The Art of Isolation: A Visiting Artist Residency at Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Abstract

he United States has a visually stunning history of documenting our natural lands. In the late 1800s, Hudson River School painters captured national parks in the west (National Park Service, 2017). Ansel Adams is famously known for his rich black-andwhite photographs of Yosemite and other national parks from the 1920s. In the 1930s, the Works Projects Administration (WPA) hired unemployed artists to create illustrated posters of the national parks (Bennett, 2016), and the illustrative style using bright colors and simplified shapes still remains emblazoned on much of the merchandise available in park gift shops. The value of art in our national parks is made evident today by the availability of over 50 artist residencies where artists stay on-site, create site-specific artwork, and conduct public programs.1 T