The mission of Ucross Foundation (Clearmont, WY) is to foster the creative work of both accomplished and emerging artists by providing uninterrupted time, studio space, living accommodations, and the experience of Wyoming’s majestic High Plains, and to serve as a responsible steward of its historic 20,000-acre ranch. In the past couple of years, the Ucross Foundation has created and implemented a Fellowship for Native American Visual Artists, which awards Indigenous artists up to 4-weeks in residence, a stipend and inclusion in a gallery exhibition the following year at the Ucross Art Gallery. Brenda Mallory and Sydney Pursel are the first two recipients of this new fellowship.

Brenda Mallory’s (Cherokee Nation) work ranges from individual wall-hangings and sculptures to large-scale installations. She works with mixed media, creating multiple forms that are joined with crude hardware or mechanical devices in ways that imply tenuous connections and aberrations.

Sydney Jane Brooke Campbell Maybrier Pursel specializes in socially engaged, activist, performance, video and new media arts. As a member of the Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska with strong Irish Catholic roots, she investigates personal identity and contemporary Indigenous issues through art.