2020 Wrangell Mountains Center Residency—McCarthy, Alaska

The Wrangell Mountains Center (WMC) is a nonprofit organization connecting people with wildlands through art, science, and education in Alaska. The Wrangell Mountains Residency Program supports visual artists of all genres, performers, and writers. The organization invites applicants with creative and inquisitive minds to work in McCarthy, Alaska, near Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve. Applicants are encouraged to consider how they might engage with the local ecology, community, or history.

The residency combines rugged Alaskan small town life, off-the-grid experiences, and access to one of North America's most dynamic natural landscapes. The area features ice-capped mountains, the Kennicott River, McCarthy Creek, and the Kennicott Glacier terminus. McCarthy was established during the copper mining period in the early 20th century and is now on the National Register of Historic Places. The WMC campus includes the Old Hardware Store (built 1911) and Porphyry Place homestead, which models off-the-grid technologies. Each resident receives a furnished live/work space, access to common areas, and staff-prepared vegetarian meals. Limited wi-fi internet and solar-powered device charging are available. McCarthy has no electrical grid and is accessible only by a 60-mile dirt road open during summer months. Summer temperatures reach 80-90°F; winter temperatures drop to -50°F.

Program goals include providing opportunity to grow creative practice through unique natural and scientific inspiration, facilitating personal experience with the dramatic landscape, fostering connections with WMC, creating collaboration opportunities with the local community, and promoting professional relationships between residents. Selection is 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 engage with the community, and feasibility of plans and ideas. Entry fee: $20. Work sample requirements: up to 10 images, up to 3 audio files, up to 3 video files (10 total samples maximum). International applicants are eligible. NOTE: The 2020 program was suspended due to the pandemic; residencies were planned to resume in summer 2021.