West to East
Discover how artists across America have been inspired by their communities and the places they call home.
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Northeast
Video: What Color Is Her World?
Anne Neely pours paint over canvases to explore stories of water, nature, community, aquifers, and all that lies beneath the surface.
Article: The Nation’s Oldest Artists’ Colony Has Been Thriving for Over 100 Years
Generations of artists have been drawn to Provincetown’s distinctive light and striking seascapes. They have built an enduring creative community.
Mid-Atlantic
Article: The Appalachian Artist Making His Own Opportunities
Robby Moore channels Appalachian resourcefulness to create found object assemblages and community art spaces, opening the doors for young artists in his region.
Video: He Turns Hip-Hop Legends into Art
In a city crowded with monuments to the past, Roberto Lugo learned his first art lessons from hip-hop and Philadelphia’s murals of his neighbors, teachers, and local legends.
Pacific Northwest
Video: Artist Marie Watt Explores the Story of Turtle Island
Marie Watt, an artist and member of the Seneca Nation, takes us into the story of Turtle Island and its connection to her work, family, and Native American history.
Article: There Will Be Light
Not constrained by any one medium, style, or artistic tradition, Barbara Earl Thomas is eager to step into the unknown as she continues telling her story.
Article: The Japanese-American Artist Who Shaped Flowing Water
The multidisciplinary artist George Tsutakawa found inspiration in the Pacific Northwest’s natural environment and dedicated his life to art. His family follows in his footsteps.
Hawaiʻi
Article: Piliāmoʻo Creates Archives of Erasure and Currents of Return
Photographer duo Mark Hamasaki and Kapulani Landgraf work with communities to tell the stories of what must be protected—and restored—in Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi.
Alaska
Article: Holding Place: The Work of Alaskan Artist Sonya Kelliher-Combs
The tools, textures, and symbols of daily life in rural Alaska inspire this Indigenous artist to create works that tell layered stories of loss and resilience.
West
Article: The Last of the Buffalo and their Revival
Albert Bierstadt’s twin paintings of the disappearing American bison became part of the movement to save the animal from extinction.
Article: The Once Great Salt Lake
Utah artists respond to the receding lake, mourning what is disappearing but also imagining a future in which it endures.
Southwest
Video: “Where the Earth Meets the Sky”
Artist Charles Ross spent half his life making “Star Axis,” a work of art that allows you to travel 13,000 years into the future and 13,000 years into the past.
Article: Emmi Whitehorse Paints the Harmonies of Her Homelands
How the Diné artist's serene paintings "tell the story of knowing land over time."
Article: Sentinels and Sprawl: Photographs of the Saguaro Cactus
As the presence of humans changes the Sonoran Desert, photographers capture the impact on the saguaro cactus.
Article: Art that Represents, and Misrepresents, the US-Mexico Border
How contemporary artists working in El Paso and Juárez counter mainstream narratives of the region.
Article: Mark Klett's Rephotography of the American West
How the photographer’s journey tracking down views from 19th century photographs altered the writer’s understanding of space and time.
Southeast
Article: A Peacemaker’s Prayer for Change in Birmingham
Joe Minter has spent more than three decades creating an environmental artwork on his property. He hopes it can heal the world’s spiritual wounds through its messages of love and connection.
Video: Stitching Mississippi Stories
Coulter Fussell, a diner waitress turned artist, makes her kids’ Snapchat messages into art.
Article: A New Way for Old Jugs: Creating the Nation’s Handmade Pottery Capital in North Carolina
For more than 100 years, descendants of country potter James Henry Owen have sustained—and innovated on—the new style of pottery he crafted with artist Jacques Busbee.
Video: Spirits of the Caribbean
Edouard Duval-Carrie creates seductive and fantastical art works inspired by Vodou spirits and the Haitian diaspora.
South Central
Video: Rick Lowe's Art Blends Canvas and Community in Houston's Third Ward
Rick Lowe, artist and community organizer, takes us to his home in the 3rd ward of Houston, Texas.
Article: What Is an Artist’s Role in Preserving Louisiana’s Coastline?
New Orleans artist Hannah Chalew explores how her own work and practice can contribute to a sustainable future.
Article: Making Home Anew with Clay and Fire
Oklahoma potter Richard Zane Smith revives techniques, memories, and practices of Waⁿdat culture.
Midwest
Article: Potter Richard Bresnahan Navigates an “Eco-mutual” Future
The Minnesota artist's humanist, ecological pottery contains operating instructions for our shared survival.
Article: Modernist Barns and Modern Farmers
How Grant Wood, Georgia O’Keeffe, and Thomas Hart Benton depicted the humble structures—and how they mask the struggles of farmers today.
Article: Iowa Artists Craft Complex Visions of the Rural
How artists based in Iowa, from the early 20th century to today, have crafted their own visions of the region.
Article: Called Back: On George Morrison, Land Acknowledgement, and Returning Home
In her tribute to the late George Morrison, Ojibwe artist Andrea Carlson asks, how can Indigenous artists be called back to the land?
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