Laramie Public Art

 Artist collective Sans façon presented a free, live experience, Stories from Here, May 4 through May 8, 2020. Broadcast on Facebook Live by presenting partner Wyoming Public Media each day at 12 PM MST, the events transported listeners to different times and places through a read selection of funny, touching, and soul-shaking memories through the voices of actors Anne Mason, Peter Parolin, and Apphia Campbell. Stories from Here was supported locally by the Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources at the University of Wyoming, the Laramie Public Art Coalition, and Wyoming Art Party. 

Stories from Here was developed from a collection of personal memories as told by people living in Calgary, Canada, Kansas City, Missouri, and Laramie, Wyoming. Sans façon, the artist team of Tristan Surtees and Charles Blanc, visited Laramie three times in 2017 and 2018 for the project Here, Laramie. They gathered stories from residents using a specific interview exercise derived from theatre rehearsal methods, psychoanalysis, and police cognitive interview techniques devised to jolt witnesses’ memories about the details of past events. What resulted is a collection of memories recalled in unexpected detail, bringing fascinating insights into people’s relationship to places and the complex diversity of human subconscious connection to geography. Some of these memories were part of Stories from Here. 

Stories from Here was devised by Sans façon and developed in collaboration with theatre director Nicolas Bone, actors Anne Mason, Peter Parolin, and Apphia Campbell, and with photographs by Mike Sinclair. This project was co-produced by Magnetic North and being made possible by Contemporary Calgary, KCAI Crossroads Gallery: Center for Contemporary Practice, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Wyoming Public Radio, Laramie Public Art Coalition, Wyoming Art Party, the Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources.

Stories from Here brings together works created by Sans façon in partnership with the Esker Foundation Calgary, KCAI Crossroads Gallery: Center for Contemporary Practice, Laramie Public Art Coalition and the University of Wyoming.

Local sponsors for Sans façon’s Laramie visits in 2017 and 2018, and the project Here, Laramie,  include Laramie Main Street Alliance, Laramie Public Art Coalition, First Interstate Bank, Wyoming Geographic Information Services Center, the University of Wyoming Art Museum, UW Global Engagement Office, UW Honors College, UW Department of Art and Art History, UW Department of English, UW Department of Geology and Geophysics, Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources, UW Geological Museum, Wyoming Arts Council (with support from the Wyoming Legislature and National Endowment for the Arts), Wyoming Humanities Council, and Wyoming Institute for Humanities Research.