Ucross to Host Arts Festival, Featuring Jalan Crossland

Featuring famed Wyoming musician Jalan Crossland, the Ucross Arts Festival is set for Sunday, August 28, beginning at 4 p.m. in The Park at Ucross, which is located before the intersection of Highways 14 and 16 East in Ucross or at the address 2753 US-14. at Ucross. The event, which is free and open to the community, will conclude Sheridan County’s Celebrate the Arts weekend. Tickets are free and available here or at ucross.org; however, only a limited number will be released.

In addition to a performance by Crossland — who has experienced two artist residencies at Ucross — the festival will feature a reading by novelist Brandon Hobson of Las Cruces, New Mexico (Cherokee Nation), a recipient of the Ucross Fellowship for Native American Writers. Hobson’s latest novel, “The Removed,” was published to great critical acclaim in 2021 and won the Western Heritage Award. His first book, “Where The Dead Sit Talking,” was a finalist for the National Book Award, among other distinctions. His short stories have won a Pushcart Prize and have appeared in the best American Short Stories, McSweeney’s, Conjunctions, Noon, and elsewhere. He teaches creative writing at New Mexico State University and at the Institute of American Indian Arts.

Ucross Arts Festival attendees will also receive a complimentary print of a commissioned painting by Savannah LeCornu of Bellingham, Washington (Tsimshian [Wolf Clan], Haida, Athabascan, Nez Perce, and First Nations Nisga’a), a recipient of the Ucross Fellowship for Native American Visual Artists.

“The Ucross Arts Festival gives us the opportunity to share the work of our respected artist residency program’s alumni with our friends and neighbors in northeastern Wyoming,” said Ucross President William Belcher. “We are thrilled to present Jalan Crossland, a former artist-in-residence who spent many summers performing on the lawn outside of the Ranch House during our past Fourth of July gatherings. And we look forward to introducing Brandon Hobson and Savannah LeCornu to the community in what will be a wonderful celebration of the arts.”

Local food trucks will sell food and drink throughout the Ucross Arts Festival, including Bonafide, Stoked Pizza and Papa Bino’s.

Celebrate the Arts is a multi-day festival highlighting the vibrant arts community residing at the base of the eastern Bighorn Mountains. Local arts organizations, artist residencies and art studios come together to promote, display, and celebrate the unique visual and performing arts in Sheridan, Wyoming, and the surrounding communities.

Kicking off the Celebrate the Arts weekend, Ucross is teaming up with Sheridan College’s Kooi Library to present a reading and discussion on Thursday, August 25, at 12 p.m. featuring Brandon Hobson, the award-winning author of “The Removed” and “Where the Dead Sit Talking” and recipient of the Ucross Native American Fellowship for Writers in Fall 2021. Light refreshments will be served; this event is free and open to the public. Sheridan College is located at 1 Whitney Way.

About The Artists

Jalan Crossland is nationally acclaimed by audiences, critics, and his musical peers as being a premier acoustic guitarist, banjo player, singer-songwriter and engaging showman. Along with dozens of regional contest awards, his extraordinary guitar work earned him National Fingerstyle Guitar Championship Runner Up honors in ’97 and the State Flatpick Championship title of his home state in 1999. His 2017 album, “Singalongs For The Apocalypse,” won Wyoming Public Radio’s People’s Choice: Album of the Year award. In recognition for his contribution to the arts in Wyoming, he was bestowed the Governor’s Arts Award in 2013.

Dr. Brandon Hobson is a 2022 Guggenheim Fellow. He received his PhD from Oklahoma State University. His novel, “Where The Dead Sit Talking,” was a finalist for the National Book Award, winner of the Reading The West Award, and longlisted for the Dublin Literary Award, among other distinctions.

His short stories have won a Pushcart Prize and have appeared in the best American Short Stories, Mcsweeney’s, Conjunctions, Noon, and elsewhere. He teaches creative writing at New Mexico State University and at the Institute of American Indian Arts. He is an enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation Tribe of Oklahoma.

Savannah LeCornu is a visual artist and theatre maker originally from Ketchikan, Alaska, who resides in Bellingham, Washington. She is part of the Tsimshian (Wolf Clan), Haida, Athabascan, and Nez Perce tribes and First Nations Nisga’a. LeCornu primarily draws and paints in both traditional and digital formats; her art is centered on representing Indigenous people and art forms. LeCornu is best known for her “Still Here” series, which highlights the perseverance of contemporary indigenous peoples, as well as her “Indigenize” Series, which returns Indigenous names to stolen land.

About Ucross: Located in northeast Wyoming in the foothills of the Bighorn Mountains, Ucross fosters the creative spirit of deeply committed artists and groups by providing uninterrupted time, studio space, living accommodations, and the experience of the majestic High Plains, while serving as a responsible steward of its 20,000-acre ranch. Residencies are awarded to 100 artists each year. Ten artists are in residence at one time, typically a mix of visual artists, writers, composers, and choreographers.

Since the residency program began in 1983, Ucross has supported nearly 2,600 artists, including such distinguished fellows as Annie Proulx, Terry Tempest Williams, Elizabeth Gilbert, Ann Patchett, Ricky Ian Gordon, Bill Morrison, Theaster Gates, Anthony Hernandez, and Tayari Jones. National Book Award winners Susan Choi, Sigrid Nunez, and Sarah M. Broom have been residents, as have Academy Award and Tony winners Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, Emmy Award winner Billy Porter, recent Pulitzer Prize winners Michael R. Jackson and Colson Whitehead, and current United States Poet Laureate Joy Harjo.

Ucross participates in more than a dozen creative partnerships with national organizations that enhance its ability to support outstanding individual artists with residencies. National partners include the Sundance Institute, the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Fiction, the Whiting Foundation, the Ford Family Foundation, the Herb Alpert Award in the Arts, the Alley Theatre, UCLA’s Center for the Art of Performance, Yale University, the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, Cave Canem, The Blank Theatre (Los Angeles), and the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice.

CONTACT

Ucross Communications Manager
Caitlin Addlesperger | caddlesperger@ucross.org | 307.752.7091