2024 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. Artists from the global majority, who are underrepresented, marginalized, and Alaska Natives are especially encouraged to apply. The residency provides unrestricted work time and space in McCarthy, Alaska, near Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve. Applicants should consider how they might engage with the local ecology, community, or history.

The residency combines rugged Alaskan small town life with access to one of North America's most dynamic natural landscapes. McCarthy is positioned near ice-capped mountains, the Kennicott River, McCarthy Creek, and the Kennicott Glacier terminus. The town 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 in 1911) and Porphyry Place, an adjacent homestead modeling off-the-grid technologies. Four residents will be hosted during two two-week periods in summer: June 5-19 and July 30-August 13. Teams of two artists are welcome and will be awarded two of the four slots. The WMC provides room and board, a simple workspace, and can help coordinate transportation between McCarthy and Anchorage. Residents are responsible for travel to and from Alaska. There is no stipend available. During the residency, artists will be asked to share their experience with the public through demonstration, talk, reading, performance, workshop, or other means.

Each resident receives a furnished live/work space with basic comforts and privacy. Residents have access to common areas and a fully stocked kitchen with staff-prepared vegetarian meals. Limited wi-fi internet is available but not reliable. McCarthy has no electrical grid and is accessible only by private vehicle bridge and public footbridge across the Kennicott River. The town has approximately 107 year-round residents and a few hundred seasonal residents in summer. Participants should bring all necessary research materials and art supplies as they are not available for purchase locally. 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, proposed community engagement plans, feasibility of ideas, and diversity of backgrounds and disciplines. Application deadline: February 12, 2024 at 11:59 p.m. MST. Entry fee: $25.