For Hirose, the residency became as much about people, place, and interconnected systems as it was about the materials themselves. Time spent at the transfer station allowed her to observe Recology staff at work, meet community members dropping off discarded objects, and consider the stories attached to what people leave behind. “Art bridges and COAR offers a broad perspective on community awareness by opening conversations about how art encourages us to see, question, and engage with the materials and our systems in new ways,” Hirose shares. Her work explores impermanence, memory, and transformation through layered, woven, and assembled found materials, juxtaposing industrial and organic materials. “Within this series of material storytelling, it’s guided by engagement with the people, surroundings, materials and chance.”

For Slayer Rowan, the unpredictability of the materials became a central part of the creative process. Rather than beginning with a fixed plan for a cohesive body of work, Rowan allowed each object to suggest its own possibilities. “As I picked through the pile each day, I would let the objects speak to me and show me their possibility for a new life,” Rowan said. “All in all, I feel I allowed the materials to choose what they wanted to become. Being able to reach outside of my norm has helped me grow so much as an artist. I believe the inconsistency of materials and the open-endedness of the requirements has led me to broaden my views on possibility.”

PREVIOUS COAR RECIPIENTS:

2025 - David Fondren & Mike Yager

2024 - John Mueller & Jill Mulholland

2023 - Olivia Joyce & Dustin Nord

2022 - Kate Speranza & Bill Atwood

2021 - Postponed due to COVID

2020 - Postponed due to COVID

2019 - Jeremy Furnish & Drea Rose Frost

2018 - Wenda Vorce, Cara Mico, Stephen Shumaker
2017 - Bonny Gorsuch

2016 - Dawn Stetzel & Sean Barrow