UW Personnel Contribute to Online Stories from Here May 4-8

Artist collective Sans façon will present a free, live experience, “Stories from Here,” May 4-8, broadcast each day at noon on Facebook Live by presenting partner Wyoming Public Media.

The events will transport listeners to different times and places through a read selection of funny, touching and soul-shaking memories through the voices of actors Anne Mason, the founder and producing artistic director of Laramie’s Relative Theatrics; Peter Parolin, dean of the University of Wyoming Honors College; and Apphia Campbell, a New York City writer, actress and singer.

The UW Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources, the Laramie Public Art Coalition and Wyoming Art Party support “Stories from Here” locally.

Sans façon is an art practice that responds to the relationship between people and place. Working internationally, the approach renews awareness and tempts interaction with the surroundings, and is realized through networks of communities, organizations and individuals.

“Stories from Here” was developed from a collection of personal memories as told by people living in Calgary, Canada; Kansas City, Mo.; and Laramie. Sans façon, the artist team of Tristan Surtees and Charles Blanc, visited Laramie three times in 2017-18 for the project in Laramie. The pair gathered stories from residents using a specific interview exercise derived from theater 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 will be part of “Stories from Here.”

“At a time when so many of us feel unmoored and at a loss, I can’t think of a better project to help anchor us back into place and community,” says Wyoming Art Party’s Meg Thompson. “Art helps us make sense of our world and grounds us in our shared experiences. Sans façon, in particular, taps into something magical in all of us and our everyday lives. This is evident in their stories.”

For more information, visit www.uwyo.edu/haub/events or call Amanda Korpitz, Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources, at (307) 766-6979 or email akorpitz@uwyo.edu; or call Laura McDermit, Laramie Public Art Coalition, at (724) 875-1046 or email publicartlaramie@gmail.com.

“Stories from Here” has been devised by Sans façon and developed in collaboration with theater Director Nicolas Bone, artistic director of Magnetic North in Edinburgh, Scotland; actors Mason, Parolin and Campbell; along with photographs from Mike Sinclair, of Kansas City, Mo.

Co-produced by Magnetic North, the project is 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 and the UW Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources.

“Stories from Here” brings together Sans façon works created in partnership with the Esker Foundation (Calgary), KCAI Crossroads Gallery: Center for Contemporary Practice, Laramie Public Art Coalition and UW.