The Ucross Foundation has announced the newest recipient of its fellowship for Native American Visual Artists.
Luzene Hill is a conceptual and performance artist whose work includes drawings, installations, and multimedia. Recently, her work has tackled issues such as the high numbers of missing and murdered Native American women and violence against women.
Hill is a member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and is based in Atlanta.
For the fellowship, she will receive a one-month residency at Ucross in August as well as a $2,000 stipend and the opportunity to show her work in the Ucross Foundation Art Gallery in 2020.
The Ucross Artist Residency program is a chance for artists to step away from their daily lives and focus on their art. The Fellowship for Native American Visual Artists first began in 2017, with the intention to support Native American artists who work in visual mediums.
Hill said she is grateful to Ucross for the opportunity and that the fellowship provides space for Native American artists to pursue their work.
"It's hard for us to have a voice about our social issues and about our culture. So I'm very excited that a non-Native organization is interested in giving us an opportunity to be heard and seen," she said.
Hill said she recently has been working on art installations and that she wants to use the residency as a chance to focus on drawing.
"I think that that intensity and single-minded kind of focus is going to push my drawing up to a different level that I know is there for me," she said.
Hill said she is interested in exploring ideas of empowerment in her art.
The Ucross Foundation hosts an artist residency program that allows artists from around the country to take time to focus on their art, whether that is writing, music or visual art. The residency program has notable alumni such as Eat Pray Love author Elizabeth Gilbert and Annie Proulx, the author of The Shipping News and Brokeback Mountain. The foundation and residency program is located in Northeastern Wyoming on a 20,000-acre working ranch.
