For thousands of years, on a cliff above Hyattville, generations of Indigenous folks have made petroglyphic marks on the stone. There are a handful of early 20th century names etched into that same stone — including one that reads "Jinks Burgess." We set out to find the person behind that signature, and in the process uncovered the story of a homesteading boy- a story that can know be included in park interpretation.

Mining history in Wyoming rarely gets told as a humanities question. It lives in geology departments, in energy policy, in economic development reports — rarely in the same room as labor history, immigration, art, and memory. Western Mining Humanities is built to put those rooms together.

Democracy, at its best, sounds less like a debate stage and more like a conversation at the next table over. That's the spirit behind the Candidate Happy Hour, happening Friday, July 17th from 5:30–8 pm at 1st Street Plaza — and ALCES Community Works was glad to pitch in with swag for the evening.

Ceremonia, a mixed media exhibition by ALCES's inaugural artist-in-residence Sarah Frary, weaves personal writing on her relationship with plants and traditional plant knowledge. On view at the Berry Biodiversity Center.

This June, ALCES supported artist scholarships for Eight Fires Creative Camp — five days of making, teaching, and belonging at the foot of the Tetons.

We Are Not Conquered: Looking at History Through the Scope of Federal Indian Law — a talk and art event presented by "History on Every Corner" featuring speaker Taneha Watts (WhiteEarth Nation), held July 1, 2026 at the UW Art Museum in conversation with Dana Claxton's Hip Hop NDN. ALCES provided organizational support and community outreach.

On June 5 and 6, ALCES joined STEM educators from community colleges across Wyoming in Casper, supporting the Impact STEM transfer initiative and LAMP with guidance on arts-integrated pedagogy.

For three weeks this June, Building a New World from the Shell of the Old turned Gorgon Gallery into a room where labor history and the present tense sat down together. Curated by ALCES alongside the Working-Class Studies Association Conference, the exhibition gathered seven artists — and every visitor willing to fill out a time card — around a single question: what kind of world are we building, shift by shift?

Artemisia tridentata—sagebrush—roots in alkaline soil, in scarcity, in wind. It does not wait for better conditions. It makes the conditions. It blooms where it is. Artemisia tridentata: From Rugged Soil brings together queer Wyoming artists at MASS Gallery in Austin, Texas. The work gathered here grows from that same hard ground: art made not in spite of place, but because of it.

On May 26, we joined students, community partners, and neighbors at Laramie High School to celebrate something that had been quietly growing all year — a new mural, and the young leaders who made it happen.

Public Lands // Public Hands is a responsive initiative from Alces that brings together artists from across Wyoming with public lands advocates and policymakers to co-create a series of free, accessible posters celebrating—and fighting for—our shared public lands.

This spring, ALCES Community Works was glad to support Relative Theatrics' PLAY/WRITE showcase, lending creative prop support, tech support, and hospitality to the adult actors bringing nine student-written plays to life on stage. We believe in what happens when kids are trusted with real artistic tools.

On May 10th, ALCES Community Works was proud to support Tales from Wyoming — an afternoon of storytelling, singing, fibbing, humming, yodeling, and whatever else Shawn Hess, Hillery Lynn, and J Shogren felt moved to do in front of a room full of people.

Alces supported Paño Connections in preparing the Traveling Prison Art Exhibition, a nationally recognized initiative featuring the Conviction Series by founder Eric “Christo” Martinez alongside works from its permanent collection. The collective fosters dialogue and rehabilitation through art created by incarcerated and formerly incarcerated artists, their families, and communities affected by mass incarceration.

We work with Cheyenne’s Hellenic House and Cultural Center to support the preservation and continued operation of Wyoming’s only Greek cultural center. Together, we are documenting and amplifying stories of Greek immigration, labor, contribution, and cultural life in Wyoming.

Community Kitchen is our cultural exchange project that brings people together through shared cooking, storytelling, and care. Each gathering centers a family from our local community, inviting them to share food traditions from their home culture while cooking alongside neighbors in Laramie.

In partnership with Laramie Interfaith, Alces commissioned artist Rhiannon Jakopak to create Bright Strength, a site-specific mural for the organization’s lobby —an environment where care, resource-sharing, and mutual support are practiced daily.

In Good Hands is our ongoing public art initiative that places original artwork inside two of Laramie's most essential healthcare spaces: 7220 Counseling, which specializes in LGBTQIA+ mental health, and the Downtown Clinic, which serves our uninsured neighbors, and Laramie Reproductive Health which supports us in all our reproductive health needs!

When our immigrant neighbors are loved and supported, our whole community is stronger. ALCES Community Works contributed promotional design and printing to support Juntos Wyoming's Immigration Justice Fundraiser — a night of music, food, drinks, and community solidarity at the Laramie Plains Civic Center.

This minigrant program expended $3,000 statewide to immigrant and second-generation storytellers in Wyoming to bring a specific creative project to completion. Through small, flexible grants and optional support for a community gathering or public sharing, we created space for storytellers to work with care, autonomy, and intention.