about
Yucca Valley Material Lab is a creative platform comprised of intensive artist residencies, instructional workshops and public event programs.
YVML offers residencies to visual artists, writers, musicians and performers so that they may explore a wide range of material. Residencies last up to two weeks and include lodging, full access to the lab, technical assistance and opportunities for intellectual exchange through public symposiums and lectures, studio visits and workshops. Head to the ‘Residency’ page on this website to see details.
YVML also offers introductory to advanced instructional workshops. These workshops are led by internationally established artists and designers who have taught in venues such as Haystack, Penland, Oregon College of Art and Craft, Pacific Northwest College of Art, Portland State University and Ninety Twenty Studios. Students in the workshops also have an opportunity to work alongside and learn from YVML's artists in residence.
Join our mailing list or follow us on Instagram for announcements on the public events calendar.
Contact us for more information at info@yvml.org
who
Heidi Schwegler, Founding Director of Yucca Valley Material Lab.
Having taught at Oregon College of Art for nearly 20 years, and as the former Chair of MFA in Applied Craft + Design (PNCA/OCAC, 2015- 18), her professional aspirations have always resided in blending a career that includes a studio practice as an artist and a pedagogical practice as a teacher and administrator. Now based in Yucca Valley, CA she is driven to provide an educational platform for art that is financially accessible and in turn, supports its community. The quonset hut facility and surrounding compound have been designed to allow for material and process exploration free of intended outcomes. Releasing one’s creative practice from preconceived ideas can inspire unimaginable thought and form. Material curiosity, craftsmanship and provocative content have always been the force behind Schwegler’s studio and teaching practice, all of which now play a part at Yucca Valley Material Lab.
Derek Monypeny, Director of Yucca Valley Material Lab’s Music Program.
Born in the Arizona desert, a veteran of multiple explorations into the Sahara desert via Morocco and Western Sahara, and now a resident of the Mojave, Derek Monypeny sees his musical mission as adding to and expanding on what he calls the "desert continuum;" the psychedelic sirocco swirl of desert-based stringed instruments played with utter abandon by musicians the world over.
Derek is a former member of the bands Oaxacan (Oakland, CA), ALTO! (Portland, OR), and Sir Richard Bishop's Freak Of Araby Ensemble. In addition to his solo work, he has an ongoing duo project with Bryan Hillebrandt, OAE (Oakland Afternoon Ensemble). He has performed and toured with artists such as Bill Orcutt, Jozef van Wissem, Eva Aguila/Kevin Shields, Arrington de Dionyso, and many others.