2024 SUMMER PROGRAMS
Click the link for Program Schedule and details
Workshops
Community Field Sketching Group with Kristin Link: June 11, July 9, August 6 & 13
Kristin Link leads a local sketching group on Tuesdays from 4-6pm (location varies).
Insight Outside: A Contemplative Nature Writing Weekend with Michelle Latvala: August 3 & 4
Last year's one-day workshop was so successful, we are expanding it this year to a two-day workshop! Don’t miss this special workshop that integrates nature writing, meditative walking, and personal reflection into a full weekend immersed in the wild nature around McCarthy. Everyone is welcome. No previous experience is needed.
Community Events
Workday Party - May 25, 9am - 4pm
Kick off your Memorial Day Weekend with WMC friends and show the Old Hardware Store some love. All skill levels welcome! Bring gloves (if you have ‘em), water bottle, and a smile. We’ll provide lunch and a gaggle of your WMC friends.
Spring Bird Walk with Mark Vail - May 26 @ 8am
We continue the annual tradition of walking with Mark Vail as he brings to life the fascinating social world of the summer birds who live in the Wrangell Mountains. Meet in front of the Old Hardware Store. The walk will leave promptly at 8am. Coffee, tea and snacks will be served. $10 suggested donation.
Writing Workshop and Jam with Ken Waldman - June 2 @ 3pm
Writer, musician and fiddler, Ken Waldman, will host a writing workshop and informal jam session with participants on Sunday at 3pm.
The Workshop - FOUR PROMPTS: THE BEGINNING OF FOUR NEW STORIES OR POEMS
“The more you write, the luckier you get--and each time you start a piece, there's an opportunity to get luckier than ever. The trick is getting started. Here, you'll not only begin four new pieces, but will learn strategies to begin many more. The two-hour session is open to writers and storytellers of all levels and experience. Both beginning and seasoned writers and storytellers will leave with something new they'll be happy to have started.”
Following the workshop, Ken will share a few short poems and stories, play a fiddle tune or two, and open it up for both a Word Jam and Music Jam.
In addition to being a fiddler (with twelve CDs), Ken Waldman is a former college professor with an MFA in Creative Writing. He has sixteen full-length poetry collections, a memoir (about his life as a touring artist), a children's book, a creative writing manual, a novel, and over 400 of his stories, poems, and nonfiction pieces have appeared in such journals as Poet Lore, Beloit Poetry Journal, and Poets & Writers Magazine. www.kenwaldman.com
“Rocks and Ice” Geology Presentation with Mike Loso - June 6 @ 7pm
A part of our Summer Arts & Lecture Series: Join Mike Loso, Wrangell St-Elias National Park Service Geologist, for an overview of the geologic history of the Kennicott Valley and an update on latest findings about the Kennicott Glacier. His talk is open to the public, and is aimed towards guides, interpreters, pilots, NPS staff, and others interested in learning more about local area geology and sharing it with friends and visitors. The presentation will be held at the Kennecott Recreation Hall.
UAF International Summer School in Glaciology Presentation - June 13 @ 8:30pm
A part of our Summer Arts & Lecture Series: University of Alaska Fairbanks students of the International Summer School in Glaciology will hold a presentation at the Old Hardware Store. Suggested donation: $10.
Glaciers on a Global Stage: Sea-Level Rise and the West Antarctic Ice Sheet
The glaciers of the Wrangells may seem huge, but they're small compared to the monsters of Antarctica. As the world warms, the entire West Antarctic Ice Sheet is at risk of disintegrating, which could contribute several feet to global sea level in the next few centuries. This process has already begun. We'll talk about the work that scientists are doing in West Antarctica to learn about the changes currently taking place, and the race to learn more about how glaciers work to accurately predict future rates and amounts of sea-level rise. In particular, we'll show some field photos and data from Thwaites Glacier, the so-called "Doomsday Glacier" of West Antarctica, where some of the largest changes are happening.
Artist in Residence Community Engagement - June 16th, 3-6pm
We welcome paper artist, Star Padilla and muralist Addie Boswell to share their Artist Talk and Hands-on Workshop!
Learn about the meandering creative paths of our resident artists and what brought them from Oregon and Hawaii to Alaska for the summer. See the work they've been making and how they experiment with non-traditional and gleaned media, such as junk mail, recycled paper, magazines, multi-layer plastics, candy wrappers, and more. Leave with your own small art piece or contribute to the community collage the artists design.
To prep for their community engagement...
WE WOULD LOVE YOUR HELP!
Star and Addie are asking the community to collect the following items (feel free to drop supplies off at the WMC any time!):
-- multilayer plastics (chip bags, frozen food bags, food packaging)
-- molded plastic packaging
-- plastic bottle caps
-- microplastics that wash up on the beach
-- flat surfaces like tyvek, foam core, laminate
-- color magazines / catalogues / SEED catalogs are good
-- 12 month calendars / old photos
-- scrapbook papers / origami papers / scrap paper
-- greeting cards / xmas cards
-- xmas wrapping paper / paper gift bags
Word Jams - June 23, July 7, July 21, August 4
Sundays at 6pm. Join us in the Great Room at the Old Hardware Store every other Sunday for a night of open mic - WMC style - storytelling, poetry, song, comedy, skits, and any creative venture involving words. Come hungry! We will serve finger-style dinner for sale before the event. Stay tuned for our menus.
Finder Scope: Talk and Reading with Poets Kevin Craft and Jeremy Pataky - June 28 @ 7pm
Meet in Porphyry Place. Poetry, like geology and glaciology, teaches us something about the nature of time. Slow time. Deep time. The material sublime. In a culture of daily grind and digital distraction, the better part of wonder, not to say wisdom, comes embedded in layers: rock and wood and ice. Drawing from his time as an artist in residence at Olympic National Park and a long career hiking and mapping the North Cascades, Craft, author of Traverse (WSU Press), taps the songs of non-human nature, from avalanche meadow to magma chamber, from migratory flyway to glacial moraine, aiming to grow our notion of what it means to be alive in this human-changed / human-changing world.
Kevin will appear with local poet Jeremy Pataky, author of Overwinter (U Alaska Press), for whom poetry and a practice of attention stave off toponesia—loss of connection with place—even as dynamic places like the Wrangells, Alaska’s most hospitable glacier habitat, change with precipitous beauty.
About Kevin Craft: Kevin lives in Seattle and directs the Written Arts Program at Everett Community College. For two decades he served as a faculty director of the University of Washington’s Writers in Rome Program. His books include Solar Prominence, selected by Vern Rutsala for the Gorsline Prize from Cloudbank Books (2005), and Vagrants & Accidentals, published in the Pacific Northwest Poets Series of the University of Washington Press (2017). He has received fellowships and awards from the Bread Loaf Writers Conference, MacDowell Colony, the Bogliasco Foundation (Italy), the Camargo Foundation (France), 4Culture, The Jack Straw Cultural Center, PLAYA, and Artist Trust. In 2022 he was Artist in Residence at Olympic National Park, and often volunteers as a lookout steward in the North Cascades. Editor of Poetry Northwest from 2009 – 2016, he now serves as Executive Editor of Poetry NW Editions.
Interdependence Day Pancake Fundraiser - July 4, 8am-11am
Come on out to the Old Hardware store for an all-you-can-eat pancake breakfast! In collaboration with the McCarthy-Kennecott Museum. All proceeds benefit the Wrangell Mountains Center and the Museum. Thanks for your support!
Stories of Our Landscape - July 27 & 28
A part of our Summer Arts & Lecture Series: During this two day weekend artist exhibit and community event, participants will engage with the inspirational, cultural, and foundational relationships to place in the Wrangell Mountains through community discussion, and presentations in the arts and sciences. In collaboration with NPS, community discussion facilitated by geologist, Mike Loso, and with special guest and Hereditary Clan Leader, Wilson Justin, featuring the artwork of Karolina Zakravska exhibited in the Rec Hall on both days. Click the link above for more details!
Artist in Residence Community Engagement - August 9, 4-6pm
Making Place: Combining prints and words
Artists in residence, Tyler Thenikl and Sarah Gilman will lead a joint workshop on printing and illustrated poetry related to place. Participants may bring a dried sample of soil (about 1 cup) from a location of personal significance, whether it is from their home, their memories, travels, research, interests, etc. Tyler will help participants create abstract prints from these samples using soil chromatography, turning each into a visual representation of its original location, alluding to the qualities and composition of the soil through various colors, shapes, and patterns. While the quieter parts of that process play out, Sarah will lead participants in an exercise writing brief, vivid poems to be combined with their final prints to make mini, multi-modal portraits of the places they've selected. Print materials are limited, so for overflow participants, other art supplies will be available for illustrating the poems they write in the workshop.
Available to the first 10 participants. To register, please contact Sabrina at sabrina@wrangells.org
Wrangell Mountains Storytelling Festival - August 10 & 11
This charmed, grassroots event is held at The Old Hardware Store and the Glacier View campground on McCarthy’s west side, where local storytellers congregate to spin yarns, share lies and half-truths as well as tell honest-to-god true and incredible stories leaving the audience never quite clear on whether they have heard a true story or a tall tale. This event is the talk of the town every summer.
Half Marathon and 5 Mile Run - Sunday, Sept 1, Noon
A race unlike any other through the largest National Park in America. Race starts at McCarthy River Tours & Outfitters (aka As The Glacier Melts Coffee & Ice Cream Shop) on the West Side (Mile 59 of the McCarthy Road). The route goes up to Kennecott National Historic Landmark and back down to historic, downtown McCarthy and follows gravel, dirt roads and packed dirt trails. $30 per person registration; $15 under 16. Proceeds benefit the WMC. Register online or at the starting line. Race starts at noon; registration opens at 11 am.
Youth Programming
Geology Camp (Youth) - July 23-26
The WMC partners with WISE (Wrangell Institute for Science and Environment) to host this unique, immersive program for youth ages 12-16. Participants hear from geologists and naturalists, camp next to the Root Glacier, explore the glacier, and have plenty of time to connect with their peers. Space is limited so please contact sabrina@wrangells.org if you have interest in signing up your child.
Academic Programming
The Wrangell Mountains Field Studies Program is now partnered with the University of Maine School of Earth Sciences. Together we are offering a 7 week and 6 credit course to students from all over the world. Students will spend a total of 3 weeks on our campus and 4 weeks in the backcountry, led by instructors Kristin Link, and UMaine PhD students, Joey Boots-Ebenfield and Inga Kindsedt. The program will offer a public presentation on our campus towards the end of the course. The program runs from June 22 - August 10.
Residency
Meg Hunt Artist in Residence: This is one of our most beloved art programs, a two-week artist residency program, an immersive creative experience in North America’s largest National Park. The Wrangell Mountains Residency Program aims to support artists of all genres, writers, and inquiring minds. We invite applicants with creative and inquisitive minds who will both add to and benefit from the interdisciplinary efforts at our community hub in McCarthy, Alaska and the surrounding Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve. In 2024 we will host four residencies: June 5-19 and July 30 - August 13. Applications are now closed.
Podcast & Virtual Events
End of The Road Podcast: We explore the unique stories that shape our lives, out here in the remote Wrangell Mountains. Listen to Season 4, out now!
For more information, please email sabrina@wrangells.org or call 907-554-1500
You can check out past programs and events here.
Photo by Paul Scannell