Wyoming
Major Artists Make Creative Breakthroughs At Remote Ucross, Wyoming, Retreat
The creative paradise of Ucross, Wyoming, just got a little more spring in its step. In partnership with the Houston Ballet, the Ucross Foundation has made choreographer Jack Wolff the inaugural recipient of its Lauren Anderson Dance Residency.
Wolff is set to work in the state-of-the-art Lauren Anderson Dance Studio in the Koehler Performing Arts Center on Ucross’s 20,000-acre ranch in Sheridan County. The studio, named for the Houston Ballet’s first Black principal ballerina, opened in December 2022 as part of Ucross’s 40th anniversary.
Ucross Foundation Director of External Relations Caitlin Addlesperger said Wolff will spend a full month in Wyoming. During that time, his creative process will be “completely undisturbed and uninhibited.”
“The way our residencies work, what makes them so special and renowned across the world is that when we say uninterrupted time, we mean that,” she told Cowboy State Daily. “There are signs on all the studios that say, ‘Do Not Interrupt.’ We don’t want artists to have any distractions, and we take that seriously.”
Creative Freedom
Ucross offers residencies to “mature and emerging” visual artists, writers, composers, choreographers, interdisciplinary artists, performance artists and collaborative teams. The Lauren Anderson Dance Residency is a monthlong window open to performers and choreographers working with the Houston Ballet.
A Ucross residency is more than a state-of-the-art space with a gorgeous view of the Cowboy State. Addlesperger said every artist at Ucross, a maximum of 10 people at a time for two to six weeks, has their every need covered so they can focus on exploring their creativity.
“Somebody said that they feel like there are 40 hours in a day when you’re out at Ucross,” she said. “We’ll deliver sack lunches to their studio door. All of the housekeeping, individual living accommodations and dinners together in our beautiful dining room — all of that, all of that time.”
A professional chef cooks meals, each artist has personal attendants, and there’s unlimited access to the ranch’s studios. With all distractions removed, the artists have all the time and resources they need to explore their creative instincts.
Since its founding in 1983, Ucross’s goal has been to create the most conducive environment for the creative process to flourish — and the results speak for themselves, Addlesperger said.
“Dancers complete these beautiful pieces,” she said. “Writers will finish the first or final drafts of their novels. Symphonies and Broadway musicals have been written here.”
For a recent testament, filmmaker Damien Chazelle’s residency led to the script for the 2016 film “La La Land.” The film was nominated for 14 Oscars and won six, including Best Director for Chazelle.
Addlesperger also said that much of the script and music for the 2017 film “The Greatest Showman” were developed during a Ucross residency.
“It’s really special how much of the nation’s arts and culture has been impacted by work that started here,” she said. “All we do is support the artists and give them what they need to bring out their inner creativity and creative genius.”
Choreographic Project
The Houston Ballet is the fifth-largest company in the United States. In 2022, it partnered with the Ucross Foundation to create the studio.
Jack Wolff, who’s been working with the Houston Ballet since 2018, made his professional debut in Bulgaria and received training and accolades in New York City and elsewhere. Lauren Anderson and Ucross President William Belcher praised him highly.
“Excited doesn’t begin to describe it. I am thrilled to announce Jack Wolff as the first fellow in residence at Ucross,” Anderson said. “His creativity and commitment to having art reflect life promises an inspiring fusion of movement and emotion. This residency marks a significant milestone in fostering artistic expression and collaboration between Ucross and Houston Ballet, and I am honored to have my name on this residency.”
During his two-week residency, Wolff plans to develop the choreographic project he submitted to Ucross.
He said he hopes to “create and explore movement inspired by events from my own life: modern-day issues within family dynamics, such as infidelity and divorce.
“I will be using Rachmaninoff Piano Suites, which have such drama and have augmented my inspiration for the work. I will be working with one male dancer and one female dancer, who will be asked to explore classical ballet language, gritty contemporary movement and more.”
Artists are welcome and encouraged to bring any collaborators they’d like to work with. Houston Ballet dancers Aoi Fujiwara and Eric Best will work with Wolff during his time in Wyoming.
“I’m excited to find the relationship between the dancers, the music and ideas of familial issues,” Wolff said. “These modern conflicts have become more common in society, and I find it important to bring representation of such events to the ballet stage.”
The Special Recipe
A Ucross residency might sound like paradise for artists, but it’s highly competitive. Applicants “must exhibit professional standing in their field,” so applications from students are not accepted.
But even mature and emerging artists have to stand out in their field. Amid hundreds of applications, Addlesperger said that only 6% are offered a Ucross residency.
“It’s a very competitive application process,” she said. “Most of our artists come through this open application process twice a year. We wish we could have more, but we only want 10 artists in residence at once.”
And getting a residency isn’t a vacation. These artists do nothing but work at their craft while at the center.
That’s one of many reasons Addlesperger said artists across the globe are clamoring for a few weeks on a ranch in Sheridan County. During their brief stay at Ucross, artists have everything they need to reach their highest potential and share it with the world.
“There is just some special recipe at Ucross,” she said. “Our guiding principle is offering this excellent experience to artists, and we all care about artists, their work, and their creative process.”
Andrew Rossi can be reached at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com.
If the Wyoming House and Senate approve its budget changes, then the chambers’ Joint Conference Committee will have helped the University of Wyoming dodge a $40 million cut, while also limiting the Wyoming Business Council to one year’s funding instead of the standard two.
The Joint Conference Committee adopted numerous changes to the state’s two-year budget draft, but didn’t formally advance the document to the House and Senate chambers. The committee meets again Monday and may do so at that time.
Then, the House and Senate can vote on whether to adopt that draft by a simple majority.
First, UW
Starting in January, the Joint Appropriations Committee majority had sought to deny around $20 million in exception requests the University of Wyoming made, while imposing a $40 million cut to the university’s block grant.
That’s about 10% of the state’s grant to UW but a lesser proportion of the school’s overall operating budget.
The Senate sought to restore the $60 million.
The House sought to keep the denials and cuts, ultimately settling on a bargain to cut $20 million, and hinge UW’s retention of the remaining $20 million on its finding and reporting $5 million in savings.
The Joint Conference Committee the House and Senate sent into a Friday meeting to negotiate those two stances chose to fund UW “fully,” Senate Majority Floor Leader Tara Nethercott, R-Cheyenne, told Cowboy State Daily in the state Capitol after the meeting.
But, $10 million of UW’s $40 million block grant won’t reach it until the school charts a “road map” of how it could save $5 million, and reports that to the Joint Appropriations Committee, she added.
“A healthy exercise, I think, for them to participate in, while the Legislature still allows them to receive full grant funding,” Nethercott said.
“I’m hopeful people feel confident the University is fully funded,” she continued, as it’s “on the brink of receiving a new president, having the resources he or she may need to continue to steer the leadership of the University, our state’s flagship school into the future.”
Hours earlier in a press conference, House Speaker Chip Neiman, R-Hulett, said the Legislature has been clear that UW should avoid “diversity, equity, and inclusion” or DEI programming, and that it’s the position of the House majority that the school should tailor its programming to Wyoming’s true business needs – so UW graduates will stay in the state.
Within an earlier draft of the budget sat a footnote blocking money for Wyoming Public Media — a publicly funded media and radio entity funded through UW’s budget.
That footnote is gone from the JCC’s draft, said Nethercott.
Wyoming Business Council
The Wyoming Business Council is set to receive roughly $14 million, confined to one year, for its internal operations, said Nethercott.
“Both chambers have decided to only fund the operations,” Nethercott said, “not all the grant programs.”
She said that’s to compel the Legislature to revisit the concerns it has with the agency, then return in the 2027 legislative session with a vision for its future.
The Business Ready Communities program is “eliminated,” she said.
JCC member Rep. Ken Pendergraft, R-Sheridan, elaborated further.
Of the appropriation, $12 million is from the state’s checking account, plus the state is authorizing WBC to use $157,787 in federal funds and nearly $1 million from other sources.
“We’re going to take it up as an interim topic in appropriations (committee) and how to rebuild it and make it work the way we think it should work,” said Pendergraft. But the JCC opted to fund the Small Business Development Center for two years, along with Economic Diversification Division for Manufacturing Works, and the Wyoming Women’s Business Center, Pendergraft noted, pointing to that language on his draft budget sheet.
Pendergraft made headlines last year by saying he wanted to eliminate the Wyoming Business Council altogether.
But Nethercott told the Senate earlier this month, legislators have complained of that agency her entire nine-year tenure.
She attributed this to what she called communications shortfalls that may not be intentional. She cosponsored a now-stalled bill this year that had sought to adopt a task force to evaluate WBC.
The Wyoming Business Council’s functions range from less controversial, like helping communities build infrastructure, to more controversial, like awarding tax-funded grants to certain businesses on a competitive application process.
Wyoming Public Television
Wyoming Public Television, which is not the same as Wyoming Public Media, is slated to receive the $3 million it lost when Congress defunded the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Nethercott said.
It will also receive its usual $3 million from Wyoming.
The entity will not receive another $3 million it had sought to upgrade its emergency-alert towers, said Nethercott, “because we received information from them… they have another source to pay for the replacement and maintenance of the towers.”
Like the Wyoming Business Council, the Wyoming Public TV’s functions range from less controversial to more controversial.
The entity operates, maintains and staffs emergency alert towers throughout Wyoming.
Wyoming Public TV also produces entertainment and informational movies. Its state grants run through the community colleges’ budget.
State Employees
Nethercott noted that the JCC advanced to both chambers an agreement to pay $111 million from the state’s checking account to give state employees raises.
Those raises would bring them to 2024 market values for their work, she noted.
Because that money is coming from the state’s checking account, or “general fund,” and not its severance tax pool as the House had envisioned, then $111 million won’t impact the $105 million investment another still-viable bill seeking to build an “energy dominance fund” envisions.
That bill, sponsored by Senate President Bo Biteman, R-Ranchester, seeks to lend to large energy-sector projects.
Biteman told Cowboy State Daily in an interview days before the session convened that its purpose is to counteract “green” compacts investors have adopted, and which have bottlenecked energy projects.
Wyoming’s executive branch is currently suing BlackRock and other investors on that same assertion.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
It’s Week 11 in the 2026 Wyoming prep girls’ basketball season. That means it’s the end of the regular season. 3A and 4A schools have their final game or games to determine seeding before the regional tournament, or if a team is locked into a position, one last chance to fine-tune before the postseason. Games are spread across four days.
WYOPREPS WEEK 11 GIRLS BASKETBALL SCHEDULE 2026
Every game on the slate is a conference matchup. Several rivalry contests are part of this week’s schedule, such as East against Central, Cody at Powell, Lyman hosting Mountain View, and Rock Springs at Green River, just to name a few. Here is the Week 11 schedule of varsity games WyoPreps has. All schedules are subject to change. If you see a game missing, please email david@wyopreps.com.
CLASS 4A
Final Score: Laramie 68 Cheyenne South 27 (conference game)
CLASS 3A
Final Score: Lyman 40 Mountain View 26 (conference game)
CLASS 4A
Final Score: Evanston 41 Riverton 39 (conference game)
Final Score: Natrona County 42 Kelly Walsh 38 (conference game) – Peach Basket Classic
Final Score: #4 Thunder Basin 64 Campbell County 32 (conference game)
CLASS 3A
Final Score: #1 Cody 77 Worland 33 (conference game) – 5 different Fillies with a 3, and Hays led the way with 34 points.
Final Score: #2 Lander 49 Lyman 34 (conference game)
Final Score: #4 Wheatland 51 Douglas 40 (conference game)
Final Score: #5 Powell 48 Lovell 42 (conference game)
Final Score: Burns 56 Torrington 43 (conference game)
Final Score: Glenrock 78 Newcastle 30 (conference game)
Read More Girls Basketball News from WyoPreps
WyoPreps Coaches and Media Basketball Polls 2-25-26
WyoPreps Girls Basketball Standings 2-23-26
WyoPreps Girls Basketball Week 10 Scores 2026
WyoPreps Coaches and Media Basketball Polls 2-18-26
WyoPreps Girls Basketball Week 9 Scores 2026
WyoPreps Coaches and Media Basketball Polls 2-11-26
WyoPreps Girls Basketball Week 8 Scores 2026
WyoPreps Coaches and Media Basketball Polls 2-4-26
WyoPreps Girls Basketball Week 7 Scores 2026
WyoPreps Coaches and Media Basketball Polls 1-28-26
Nominate A Basketball Player for the WyoPreps Athlete of the Week Honor
WyoPreps Coaches and Media Basketball Polls 1-21-26
WyoPreps Girls Basketball Week 5 Scores 2026
WyoPreps Coaches and Media Basketball Polls 1-14-26
WyoPreps Girls Basketball Week 4 Scores 2025-26
WyoPreps Coaches and Media Basketball Rankings 1-7-26
WyoPreps Girls Basketball Week 3 Scores 2025-26
WyoPreps Coaches and Media Basketball Rankings 12-24-25
WyoPreps Girls Basketball Week 2 Scores 2025-26
WyoPreps Coaches and Media Basketball Rankings 12-17-25
WyoPreps Girls Basketball Week 1 Scores 2025-26
CLASS 4A
Rock Springs at #2 Green River, 5:30 p.m. (conference game)
#4 Thunder Basin at #5 Sheridan, 5:30 p.m. (conference game)
#1 Cheyenne East at #3 Cheyenne Central, 6 p.m. (conference game)
Jackson at Star Valley, 6 p.m. (conference game)
CLASS 3A
#3 Pinedale at Mountain View, 4 p.m. (conference game)
#1 Cody at #5 Powell, 5:30 p.m. (conference game)
Buffalo at Glenrock, 5:30 p.m. (conference game)
CLASS 3A
Newcastle at Buffalo, 12:30 p.m. (conference game)
Glenrock at Rawlins, 3 p.m. (conference game)
Torrington at #4 Wheatland, 5:30 p.m. (conference game)
Wyoming Boys 4A Swimming & Diving State Championships 2026
4A Boys State Swim Meet for 2026 in Cheyenne
Gallery Credit: David Settle, WyoPreps.com
Minneapolis construction workers call on developers to take stand against ICE
Highlights: Tri-West at Cardinal Ritter; February 27, 2026
As the NFL combine winds down, all eyes shift to Pittsburgh for the league’s next showcase event
Augusta 911 call center earns statewide honor
DC Public Health to begin daily testing of Potomac, Anacostia rivers for E. coli
Florida High School Football Rankings: Top 25 teams – Oct. 21
Cleary's 21 help Le Moyne down Central Connecticut State 69-64 in OT
How old is Bo Nix? What to know about Oregon quarterback ahead of 2024 NFL Draft
99th annual Pony Swim held in Virginia
Indiana Members Credit Union announced as new anchor tenant at Bottleworks District
ICE blasts Washington mayor over directive restricting immigration enforcement
Did the EU bypass Hungary’s veto on Ukraine’s €90 billion loan?
How the federal government is painting immigrants as criminals on social media
Where Iran’s ballistic missiles can reach — and how close they are to the US
Has India’s influence in Afghanistan grown under the Taliban?
-
World2 days agoExclusive: DeepSeek withholds latest AI model from US chipmakers including Nvidia, sources say
-
Massachusetts3 days agoMother and daughter injured in Taunton house explosion
-
Montana1 week ago2026 MHSA Montana Wrestling State Championship Brackets And Results – FloWrestling
-
Louisiana5 days agoWildfire near Gum Swamp Road in Livingston Parish now under control; more than 200 acres burned
-
Denver, CO3 days ago10 acres charred, 5 injured in Thornton grass fire, evacuation orders lifted
-
Technology7 days agoYouTube TV billing scam emails are hitting inboxes
-
Technology7 days agoStellantis is in a crisis of its own making
-
Politics7 days agoOpenAI didn’t contact police despite employees flagging mass shooter’s concerning chatbot interactions: REPORT