2016 Wrangell Mountains Center Residency

The Wrangell Mountains Center (WMC) is a nonprofit organization connecting people with wildlands through art, science, and education in the Wrangell Mountains. The Wrangell Mountains Residency Program supports artists of all genres, writers, and inquiring minds in the creation of their work. The organization and community provide unrestricted work time and space to focused individuals. The program invites applicants with creative and inquisitive minds who 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 McCarthy, a small mountain community within the nation's largest unit of the national park system (over 13 million acres), the WMC campus is positioned near ice-capped mountains, the Kennicott River and McCarthy Creek, and the Kennicott Glacier terminus. The town of McCarthy was established during the copper mining period in the early 20th century. 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 adjacent Porphyry Place homestead property, which houses programming and models off-the-grid technologies and practices. Each resident receives a private, furnished live/work space with basic comforts and privacy. Common areas are available on campus, and simple, healthy meals are provided and shared communally with WMC staff, students, and visitors.

Four residencies are available in 2016: June 23-July 6, July 20-August 2, August 7-20, and August 24-September 6. The studio space features abundant natural light, wood floors, work tables, a pull-down bed, hand-washing sink, propane heater, and a small library. Participants should come prepared with all necessary research materials and art supplies as they are not available for purchase locally. Internet and email access can be purchased on a personal computer; electronic device charging is dictated by solar power availability. Artists are 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 the plan. Selections will be made by mid-April 2016. Entry fee: $30.00. International applicants are eligible.