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Tallgrass Artist Residency

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Artists

The residency invites applicants who currently live in a place that is ecologically considered prairie (though it may be paved and urbanized), plus one “eco-exchange” artist from outside the region. Eight artists are selected each year for two-week residencies from May – September.


2022 Artists

  • Arin Yoon
    Arin Yoon
  • Cory McKague
  • Thomas Agran
  • Jeremiah Ariaz
    Jeremiah Ariaz
  • Leslie VonHolten
    Leslie VonHolten
  • Ahimsa Timoteo Bodhrán
  • Daniel Kessel
    Daniel Kessel

2021 Artists

  • Areca Roe
  • Ben Cosgrove
  • Eleonora Edreva
  • Amy Hoagland
  • Kandace Creel Falcón
  • Chelsey Becker
  • Carley Schmidt
  • Sally Leaf
  • Richard Ibghy & Marilou Lemmens

2020 Artists

  • Cheyla Clawson Chandler
  • William Metcalf
  • Dora Agbas
  • Bryce Lafferty
  • Kateri Kosek
  • Lydia Cheshewalla
  • Sean Nash
  • Ruth Borum Loveland

2019 Artists

  • Jessica Zeglin
  • Letitia Huckaby
  • Alexandra Robinson
  • Melanie Johnson
  • Julianna Villarosa
  • Megan Kaminski
  • Matthew Darmour-Paul
  • Jessica Merchant

2018 Artists

  • Susan Mayo
  • Cyan Meeks
  • Levi Robb
  • Matthew Dehaemers
  • Elise Kirk
  • Maura Garcia
  • Hannah O’Hare Bennett
  • Rena Detrixhe

2017 Artists

  • Shin-hee Chin
  • Steve Snell
  • Abbey Blake
  • Corey Smith
  • Lynn Benson
  • Cody Kauhl
  • Jillian Youngbird
  • Kevin Benham

2016 Artists

  • Mary Gordon
  • Lexi Janezic
  • Ahram Park
  • Lisa Grossman
  • Brittany Irle
  • Rachel Kauff
  • Amanda Maciuba
  • Julie Nocent-Vigil
  • Casey Whittier
  • Richard Saxton

Recent Happenings

Posted @withregram • @agrantho Home now from a s Posted @withregram • @agrantho Home now from a special long week out at the @tallgrassartistresidency in the Flint Hills of Kansas. Thanks for following along as I shared some content for them (and me, and you?). 

Matfield Green has a population of about 49, down from its heydey of 376 in the early 20th century. For a peculiar mix of reasons writers and artists visit and move here. If you pass through this area, Matfield Green is not a place that makes much sense to stop – and yet I understand why people stay, for reasons that sometimes appear mysterious even to them. A few people I met talked about the absence of things being what attracted them to the place. Absence of light, absence of noise, absence of distraction, and with no businesses and not even a grocery store within 45 minutes, an absence of anything shouting at you what you don't have. 

The clear light that washes over the expansive views of the Flint Hills was really something magical – I get it. I'm not sure if my last week in a more arid and austere landscape primed me for it, but I had a breathtakingly gorgeous last two hours of my drive back to Iowa City. The blues and purples, oranges and peaches – so much diversity in light and color with the now-tasseled corn bathing the landscape in a sulfurous veil of corn sweat. Ah humidity! Irrationally refreshing to come back to. 

So appreciative of all the generosity and warmth shown to me by @kelly_in_the_prairy @derekhamm and Katherine, @cindyhoedel and Mike and Okie, Elaine, Diana and Kelly, Bria, and more. Thank you!
Posted @withregram • @agrantho Did a lot of fiel Posted @withregram • @agrantho Did a lot of field drawings and cyanotypes this week but also slow cooked myself on the daily out painting. A bit like some people say about being in the woods hunting - painting is one of the only ways I really stay put in one place for any meaningful duration of time - if the painting turns out that’s a perk! A nice way to experience and get to know a part of the country I’ve been to but never been able to stay longer than an hour passing through. Here’s some of my paintings from the week!

1. East of Matfield Green on open range beyond “Tower Hillâ€
2. The best cottonwood tree out at the preserve.
3. Buffalo Gourd vine out at Pioneer Bluff
4. Looking north mid day off Open Range Rd. west of Matfield Green
5. Ball of barbed wire a ways off the road in open range somewhere between Cassoday and Matfield Green
6. Looking south late evening off Open Range Rd. west of Matfield Green with a stalled BNSF train skirting through the trees.
Artist/Youth Free Skate at @schoolforruralculture Artist/Youth Free Skate at @schoolforruralculture
Posted @withregram • @agrantho I’m not sure if Posted @withregram • @agrantho I’m not sure if it’s just a vernacular difference that we don’t have high-gates in Iowa, or if it’s a symptom of the precipitous collapse of diversified farming and rapid industrialization of Iowa’s landscape that rendered them obsolete as mega combines and high wheel boom sprayers became the “get big or get out†norm and fence row to fence row meant the fences were simply less and less important and impediments to efficiency. 

Long sentence. Invite me to your next party.

Either way, I’m into these. Last video must be the most beautiful gate in Chase County, Kansas, if you ask me.
Posted @withregram • @agrantho Communing with so Posted @withregram • @agrantho Communing with some of the 46 varieties of chiggers in Kansas. 

Feeling nerdily enamored by the twisting crush left behind by the bison out here. Little moments of gesture and presence that stand out in a subtly shifting ocean of sameness. I don’t remember much from the book Buffalo for the Broken Heart, recommended to me by a professor some 15 years ago, but I do recall a lot about how bison pulse the landscape through their shear physicality and numbers. In case it wasn’t clear, I am uh, not an ecologist. 

I really love starting these drawings with vine charcoal but am choosing to develop them with compressed as I’m not sure I could hike back out without wrecking something more fleeting. 16x20s and 22x30s 

Best kind of sandwich is the one you remembered to pack. 🥪 🥵 

@tallgrassartistresidency
Saturday, July 16 1:00 - 3:00 pm Tallgrass Prairie Saturday, July 16
1:00 - 3:00 pm
Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve
Join artist-in-residence Thomas Agran for a drawing activity and learn more about his practice that explores questions at the nexus of food, agriculture, nostalgia and marketing.
Posted @withregram • @corymckague It is my last Posted @withregram • @corymckague It is my last day of @tallgrassartistresidency ! Sad to say goodbye. Thank you for having me and sharing the experience of the tall grass prairie. I am truly honored. I am already looking forward to coming back for the symposium in October!
Posted @withregram • @agrantho Logged 15 miles w Posted @withregram • @agrantho Logged 15 miles when accounting for my two wrong turns out at Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve yesterday. Everything out there thriving in the heat and sun except maybe myself. 

Coming from Iowa where it seems all prairie remnants are smaller than a football field (rah rah go hawks), the mere fact you can walk yourself sore here the entire day and only see prairie is amazing, and rare. 

I’ll be sharing some stories and posts for @tallgrassartistresidency while staying in Matfield Green. Lots of train horns and chattering bugs and dehydrated breathing if you click sound, which is about all you need to know for context!

(I picked the turtle up in the middle of the road and set it on the other side in the direction it was facing, which I believe to be turtle disaster aversion protocol 🤷â€â™‚ï¸ for those concerned.)
Contact

tallgrass.art@gmail.com

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@tallgrassartistresidency

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