MARIPOSA, CA – The Mariposa County Arts Council is thrilled to announce the 2026 Mariposa Creek Parkway Artist-in-Residency (AiR) Program recipients. Anna Friedland and the Bootjack Clay Shack have been selected to represent the Local Artists category for the residency program. Stephanie Troyan and Mariah-Rose Marie have been chosen for the Visiting Artists category. In addition, a full schedule of artists have been selected to participate in the year-round Traditional Arts Residency led by the Southern Sierra Miwuk Nation.
The AiR program is a pilot initiative funded by California Arts in Parks and is a local partnership between the Southern Sierra Miwuk Nation, Sierra Foothill Conservancy, and Mariposa County. This initiative invites emerging, mid-career, and distinguished artists of all art forms to respond and engage with the unique cultural, ecological, and wildfire challenges of the Mariposa Creek Parkway by embedding artists deeply within the landscape. The program will include public engagement opportunities, such as workshops and creek walks, to further contribute to the vibrant cultural activation along the Parkway and encourage a reciprocal relationship between artists and the local community. This is a model for how public parks can foster climate adaptation, cultural continuity, and civic imagination, through the transformative power of the arts.
At the conclusion of the December 2025 application period, a panel of community members adjudicated the applicant pool based on a rubric of criteria, such as artistic merit, alignment with program goals, community engagement proposals, feasibility, etc. Special consideration was given to artists who bring new perspectives, reflect lived experience connected to ecological, cultural, or rural issues, and have a demonstrated interest in long-term, place-based engagement.
“The Bootjack Clay Shack is excited to be a part of the Mariposa Arts Council’s Artist in Residency program,” says Karen Mentzer, owner and lead instructor of the Bootjack Clay Shack. “We look forward to creating a beaver sculpture inspired by the creek and teaching interested community members how to sculpt.”
Read more about the selected artists on the Mariposa Arts Council website: https://www.mariposaartscouncil.org/air/
For program inquiries, contact:
Polina Pivak
Program Manager/Lead Teaching Artist
pivak@mariposaartscouncil.org
(209) 966-3155
Support the arts in Mariposa County by becoming a member today at mariposaartscouncil.org/join/
The Arts Council is an incorporated not-for-profit organization, created to promote and support all forms of the cultural arts, for all ages, throughout Mariposa County. It is supported in part by the County of Mariposa, the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency, and the California Arts Council, a state agency.
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