My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys was conducted as an effort to create a photographic archive of what remains of a little known woman and her life. Featuring photographs taken around Utah, Colorado, and Wyoming, this project captured objects and locations relating to the life of Ann Bassett. Bassett's life story includes outlaws, murder, cattle wars, conflict with Indigenous peoples, water depletion, and more, and thus is representative of the West as a whole. By conducting this project, I seek to commemorate this woman's extraordinary life and interrogate what the West is, then and now. 

My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys features work by Alexa Kanarowski (B.F.A. '22).

Funded in part by the Gibian Rosewater Traveling Research Award.
Masks must be worn at all times in the Tjaden and Experimental Galleries.