June 2019
The first multi-disciplinary residency at Volland will take place in the summer of 2019 with artist, Zhang Hongtu, and poet, Mary Pinard in overlapping residencies. Both have a common interest in the prairie, and the co-residency will give them an opportunity to share observations and knowledge, enriching their own practice through exposure to a different discipline.
Each of them brings sincere interest and deep respect for the Flint Hills and the culture of our community. If you happen to encounter them in their explorations of our area, be sure to introduce yourself. They would love to meet you. Hongtu and Mary will share the experience of their residencies and talk about their work at The Volland Store on June 8 at 4 pm – a good time to meet and visit with them personally.
Mary will headquarter in the Loft at The Volland Store, while Hongtu and his wife Miaoling, will be hosted in the Reece bunkhouse on Trails End Road, near Volland.
We extend a warm Wabaunsee County welcome to Hongtu, Miaoling, and Mary –
Zhang Hongtu, Artist
Zhang Hongtu is a Chinese American artist based in New York, whose recent landscape paintings contemplate the impact of human activity on nature and native animals. His first visit to Kansas last year inspired him to work on a new painting series on bison and prairie. Zhang is an internationally recognized artist whose work has been exhibited in Asia, Europe, and America.
Mary Pinard, Poet
“never wanted to leave this place”
Mary Pinard is a poet and a professor of poetry and literature at Babson College in Boston, Massachusetts. A published poet, her work has recently centered on the prairie, and she has spent time in the Flint Hills during the last several summers. The photo above is a “selfie” she took on one of her long walks in the summer of 2018 – an attempt to explain the Flint Hills to her friends back home – and why she finds it so compelling. She titled it: “never wanted to leave this place.” Nor do we want her to.