Kansas Arts Commission Announces 2025 Tallgrass Artists-in-Residence

The Kansas Arts Commission (KAC) has announced the selection of 10 outstanding artists and artistic teams from across the United States who will participate in the 2025 Tallgrass Artist Residency program. The residency offers artists time and space to retreat and research in the rural setting of Matfield Green, just south of the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve in Chase County. More than half of the selected artists are from Kansas.

“Matfield Green supports the Kansas arts community by connecting these residents to our state and each other through art and the tallgrass prairie,” Lieutenant Governor and Secretary of Commerce David Toland said. “The artists will be challenged and inspired by this amazing space — and I’m excited to see how their future works will uplift the communities and regions they represent.”

While at the retreat, each artist will give a public program during their residency period. These programs engage the public with the artists through meaningful, unique experiences during workshops, demonstrations and presentations. Residents also participate in a group exhibition and symposium at the Fall Gathering event in Matfield Green on Saturday, October 4.

“These artists come to the residency to pursue their research and artistic practices as well as share their work with the Kansas community,” Tallgrass Founder Kelly Yarbrough said, “but so often, alumni of the program talk about how their experience in this place goes on to impact their work in unexpected ways.”

“They benefit from direct experience with the beautiful and complex Kansas prairie while gaining knowledge from rangers and researchers at the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve,” the Manhattan-based media artist and arts administrator Yarbrough continued, “and they gain deeper understanding through conversations with local community members.”

The program is celebrating its 10^th year, having welcomed the first group of residents in 2016. Since then, it has provided a nurturing environment for creative exploration and community engagement. With this year’s cohort included, a total of 91 artists have participated in the program.

The 2025 Tallgrass Artists-in-Residence:

Rachel Atakpa, Lawrence: Raised in a rural railroad town and a self-described “poet for possibility,” Atakpa is a multidisciplinary artist whose work has been published as poetry as well as for multimedia gallery installations.
Justice Catron, Manhattan: As a Cherokee artist born in Oklahoma, Catron’s ceramics work investigates how “Nativeness” is lived and perceived, and the struggle inherent in opposing inward- and outward-facing identities.
Mark Cowardin, Lawrence: Working in a variety of scales from compact to large installations, Cowardin’s sculptural work examines the complicated, sometimes troubling and always compelling intersection between humans and the natural world.
Clay Gonzalez, Ypsilanti, Mich.: As the 2025 “ecoregion exchange” resident, Gonzalez is a sound artist, composer and music director based in southeast Michigan. He founded and leads “Regenerate,” a community-engagement project that reimagines the orchestra as a space of play, shared joy and meaningful connection.
Caroline Honas, Kansas City, Kan.: Primarily an oil painter, Honas also incorporates sewing, piecing and quilting into her work as an ode to her family’s generational craftsmanship.
Aimee Inglis, Pawhuska, Okla.: Through the study of poetry and the development of her artistic practice as a poet, Inglis seeks to inspire others towards personal and social transformation. Inglis is a citizen of the Osage Nation and is a fellow with Indigenous Nations Poets.
Carrie Miller, Longmont, Colo.: As a textile artist, Miller describes her working process and material curiosity as the product of an untamed childhood. She is also Adjunct Faculty at Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design.
Jason Reed, New Braunfels, Texas: With a background in geography, Reed’s work deals with the confluence of land, culture, natural resources and visual histories through varying modes of photographic representation.
Kory Reeder, Denton, Texas: A modern classical music composer, Keeder works with opera, theater and dance programs, as well as noise, free-improv and new media artists on projects ranging from video collaborations to 24-hour live performance art works.
Erin Wiersma and Katie Kingery-Page, Manhattan: Since 2018, artist Wiersma and landscape architect Kingery-Page have collaborated on visual and audio documents of places, calling their teamwork “Grassland Interview.” For the Tallgrass Residency, the team will bring their established skill in collaborative public programming to a new body of work meditating on succession plants and disturbed sites near Matfield Green.