We Live Here, 2023
Artists: Meg Thompson Stanton, Linda Lillegraven, Melodie Edwards, Ivy Engel
Current location: Albany County Public Library
We Live Here is an interactive artwork with gathered stories from community members about living in Albany County, Wyoming. The stories are housed on a vintage payphone and can be accessed through dialing. A scrapbook of photographs and paintings accompanies the stories and is available for visitors to flip through onsite.
This project is supported in part from the Wyoming Arts Council, with support from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Wyoming Legislature, and in partnership with Laramie Public Art Coalition and Albany County Public Library.
From the artists:
The vast open spaces of our county often prompt those passing through to ask: “Who Lives Here?” Well, we live here. And we love it. It is not for everyone. It is for those who feel a strong connection to our intense environment. We know the influence this unique landscape has in informing our experiences and cultures. This connection to a sense of place creates magical moments full of sensory highlights and emotional depth. We wanted to create a project to highlight these moments, this beautiful place, and our extraordinary people.
To create a more whole experience, we paired the audio stories with visuals in the attached scrapbook - photographs and paintings - related to the locations of the stories. This project also explores the value of physical objects, such as the pay phone and scrapbook, which, before cell phones and the internet, were crucial access points to history and connection with others.
This is by no means a comprehensive or complete collection that represents our entire county. It is rather a sampling of stories and histories that start to paint a picture of who lives and has lived here. Just as our community is ever changing and growing, we hope this project is just the beginning of hearing from the diverse voices who live here. We hope you enjoy this experience.
Meg, Melodie, Ivy, and Linda
Artist bios:
Melodie Edwards is the host and producer of Wyoming Public Radio's award-winning podcast “The Modern West.” Her Ghost Town(ing) series looks at rural despair and resilience through the lens of her hometown of Walden, Colorado. She has been a radio reporter at WPM since 2013, covering topics of wildlife, Native American issues, agriculture and the environment. She is the recipient of numerous regional and national audio awards.
Melodie grew up in Walden where her father worked in the oilfield and timber industries and her mother was the editor of the Jackson County Star. Later, her parents ran an Orvis fly fishing store there. She's the author of two books, “Akoreka and the League of Crows,” a young adult novel, and “Hikes Around Fort Collins.” Melodie and her husband own Night Heron Books and Coffeehouse.
Ivy Engel is a reporter at Wyoming Public Radio. Wyoming-born, she came to Laramie in 2015 for school and instantly fell in love with the city and the area. In 2020, she graduated with her bachelor’s degree in biology with minors in journalism and business. She’s loved learning more about the area, past and present, and sharing the stories of its residents throughout this project
Linda Lillegraven received her BA in art from San Diego State University in 1970, and a BS in zoology in 1972. She earned a master’s degree in biology from the University of Utah in 1975. A summer doing research in an isolated corner of Utah convinced her that she wanted more than anything to paint the great open landscapes of the West. Living in Laramie provides infinite opportunities to see and paint the high, open country she loves.
Her work is in numerous public and private collections around the West and beyond. She is represented by Ann Korologos Gallery in Basalt, Colorado, Deselms Fine Art in Cheyenne, and Big Horn Gallery in Cody. She also participates in the Coors Western Art Show, the Buffalo Bill Art Show, and the Cheyenne Frontier Days Art Show.
Meg Thompson Stanton is an artist and artisan working in Laramie who explores how we engage with our respective landscapes and how this influences our identity, both personally and culturally. She was born in Laramie in 1977 and spent her childhood on her family’s small ranch in southern Albany County. She received her B.A. from the University of Montana in 1999. After working as a carpenter throughout the West, and as a cabinetmaker in New York City, she evolved into a professional visual artist, public artist, carpenter, and furniture maker. After being away from Wyoming for 15 years, she moved back to Laramie in 2011. Meg has won several awards for her furniture and her custom pieces are in homes across the country. In 2013 she won the commission to design bike racks for downtown Laramie. She has worked on several community public art initiatives, including the Laramie Mural Project. As a founding member of Wyoming Art Party, an artist-run organization that organizes inclusive local projects that celebrate and engage our local communities, she helped develop the Laramie Pop-Up Art Walk and multiple creative workshops open to the public. From 2014-2015 she worked for the public art consulting team Piechocki-McGregor in developing the Laramie Public Art Plan. As founding director of the Laramie Public Art Coalition (2016-2019), she worked to establish a public art culture in Albany County that is focused on public participation and creating opportunities for artists. As a member of Wyoming Art Party, in 2020 Meg was invited to represent Wyoming at the national For Freedoms Conference, an arts organization co-founded by Hank Willis Thomas and Eric Gottsman focused on modeling and increasing creative civic engagement, discourse, and direct action. In the summer of 2021, she completed a large mural, Sunset at the Oasis, on the second story of the Ranger Bar in Laramie. Meg lives in Laramie with her partner and son and loves Albany County’s sense of community and outdoor opportunities.