Thanks to The Rooms, Parks Canada, and the good folks at Gros Morne National Park for having me as the artist-in-residence for four weeks. Looking forward to exploring routes of migration from the Old World to the New, learning more about the life in the Tablelands (one of three places in the world where the earth’s mantle made it’s way to the crust) , and learning more about the flora and fauna. What a treat.

Artemisia tridentata: From Rugged Soil brought together 15 queer Wyoming artists for a group exhibition at MASS Gallery in Austin June 6-July 12, exploring resilience and rootedness through the lens of the sagebrush that gives the show its name. As curator, I worked to build a show that centered these artists' distinct voices while tracing the shared threads of place, identity, and survival running through their work. The exhibition was later named one of Glasstire's top five shows in Texas, and Wyoming State Archivist Sara Davis requested that the show and its artists be preserved in the state archives to help repair a long silence around queer history in Wyoming's archival record. It's a project I'm especially proud of — proof that stories rooted in "rugged soil" can travel far beyond it

This summer, in partnership with ALCES Community Works, I curated Building a New World from the Shell of the Old, a labor-themed exhibition at the Gorgon Gallery in Laramie. The show takes its title from the old Wobbly call to build the new world inside the shell of the old, and gathers art and artifact around the dignity, struggle, and solidarity of working people. Curating it in conjunction with ALCES let me bring my public-art and community-memory practice into direct conversation with the gallery and with everyone who moved through it.

This June, I spent four days in residence at Medicine Lodge State Archaeological Site as part of the 2026 Wyoming Arts Council and Wyoming State Parks Artist in Residence Program, expanded this year in recognition of America's 250th. Tucked into the red-rock canyons of the Bighorn Basin, Medicine Lodge is best known for its petroglyph cliff — a sandstone wall carrying more than ten thousand years of human mark-making, layer upon layer of people who stood where I stood and left something behind. Working at the foot of that cliff was exactly the kind of place-based, time-deep practice my work lives for: an invitation to listen to a landscape that has been holding stories far longer than any of us, and to add my own small line to that long conversation. The residency closed with a public program at the Petroglyph Cliff, sharing the work and process with visitors to the park.

A selected piece from the series Building Empire will be displayed in conjunction with the Wyoming State Museum and in the Wyoming State Capitol in Cheyenne from February 9 to August 8, 2026. It is an incredible honor to bring the story of the Speeses and their Black homesteading community into the state’s capitol. Reception: 5:00-7:00 p.m. on Thursday, February 26, 2026

I am a member of the first fellowship cohort of the Naitonal Arts Futures Fellowship (NAFF). Building on the legacy of the National Leaders of Color Fellowship (LoCF), NAFF expands its reach to leaders from all backgrounds while upholding its core values of care, community, democracy, wellness, and belonging. Designed and curated by Creative West in partnership with South Arts, the National Arts Futures Fellowship (NAFF), is a unique opportunity designed to empower leaders shaping the future of arts and culture.

Read more about the Re-Storying the West project that I have the delight of working on here.

Re-Storying the West’s key team members include Misty Springer, Aubrey Edwards and Hallie Guidry, all doctoral students in English at UW. Springer took the lead in writing, recording and producing a podcast about stories around the state, with the first episode released Sept. 1 and more episodes to follow in upcoming weeks. Edwards specialized in developing community contacts, facilitating events and gathering photographs during their activities. Guidry supported the original design and organizational plans for the website.

High Iron and Higher Stakes — Unions, Antisemitism Myths, and a Boxcar for Labor
Listen to this week’s Labor Heritage Power Hour:
• Historian Joe McCartin unpacks Congress’s “Unmasking Union Antisemitism” hearing—how employers have long used antisemitic tropes against unions, and why today’s attacks are really about weakening labor and chilling speech.
• Artist-anthropologist Aubrey Edwards shares High Iron, a traveling boxcar-turned-community museum honoring the immigrant and Indigenous workers who built the West’s railroads, towns, and economy.

Two stories, one thread: Who tells America’s story—the power brokers, or the people who built it?

The Nicolaysen Art Museum in Casper will host the 2025 Biennial Fellowship Exhibition, featuring work from the 2024 & 2025 state visual arts fellows.

As the 2024 Wyoming Visual Arts Fellow, I will have an installation work memorializing the Ludlow Massacre.

On view October 3rd-December 19th. Opening reception October 9th 5:30-9:30 pm.

I will be the artist-in-residence at Tongue River up in Wyoming’s Big Horn mountains later this month working on a sculptural piece for High Iron.

Thrilled to be artist-in-residence this October with Montana’s Open AIR. I’ll be living and creating in Butte, MT in partnership with the Historic Clark Chateau and Butte-Silver Bow Public Archives and making a body of work centering The Women’s Protective Union.

What a joy to have launched non profit public art and history design studio based here in Laramie. Alces is committed to supporting communities statewide to tell collective stories of people, place and culture- past and present. See what I’m getting up to over there: www.alcesworks.org

High Iron billboard is up on Interstate-80. Immigrants Built Wyoming. Full stop.

As founder of the Youth Justice Institute, it was a joy to see participants (aged 14-16) unveil their second piece of public artwork housed at the Laramie Plains Civic Center. Worth noting, this is public artwork has the only image of/memorial to Matthew Shepard to exist on Laramie’s landscape. Thank you to partnerships with Laramie Public Art Coalition, Wyoming Humanities, and Wyoming Community Foundation.

High Iron is humbled and honored to be one of three Wyoming members of the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience.

Sites of Conscience recognize that the power of sites of memory is not inherent; it must be harnessed as a deliberate tactic in the service of human rights and citizen engagement. This conscious effort to use the past to activate the present is the hallmark of the Sites of Conscience movement. As a network of more than 370 Sites of Conscience in 65 countries, we engage tens of millions of people every year in using the lessons of history to take action on challenges to democracy and human rights today.

Public Art Exchange Talk: Building a Living Monument to Labor
Monday, October 28 at 4:00 PM MT
FREE to attend, virtual: Register here


Artists Aubrey Edwards and Conor Mullen, along with Laura Zorch McDermit, director of Laramie Public Art, will talk about their ambitious project to build a new monument to rail labor in Wyoming. High Iron is one of ten projects in the Monument Lab Re:Generation 2024 cohort. 

High Iron is one of 112 national organizations to receive this incredible grant. Thank you to the National Endowment for the Arts, Creative West, and South Arts for their support and funding.

ArtsHERE is designed to address disparities in arts participation by providing substantial support to organizations committed to equity in their practices and programming.

We are opening High Iron! More info at www.highiron.org. Download press release here.

High Iron, a multidisciplinary artwork and interactive rail labor experience, opens to the public on Friday, September 27, 2024. An opening celebration will be held at the corner of 4th and Canby in Laramie, Wyoming between 5:30 and 7 PM. Free to attend, the event includes music, food, and an opportunity to explore the repurposed boxcar turned artwork. The High Iron team includes artists Aubrey Edwards and Conor Mullen along with Laramie Public Art executive director Laura McDermit.

High Iron is a project of Monument Lab’s Re:Generation 2024 with funding through the Mellon Foundation. The opening event has been made possible through a grant from Wyoming Humanities. Partnership support from the City of Laramie and Laramie Public Art Coalition.

“High Iron is a living monument to rail labor,” says McDermit. “Through the lens of art and personal histories, we reframe the narrative of Wyoming. The rich diversity of people who labored on the railroad has been hidden. High Iron uplifts their stories.”

“There is not a single monument in our state honoring the immigrant labor that built the transcontinental railroad, built our economy, and in turn built our communities. High Iron seeks to rectify this,” says Edwards.

I’ve had the joy of curating an evening of conversation between exhibiting artist NYC Kelwin Coleman (Prayers on Fire) and Laramie artist Ismael Dominguez September 7th, 5-7p at the Gorgon Gallery.

Prayers on Fire is a solo exhibition juxtaposing sports based masculine imagery against queer based religious ideology. Through intaglio, cyanotype, relief and drawing based printed 2d works on paper, wrestlers are collaged; they are distorted into submissive poses that harken towards the spiritual. The work is meant to create a direct connection between the aggressive nature of sports and solitude of masculinity by introducing queerness and religious contemplation.

The Wyoming Innovation Partnership (WIP)-funded Creative Economy Start Up Challenge is financially supporting the enterprise of 10 creatives in the state. I have been long brainstorming an organization that can support folks as they disrupt the master narratives of Wyoming, and shine light on an incredibly diverse state that—unfortunately—has many buried stories and histories. I am excited to have received that funding, and to continue to pay artists, creatives, and community members in Wyoming to share their stories of place. This funding will seed Alces Community Works. Based in Laramie, Alces Community Works will be a collaborative ethnography 501(c)(3) organization that produces books, exhibits, events, workshops, public art, mentorship opportunities and curriculum that share the complex stories of Wyoming across the state and beyond.

I just accepted an offer to join the inaugural Phd in Public Humanities cohort in the University of Wyoming’s English department. I’ll be a Mellon Research Assistant for the department’s Re:storying the West project, which is right up my alley in disrupting the mythological and racist master origin narratives of our state! I’m a lifelong learner, baby!

I have the joy of curating lovely event in Laramie. Visiting New Orleans artist Madeleine Kelly will be having a solo show and accompanying public watercolor workshop at the Berry Biodiversity Center. Her reception will center a roundtable conversation with four local female artists who also pull inspiration from the natural world—while living in extractive economies. The conversation will be facilitated by the wonderful environmental organizer Kaycee Prevedel.

I had the pleasure of taking three young leaders from Laramie to the Rural and Tribal Youth Assembly the week of June 10th, centering youth voice in national policy agendas and organizing. Young leaders gathered on Alex Haley’s farm outside of Knoxville, TN- representing homelands of Hawaii, Alaska, Wyoming, Kentucky, and Mississippi. Thank you to our young leaders, Native Americans in Philanthropy, Partner for Rural Impact, Mobility Alliance, and Clear Creek Creative for supporting such a powerful space.

It is an incredible honor to partner with Monument Lab! Learn more about our project here.

Monument Lab Re:Generation supports a 2024 cohort of ten teams working to create new or to expand existing public art, public history, or public humanities projects.As a central part of Monument Lab’s commitment to expanding the American commemorative landscape, Re:Generation emphasizes the selection of projects with creative representation and interpretation of erased, suppressed, or threatened stories and histories, particularly in states which have passed legislation limiting the teaching of accurate and diverse American history. Major support for Re:Generation is provided by the Mellon Foundation.

I am thrilled to be teaching an American Studies Visual Culture course with Pathways from Prison. The project is a trans-disciplinary and trans-professional statewide collaborative that supports currently and formerly incarcerated people in navigating the waters of higher education and earning their bachelor’s degree.

What a gift to be in a winter residency with Jentel. I’m incredibly grateful for the time and space in the foothills of the Big Horn Mountains. I’ll be creating work centering Greek labor during westward expansion, to be shown at the Nicolaysen Museum for the Wyoming Arts Council Fellowship biennial in 2024.

I will be presenting on Youth Voice/Youth Action at this year’s Shepard Symposium. I will be passing my mic—literally—to three of the young leaders I have been working with this year, giving them the platform as I support. Read more about the symposium below.

This year's symposium theme, Social Justice Literacy, intends to give communities the skills to shape the environments they live in through narrative. How can we collectively impact the world by empowering silenced voices? We aim to discuss historic forms of resistance, explore illiteracy as a form of oppression, and offer awareness around social justice.

The Youth Justice Institute co-creates spaces with young folks where they can discuss issues that affect them in their communities, explore these issues with adult community leaders, and envision their futures through artmaking.

YJI parterend with the Laramie Public Art Coalition and the Laramie Plains Civic Center. With support from these organizations, participants spent the week exploring issues, while designing a large-scale art installation under the guidance and support of public artist Conor Mullen. They identified two major themes for their piece: celebrating diversity in Laramie by making queer and BIPOC people visible through the work, and celebrating the things in their community that bring them joy.

Super stoked to be hired to this position to bring together individuals - especially young people- organizations, and resources to promote and improve the overall wellness of our community through education, collaboration, and advocacy to envision Laramie and create change in our community.

It is an honor to receive Wyoming Arts Council’s Visual Arts Fellowship for 2023. And, it’s an honor to be among an incredible cohort of visual, performing, and writing creatives in the state.

I was hired to teach cultural anthropology at Laramie County Community College. Excited to share this discipline with my community.

Thank you for to the Wyoming Humanities Council, awarding me the Crossroads Digital Preservation Grant. This funding will directly support all field work in Kemmerer-Diamondville Wyoming this summer, where I am working alongside the community to preserve coal identity and heritage amidst the backdrop of a transition to nuclear power.

I will be creating at the UW-NPS Research Station in Grand Teton National Park in July- creating 4×5 images tracing the Hayden Geological Survey of 1871. Very thankful for these opportunities, created work up end of summer.ere

I am very grateful to have just completed a residency at BLM’s Morley Nelson Snake River Birds of Prey, where I spent time photographing in the largest raptor nesting area in North America along Idaho’s Snake River…and during fledgling season.

I am showing three pieces from the Tracing an Atrocity series at the grand opening of Laramie Plains Civic Center Gorgan Gallery. Show will be up through the fall.

It is with incredible joy to announce the launch of We Are Anthracite. A project very near to my heart, and years in the making alongside University of Maryland’s Paul Shackel and the Anthracite Heritage Museum.

From the press release:

The Anthracite Heritage Museum in partnership with the University of Maryland recently completed phase one of a new digital exhibit titled “We are Anthracite” to collect and share the stories of people not represented in the museum. To share the stories of new immigrants in real time and to understand these cyclical patterns of behavior. To share the stories of people who have been in our region for centuries but whose stories weren’t presented.

Thrilled to the May artist-in-residence at Homestead National Historical Park out on the prairies of Nebraska. I’ll be creating a quilt comprising archival imagery printed on cotton, profiling and bringing visibility to women homesteaders who are often left out of historical narrative. Looking forward to researching some incredible folks like Lucretia Marshbanks and Mary Forgal Lowell.

A huge thank you to editor Yiorgos Anagnostou and interviewer Artemis Leontis for the profile in Ergon, a magazine highlighting the Greek diaspora in American through arts and letters.

You can read the piece here.

It’s a pleasure to be a part of the Newcomb’s group exhibition Unthinkable Imagination: A Creative Response to the Juvenile Justice Crisis. It’s been an honor to work alongside 20+ other artists, creating a piece in response to a respective oral history with a formerly incarcerated young person in New Orleans. My large scale photograph printed on aluminum is accompanied by a vocal track artist Renee Benson created to sing with my piece.

Opening Reception at Newcomb Art Museum of Tulane University

Saturday January 21, 2023, 2-6:30 pm