Matthews selected for arts residency

November 4, 2014

University Relations

Mary Matthews, director of UAF Disability Services, will spend eight weeks in residence at the McColl Center for Arts and Innovation in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Matthews is one of four Alaskans selected for the 2015 Artist Residency Program by the Rasmuson Foundation.

Matthews hopes to create a piece about the experience of disability, incorporating concepts about the connections women feel to each other and how they identify and find influences.

The Rasmuson Foundation launched the residency program last year. It sends four Alaska artists to the Lower 48 and brings four Lower 48 artists to Alaska for 60-day residencies. The other Alaska artists selected for 2015 are Ernestine Hayes, a writer in Juneau; Linda Lyons, a visual artist and painter in Anchorage; and Michael Walsh, a media artist and filmmaker in Homer.

The Rasmuson Foundation was created in 1955 by Jenny Rasmuson to honor her late husband, “E.A.” Rasmuson, who had owned the National Bank of Alaska. The foundation seeks to be a catalyst to promote a better life for all Alaskans.