2014 Wrangell Mountains Center Residency

The Wrangell Mountains Center (WMC) is a nonprofit organization that fosters understanding, appreciation, and stewardship of wildlands and mountain culture in Alaska through scientific and artistic inquiry in the Wrangell Mountains. The Wrangell Mountains Residency Program aims to support artists of all genres, writers, and inquiring minds in the creation of their work. The organization and community will provide unrestricted work time and space to focused individuals. Applicants with creative and inquisitive minds are invited to apply and will both add to and benefit from the interdisciplinary efforts at the campus in McCarthy, Alaska and the surrounding Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve.

Located in a small mountain community within the nation's largest unit of the national park system (over 13 million acres), the setting provides a unique natural and cultural environment. Positioned near ice-capped mountains, the roaring Kennicott River and McCarthy Creek, and the raw terminus of the Kennicott Glacier, the local landscape is a dynamic laboratory for study in ecology, glaciology, and geology. The town of McCarthy was established during the copper mining period in the early 20th century. Historic sites and buildings in McCarthy and Kennecott combine to make the area a rich cultural environment. The WMC campus includes the Old Hardware Store, built in 1911 as a town general mercantile and converted in the 1980s into an educational center, and the recently acquired adjacent homestead property, Porphyry Place, which houses programming and models off-the-grid technologies and practices.

Five residencies are available in 2014: May 26-June 8, June 11-24, July 21-August 3, August 5-19, and August 21-September 3. Each resident will be provided with a private and furnished live/work space. The "Meg Hunt" Studio contains abundant natural light from large windows with a forested view towards McCarthy Creek, wood floors, work tables, a newly-installed pull-down bed, hand-washing sink, propane heater, and small library. Residents will have access to common areas on campus and simple, healthy meals will be provided and shared communally with WMC staff, students, and visitors. Internet and email access can be purchased on a personal computer. Laundry opportunities are available. Participants should come prepared with all necessary research materials and art supplies since they are not available for purchase locally. Artists will be selected based on artistic merit, importance of the Wrangell St. Elias/McCarthy experience to the artist's work, need or benefit to the artist, the artist's proposed plan to give back to the community, and feasibility of plan. Selections will be made by late March. Entry fee: $25.00.