THE PROJECT

Women Shaping the West (formerly Women in Wyoming) was born out of a desire/frustration of creator Lindsay Linton Buk to challenge her long-standing belief that her homestate was creatively limiting. Through the creation of this project, she explored unknown territory and learned directly from her peers. The women in this project have built lives of great value and impact. She wanted that for herself, too. This project became her vessel to expand, widen, stretch, and ultimately shatter the tensions holding her back.

From artists to politicians, ranchers, authors, businesswomen, and community stewards, the project highlights some of Wyoming’s changemakers, rule breakers, and innovators through portrait photography, podcast interviews, a traveling exhibit, and book.

Primarily produced between 2016 and 2019, with an additional production run in 2021 to complete the remaining three profiles of the project, Lindsay traveled thousands of miles across the state to meet with Wyoming’s changemakers, rule-breakers, and community leaders. Their 25 stories, both decidedly individual and collectively powerful, share messages of courage, determination, and, ultimately, triumph. She captured their stories through medium-format film photography using a Contaxt 645 camera and primarily Portra 400 color film. Additionally, she told their stories through podcast interviews, a traveling art exhibit, and, now, the Women Shaping the West: Stories from Wyoming book — the final piece of the project.

In addition to Lindsay’s personal curiosity—her desire to better understand her home and the women contributing to its ecosystem—another mission developed around the need to chronicle and celebrate women’s narratives, adding to the cultural history of Wyoming and a broader depiction of the West. Seeing is believing. When women and girls see their stories reflected in powerful ways, it inspires them to engage in their own personal leadership, paving the way for others to follow.

From herding sheep in the Wind River mountains to flying in the back of a Blackhawk helicopter piloted by Wyoming’s only female MEDEVAC pilot, the women in this project are a mirror for how we see ourselves, our potential, and our power to be the creators of our world.

Project Sponsors and Partners

A warm, heartfelt thanks to our incredible lead sponsors who funded the production of the 25 stories between 2016 and 2021, as well as the production of the traveling exhibition. They are:

Hughes Charitable Foundation, the Equipoise Fund, Center of Wonder, REALM Global, Brimmer Communications, Mary Armour and Jean Lewis, Jessica Case, Debby and David Hopkins, Carol and Jim Linton, Noa and Ted Staryk, Wyoming Humanities Council, Don and Judy Opatrny, Ellen Raisbeck, Helen and Fred Arbuckle, Bobby Model Charitable Fund, Mark and Nancy Anselmi, Lynn Blodgett, Petria and Scott Fossel, Richard Georgi and Sanae Ishikawa, Outpost Inc, Soroptimist of Jackson Hole, Stacy Astor, the Thursday Roundtable Fund, and the Wyoming Council for Women.

Womentum and the Wyoming Community Foundation have served as the project’s nonprofit fiscal sponsor.