Artists Selected For 2012-13 AIR Program

Joshua Tree National Park is pleased to announce the selections for its 2012-2013 Artist-In-Residence (AIR) program. Two visual artists, a performance artist, and a writer were invited to participate in the program's fifth year of providing residential opportunities to artists from around the nation.

The selected artists are Gedney Barclay, a performance artist based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Painter Deanne Belinoff of Seattle, Washington; Kelly Booth, a printmaker living in Vallejo, California; and writer Wendy Call from Seattle, Washington. Jo Going, a watercolorist from Homer, Alaska; photographer Chuck Kimmerle from Casper, Wyoming; and Edward Bok Lee, a writer from Minneapolis, Minnesota, were selected as alternates.

The park will provide accommodations for the artists for two to six weeks so that they may create work in their chosen medium. The residencies will take place during October and November 2012 and March and April 2013. Through partnerships established with other cultural, environmental, and civic organizations within the region, the artists will produce a program or exhibit to engage members of communities surrounding the park.

A jury comprised of five local artists made the selections from a pool of 45 applicants. The criteria included relevance of the applicant's proposal to the mission of Joshua Tree National Park, the caliber of the work, and the feasibility of the proposed project within NPS guidelines. The AIR program tries to ensure that a variety of disciplines is represented.

Superintendent Mark Butler said he was very proud of the work done by the park and its partners to ensure that visiting artists had a positive experience during their residency. Because the Artist-In-Residence program supports the park's overall mission, "We hope to inspire people to experience their parks as places where creative expression is valued, along with the more traditional conservation and recreational values."

Information about Joshua Tree's Artist-In-Residence program is available on the Joshua Tree National Park Association website. Air Coordinator Caryn Davidson can be reached at 760-367-3012 and by email.