Wyoming Humanities Network

We were thrilled to learn that Sara Wiles’s photographs will be on display at Central Wyoming College’s Arts Center Gallery during Humanities Matter! We were even more delighted when she offered to lead a gallery walk for our conference participants!

Since 1973, Sara Wiles has worked on the Wind River Reservation, home of the Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone Tribes, as a student of anthropology, social worker, consultant for language and culture projects, and photographer. An exhibit of her photographs of Northern Arapaho people was mounted in 1997 by the Plains Indian Museum of the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyoming, with support from the Wyoming Humanities Council. This exhibit, entitled Ni’iihi’: In a Good Way, traveled throughout Wyoming and to venues in other states.

In addition to the Ni’iihi’ exhibit, Sara’s work has been chosen for permanent exhibits at museums throughout the United States and Europe. Her photographs have been accepted into juried art and photography shows across the country and have won many awards. Several publications, including the Smithsonian’s Handbook of North American Indians (2001) and UCLA’s Native North America Almanac (2001), have featured her work. In 2003, the International Center for Photography included Sara’s work in their web exhibit Only Skin Deep: Changing Visions of the American Self. A book of essays and Sara’s photographs of Northern Arapaho people will be published by the University of Oklahoma Press in 2011.

In 2000, Sara was awarded the Wyoming Governor’s Art Award for her photographic work and years of service to the arts, and in 2006 a documentary, The Photography of Sara Wiles, was produced and broadcast by Wyoming Public Television.

Born and raised in Indiana, Sara received two degrees (B.A. and M.A.) in anthropology from Indiana University. She lives in Lander, Wyoming with her husband, Steve.

The exhibit consists of photographs from Sara’s Northern Arapaho Project and Dreaming the West series. I am fortunate enough to have three photographs from the Ni’iihi’ exhibit hanging in my office right now; trust me, you won’t want to miss Sara’s work!