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.

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.

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.

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.

Alces is consulting with Maravilla — a retreat center in Taos whose invitation to reconnect with wonder draws seekers, artists, and thinkers to one of the most creatively charged landscapes in the American West — on the development of their artist residency program.

With support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, we curated an evening with intergenerational Albany County residents, sharing a meal and participating in a guided conversation focused on community challenges, diverse perspectives, and collective hopes for the future.

Through Art for All, we provided free arts-integrated opportunities for seven Laramie nonprofits, tailoring each collaboration to the unique needs of our partners. We worked closely with local artists to bring the joy of artmaking into community spaces—supporting them through commissions, purchasing artwork, and hiring them to lead workshops.

The Youth Justice Institute (YJI) wasrooted in youth voice and action. It supported community-building, civic education, and resource mapping with teens in Albany County from 2021-2025.  We supported spaces and programming where young folks can discuss issues that affect them in their communities, explore these issues with adult community leaders, and envision their futures through art making.  

Alces partnered with the Laramie Plains Civic Center to design interpretive materials that illuminate the rich history of the building. Drawing from LPCC’s archival collections and historical documents, we created a public-facing exhibit that shares the layered story of the space, from its origins to its evolving role in the community.