Al And Ann Simpson Fellowship at Ucross Awarded to Wyoming Artist

November 19, 2025

News – Sheridan Media

On November 18 the Ucross Foundation, the acclaimed artist residency program in northern Wyoming, announced that Wyoming-based visual artist Jennifer Rife is the inaugural recipient of the Al and Ann Simpson Fellowship at Ucross.

The Al and Ann Simpson Fellowship at Ucross is a new residency that supports visual artists from Wyoming with four weeks of uninterrupted time, individual studio space, staff support and the unmatched experience of the majestic High Plains. The fellowship was announced at the Ucross Gala in 2024, which honored Senator Alan K. and Mrs. Ann Simpson with the Raymond Plank Award for Visionary Leadership for their significant impact on the arts, in addition to their work across national and state government, health, land stewardship and beyond.

“We are thrilled to award Jennifer Rife with the inaugural Al and Ann Simpson Fellowship at Ucross,” said Caitlin Addlesperger, Ucross President and Executive Director. “As a land artist and proud Wyomingite, Jennifer’s work reflects the spirit of both Ucross and the Simpsons — connected to place and rooted in community. We couldn’t imagine a more fitting artist to launch this important fellowship that celebrates the creative spirit in Wyoming.”

Rife’s four-week residency concluded in late October.

“As an artist living in Wyoming, the fact that Ucross values those of us from here and gives us the opportunity to experience such a high-class residency is a wonderful gift,” Rife said. “I am especially honored to have been the inaugural recipient of the Al and Ann Simpson Fellowship.”

After 20 years of residing in Cheyenne, Wyoming, Rife has established the American West as her home. Originally hailing from rural Colorado, she has explored a variety of geographies across the world. This enhanced her love and appreciation of the West’s wide-open spaces, sparse population and vast skies.

The built environment she has seen along the way provides endless references for her ephemeral art installations on the land, created with objects she makes in her studio. Rife’s installations leave little trace: Viewers experience the work as digital photographs of unfamiliar objects in remote landscapes. Through her practice, she considers how humans interact with the land.

“My residency at Ucross was all I hoped it would be,” Rife said. “I was able to explore the effects of time and weather on my land installation that remained onsite for the duration of my stay, a departure from my usual ephemeral work. New ideas and paths to explore came my way, and I connected with some really incredible creative people.”

Rife was one of five Wyoming artists under consideration in 2024’s “Women to Watch: New Worlds” at the National Museum for Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C.; her work was on view in “Wyoming Women to Watch,” an exhibition that traveled throughout the state — including the Ucross Art Gallery —throughout 2024. Her work has been exhibited throughout the U.S. and featured in books and articles. She received a Wyoming Arts Council Visual Arts Fellowship in 2016.

Since Ucross’s first residencies were awarded in 1983, more than 3,000 artists have received the gift of time and space. Distinguished Fellows include Annie Proulx, Terry Tempest Williams, Elizabeth Gilbert, Ann Patchett, Bill Morrison, Theaster Gates, Anthony Hernandez and Tayari Jones. National Book Award winners Susan Choi, Sigrid Nunez and Sarah M. Broom have been residents, as have Academy Award and Tony winners Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, Emmy Award winner Billy Porter, Pulitzer Prize winner Colson Whitehead and former three-term U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo.

The Ucross Gala & Benefit raised funds to support the inaugural fellowship; Ucross is currently fundraising to endow the fellowship to support Wyoming visual artists while honoring the Simpsons in perpetuity.

To learn more about Ucross and the Al and Ann Simpson Fellowship, visit ucross.org.

For more information about Ucross contact Emi Whiting, Ucross Communications Associate at ewhiting@ucross.org | Phone: 307.737.2291 or go to ucrossfoundation.org.

Feature photo courtesy of Ucross