Rachel Frank, Rewilding Valley Creek
Belwin Conservancy
(Performances)

Rewilding Valley Creek at Belwin Conservancy will highlight Belwin’s restoration of the landscape through the seasonal use of bison and their on-going stewardship of the land by celebrating a woodland that contains a significant section of Valley Creek. Participants will be invited to give a water offering with ceramic rhyton vessels, gestures that connect to Belwin and the surrounding Afton community’s commitment to the rewilding of Valley Creek. 

For the last ten years, Frank has worked on projects that explore rewilding —the environmental practice of reintroducing species back to areas where they had formerly thrived to help restore ecosystems. Concurrent with her rewilding projects, she has been developing a series of hand-built ceramic works based on ancient Eurasian offering vessels. This series includes the rhyton vessel, an animal-shaped vessel that traditionally held wine or olive oil as offerings. Both projects seek to form a connection with the environment and the idea of offering, past to future.

Born and raised in Kentucky, Rachel Frank received her BFA from The Kansas City Art Institute and her MFA from The University of Pennsylvania. Recent solo and two-person exhibitions include MOCA Tucson (AZ), the SPRING/BREAK Art Show (NYC), Thomas Hunter Projects at Hunter College (NYC), Standard Space (Sharon, CT), and Geary Contemporary (NYC). Residencies include Yaddo, Marie Walsh Sharpe, The Museum of Arts and Design, Skowhegan, the Innoko National Wildlife Refuge (Alaska), Franconia Sculpture Park, Socrates Sculpture Park, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tucson. Her performance pieces have been shown at HERE, Socrates Sculpture Park, The Select Fair, and The Bushwick Starr in New York City, The Marran Theater at Lesley University, and at The Watermill Center in collaboration with Robert Wilson. Currently, she has public artworks on view at Franconia and Socrates Sculpture Parks. She works in wildlife rehabilitation for the Wild Bird Fund and is based in Brooklyn, NY. www.rachelfrank.com