Will Wilson at The Westmoreland for Programs Press Release

GREENSBURG, Pennsylvania (May 7, 2019) – The Westmoreland Museum of American Art welcomes artist Will Wilson for two programs tied to the Mingled Visions: The Photographs of Edward S. Curtis and Will Wilson and The Outsider’s Gaze exhibitions, which are on view through June 30.
On Saturday, May 18, from 10 AM to 5 PM, Wilson will provide a demonstration of the “tintype” photography process that he uses in his work, and 12 pre-registered attendees selected through a lottery will have the opportunity to be photographed by Wilson. One may register for this free event at thewestmoreland.org/events or call 1.888.718.4253. On Sunday, May 19, from 2-3:30 PM, Wilson will be joined by Jami Powell, Associate Curator of Native American Art at the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College, for a conversation about his motivations for creating the Critical Indigenous Photographic Exchange, which features photographic portraits of Native Americans. Ticket prices are $8 for members of the Museum and $10 for non-members. To purchase tickets, one may visit thewestmoreland.org/events or call 1.888.718.4253.
Please see below for more information on both programs.
Tintype Photography Demonstration and Photoshoot with Artist Will Wilson
Saturday, May 18, 10am-5pm

Using a large format camera and the historic wet plate collodion process, the artist Will Wilson invites the public to engage in the ritual interchange that is the photographic studio portrait. As a gesture of reciprocity, the artist will gift the sitter the tintype produced during the exchange with the caveat that he be granted a non-exclusive right to create and use a high resolution scan of their image for his own artistic purposes. Everyone is welcome to meet and watch Wilson at work, but due to the time consuming nature of the process only 12 attendees will have the opportunity to sit for a portrait. Sitters will be selected at random from the list of registrants and sent a time slot for their session. One must be registered by Sunday, May 5 at 11:59pm to have the possibility to be selected as a sitter. ​
Click here to register or call 1.888.718.4253.
In Conversation: Will Wilson and Jami Powell
Sunday, May 19, 2-3:30pm
Jami Powell, a citizen of the Osage Nation, is the Associate Curator of Native American Art at the Hood Museum of Art; and as a sitter of Will Wilson’s, she will discuss his artistic process and the motivation behind his Critical Indigenous Photographic Exchange (CIPX) Project. Enjoy a conversation between artist and sitter and gain an inside understanding of photographic portraiture from both perspectives.
Click here to purchase tickets or call 1.888.718.4253.
 
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About Will Wilson
Will Wilson is a Diné photographer who spent his formative years living in the Navajo Nation. Born in San Francisco in 1969, Wilson studied photography at the University of New Mexico (Dissertation Tracked MFA in Photography, 2002) and Oberlin College (BA, Studio Art and Art History, 1993). In 2007, Wilson won the Native American Fine Art Fellowship from the Eiteljorg Museum and in 2010 was awarded a prestigious grant from the Joan Mitchell Foundation. Wilson has held visiting professorships at the Institute of American Indian Arts (1999-2000), Oberlin College (2000-01) and the University of Arizona (2006-08). From 2009 to 2011, Wilson managed the National Vision Project, a Ford Foundation funded initiative at the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts in Santa Fe, and helped to coordinate the New Mexico Arts Temporary Installations Made for the Environment (TIME) program on the Navajo Nation. Wilson is part of the Science and Arts Research Collaborative (SARC) which brings together artists interested in using science and technology in their practice with collaborators from Los Alamos National Laboratory and Sandia Labs as part of the International Symposium on Electronic Arts, 2012 (ISEA). Recently, Wilson completed an exhibition and artist residency at the Denver Art Museum and is currently the King Fellow artist in residence at the School of Advanced Research in Santa Fe, NM.
About The Westmoreland Museum of American Art
Offering a place to share compelling and meaningful cultural experiences that open the door to new ideas, perspectives and possibilities, The Westmoreland Museum of American Art in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, is the only museum dedicated to American art in western Pennsylvania. The Westmoreland’s extraordinary permanent collection, with its strong focus on the art and artists of Southwestern Pennsylvania, is complemented by an impressive schedule of temporary exhibitions— both nationally traveling and those organized in house—as well as community-oriented programming and special events. More information is available at thewestmoreland.org and on the Museum’s Facebook, Twitter and Instagram profiles.
Generous support for these programs provided by Art Bridges.
The Outsider’s Gaze is one in a series of American art exhibitions created through a multi-year, multi-institutional partnership formed by the Philadelphia Museum of Art as part of the Art Bridges + Terra Foundation initiative.
Support for both Mingled Visions: The Photographs of Edward S. Curtis and Will Wilson and The Outsider’s Gaze has been provided by the Hillman Exhibition Fund of The Westmoreland Museum of American Art.
This project was completed in partnership with the Rivers of Steel Heritage Area. Funding was provided in part by a grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, Bureau of Recreation and Conservation, Environmental Stewardship Fund, administered by the Rivers of Steel Heritage Corp.
The Westmoreland receives funding support through a grant from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania; the Marketing to Attract Tourism Grant through the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development; and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency, among other funding from government, foundations, corporations and individuals.