibit in 2025. The exhibition is curated by one of the jurors, who serves on the panel for two years. Applicants must be Wyoming residents.

ELIGIBILITY

 

WHAT IF YOU WIN AN AWARD?

 

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

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2024 Visual Arts Fellowship Recipients

Bailey Russel of Laramie

Bailey Russel is a Professor of Photography at the University of Wyoming. Originally from New Jersey, Bailey received a BA from Princeton University and an MA in Photography from NYU before moving to Laramie, Wyoming in 2011. His photographic work mostly deals with issues of land usage and how this relates to photographic processes. He has worked with digital photography, traditional film processes, room sized camera obscuras, wet plate collodion and other early, alternative methods of image making, pairing them with subjects ranging from the Colorado River expedition of John Wesley Powell to the iconic monuments of the west. Currently Bailey is working on a photo project about extraction and energy development in Wyoming.

Sophie Barksdale of Lander

Sophie Barksdale is a twice Emmy-nominated filmmaker based in Lander, Wyoming. With an extensive background in film and the arts, Sophie worked for Screen Ireland, numerous film festivals in the USA, Australia & Ireland, and spent several years at the National Gallery of Victoria, Australia, one of the Southern Hemisphere’s premier cultural institutions. She served on the Board of Directors for the Lander Art Center for 6 years and is Co-Founder of the Bossert Collective, a local public art initiative.

In 2022 she completed the film ‘Who She Is’ – a humanizing insight into the lives and legacies of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women in Wyoming with co-director and co-producing partner Northern Arapaho Filmmaker Jordan Dresser. The film was awarded Best Documentary at Flagstaff Film Festival, Best Social Justice Film at the Latino and Native American Film Fest, Best Animated Doc at Oregon Documentary Film festival,  Best Animated Documentary at the World Wide Women’s Film Festival, and was awarded a “Special Jury Award” at Frozen River International Film Festival. The film was broadcast Nationally across America on PBS after premiering on WORLD CHANNEL in May 2024.

Sophie co-produced the Emmy Nominated documentary ‘Home From School: The Children of Carlisle’ (2021) with Caldera Productions, which aired nationally on Independent Lens, garnering festival awards including Best Documentary at Chagrin Documentary Film Festival, and the Western Heritage Awards. Also with Caldera Productions (in partnership with WYPBS), Sophie produced the Emmy Nominated ‘The State of Equality  (2019) chronicling Wyoming’s role in the Women’s Suffrage movement.

Brittney Denham of Sheridan

Brittney Denham Whisonant is a multidisciplinary artist, born in California and raised in Wyoming. She earned an MFA at The Ohio State University in 2012. Currently she a Professor of Photography and Printmaking, as well as Gallery Director of Edward Whitney Gallery at Sheridan College in Wyoming.

Denham Whisonant has a background in traditional photography and printmaking but has allowed her research and affinity for process to stretch into other areas such as textiles, natural dyeing, and installation.

She primarily focuses her work on motherhood identity, body as environment, domestic labor, traditions/history of women’s work, and the dissections of maternal material. Her work has been exhibited nationally, including most recently in The Arrivals, at the Danforth Museum in Livingston, Montana, and an upcoming exhibition at Brigham Young University, in Provo, Utah. She was nominated for the USA Artist Fellowship in 2023, received the Vermont Studio Center Windgate Fellowship in 2023, and most recently was invited to Arrowmont School of Arts & Craft PENTACULUM residency in 2024.

Honorable Mentions:

• Wendy Brendehoft of Laramie
• Blanche Guernsey of Gillette

Meet the 2024 Jurors

Ginger Shulick Porcella In January 2023 Ginger Shulick Porcella was named as the Executive Director of Creative Growth Art Center, the premier organization for contemporary artists with developmental disabilities. Porcella most recently was the Executive Director and Chief Curator of Franconia Sculpture Park and the founder/co-curator of the 4Ground: Midwest Land Art Biennial. She has led nonprofit arts organizations in New York, California, Minnesota, and Arizona, and has curated critically acclaimed museum exhibitions such as: Amir H. Fallah: Scatter my Ashes on Foreign Lands; Blessed Be: Mysticism, Spirituality and the Occult in Contemporary Art; and Dazzled: OMD, Memphis Design and Beyond. Her exhibitions have been positively reviewed in Frieze, The New York Times, and Hyperallergic and in 2015 she was named the “Voice of the Year” by the San Diego press for her visionary leadership in transforming the arts and cultural ecosystem of Southern California and Baja, Mexico.

Libby Garon has worked as the Gallery Director at Walker Fine Art (WFA) for the past 7 years and strives to connect beautiful artworks with collectors who love them. WFA is a 22-year-old mid to advance career gallery in the heart of Denver’s museum district showcasing original contemporary art, which features group exhibitions from a diverse roster. As Gallery Director, she works to build strong relationships with collectors and artists that are founded on trust. Her goal is to learn about her clients to guide them towards collecting artwork that reflects their authenticity, either through resonating with the subject matter, aligning with their passions, or telling an aspect of their life story. Everyday WFA works to ensure that their exhibitions align with their mission: to give our artists a space to connect with the greater public presenting work that uplifts, heals, and is emotionally evocative, while also constantly navigating the balance between commerce and creativity.

As an art lover, Libby has been fortunate to have the arts as a constant in her life. She began her art path studying studio art with a focus in printmaking at Mount Holyoke College in MA, and interning at Dieu Donne Paper Mill and Lower East Side Print Shop in New York, assisting artists including Kara Walker, Ann Hamilton and Ursula Von Rydingsvard.  As often as she can, Libby continues to make and sell her own work and appreciates having both perspectives of the artist and the arts professional.

Libby is an active arts advocate and strives to share her passion for the arts in everything that she does. She now has been in the Denver arts community for over a decade working, jurying, guest curating and serving as a board member for institutions including Art Students League of Denver, Access Gallery, Golden Triangle Neighborhood Association, PlatteForum, 5280 Trail- Acoma Segment, Curtis Center, Denver Lights and numerous Denver Art Museum committees including Culture Haus, Denver Art Conservation Committee and Museum Friends.

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Previous Visual Arts Fellowship Recipients

Previous Recipients