Stand anywhere on Ucross’ 20,000-acre ranch and you’ll understand our focus on time and space. We all act as makeshift philosophers when we look out at the expansive landscape or stare at the stars. As we see hills and mountains carved and shaped over centuries, millennia and geological time, we can’t help thinking about our own impermanence. As Virginia Woolf wrote in her novel To the Lighthouse, it’s shameful to think “a stone kicked with a boot will outlive Shakespeare” .
Providing artists with time and space to create new works is also our mission and slogan. Artists and visitors often comment that at Ucross, time slows down, or at least, it moves at a different pace. When we talk about or write about time in this context, it’s often a code name for a sense of freedom, and we want the Ucross experience to provide our artists with a residency and the benefits of having a dedicated time to focus on their creative practice. But what exactly is “time”? There may be no more fertile ground for artists, writers, and philosophers than the ever-elusive concept of time. It is therefore fitting that the first exhibition at the new Ucross Art Gallery centers on how the artist expresses, explores, translates, decodes or deals with the complexities of time.
“Time, Mark, Memories: Eucross at 40” opens on November 4. Nearly 200 people poured into the gallery space to see what we’ve been doing for the past 14 months. It was exciting to see a long row of headlights lighting up Da Hong Lane that night, and it was heartening to see the wide-eyed expressions of visitors as they entered the gallery gates.
That week, Brinton 101 opened at the Brinton Museum in Big Corner, and Wyoming Waters opened at SAGE in downtown Sheridan. Our region’s support for the visual arts is on full display, and we are honored to be part of a community with such a deep appreciation for the arts. and an emerging community. Thank you.
We are proud of the beautiful new Ucross Art Gallery and we are equally proud of its opening exhibition. Curated by art writer and essayist Leah Ollman of the Los Angeles Times and the Arts and Ucross alumni, “Time, Mark, Memories” is the first exhibition in a three-year series designed to highlight the extraordinary work of our visual arts alumni. In our first four decades, we’ve served more than 2,600 artists, including 920 visual artists. Allman curates a thoughtful and original show that illuminates and expands our relationship with time and showcases our alumni.
At the same time, she designed a show that included the flexibility of Ucross’ new space. It includes sculpture, photography, painting, video, audio, textile and mixed media, and takes full advantage of the open space provided by the new renovation. If you haven’t been there, we encourage you to drop by and take a look. The Ucross Art Gallery is open to the public free of charge Monday through Saturday from 10am to 4pm.You can find more information as well as the exhibition catalog at ucross.org.
In the end, this exhibition, the renovation of the Great Red Barn, and the reopening of the Ucross Art Gallery are all part of a larger project – Ucross’s 40th Anniversary. The Ucross Art Gallery’s ambitious capital improvements have been made possible through the support of our Board of Directors, donors and friends, but our work is not done. Our 40th anniversary event will officially kick off in 2023, so we hope you’ll follow along and join us for future openings, performances, readings and fundraisers. Most importantly, we hope you continue to support the vibrant arts scene in our community.
