OUR MISSION
EPICENTER STEWARDS CREATIVE INITIATIVES THAT COMBINE ART, ARCHITECTURE, AND RURAL INVESTMENT IN ORDER TO BUILD A MORE RESILIENT, EQUITABLE, AND VIBRANT LOCAL COMMUNITY.
Build local leadership
within town.
Increase local
housing options.
Increase town vibrancy and beautify the built environment.
Ensure organizational
resiliency.
Develop Epicenter as a model for other rural communities.
OUR STORY
WHY GREEN RIVER?
We’d like to think we chose this location, but really this place chose us. Epicenter’s founders were invited to work in Green River as AmeriCorps volunteers. They stayed because they fell in love with the place, the people, and the opportunities. Epicenter's work and ethic reaches far beyond Green River, Utah, but it remains our home and headquarters.
Why do we do this work?
We’re here to celebrate this place, and alongside our community, work incrementally and intentionally to build on our town’s assets. We’re continually refining what we do and how we do it. We work on multiple scales to achieve our goals—from nation-wide knowledge building all the way down to the construction details on a single-family house.
Rural & Proud Since 2009
Since Epicenter’s humble beginnings, we’ve maintained a holistic approach to our work which we believe to be critical to our success. Our process combines art, design, and unconventional thinking to achieve with our community things many thought impossible.
OUR TEAM
MARIA SYKES
Designer, Co-Founder & Executive Director
Maria Sykes (she/her) earned her architecture degrees from Auburn University just as the 2008 recession paralyzed the nation. Given the uncertain times, Sykes leaned into her lifelong love of and experience in rural places and community service, and she decided to join a colleague who was volunteering with AmeriCorps in the small town of Green River, Utah. The plan was to spend a summer in Green River before buckling down to launch her professional design career. That summer turned into her own yearlong commitment to AmeriCorps, which then turned into a second year, with Sykes always thinking she’d eventually move back home to the American South.
What she hadn’t planned on was falling deeply in love with the place and its people. To wit, nearly two decades later, she remains not only an enthusiastic Green River resident but also an invaluable leader. In 2009 she co-founded Epicenter, a community design nonprofit that over the years has served Green River in a number of ways, from offering low-cost home-repair services to elderly, disabled, and low-income homeowners to publishing books and exhibits and rehabbing an abandoned community park. Today she remains Epicenter’s executive director.
Sykes’ own artistic vision drives Epicenter’s work, but she has also established a pipeline that guarantees a steady influx of fresh creative visions from both outside and from within the community. Sykes has welcomed scores of artists and designers from around the country and as far away as Australia to come to Green River and engage with the community in creative, respectful and galvanizing ways. Sykes has been working in rural investment for over a decade and a half both locally and abroad, and her work has been honored many times, including by the Governor of Utah.
Email Maria here.
KENNY
FALLON JR
Specialist & Canal Commons Project Manager
Kenny (he/him) is project manager of Canal Commons, Epicenter's first ever affordable housing development. He leads Epicenter's housing outreach projects and serves on the board of the Carbon Emery Housing Authority. In his free time, Kenny enjoys publishing community media and reading by the Book Cliffs.
Email Kenny here.
ZOE
GARDNER
Specialist & Pearl Baker Park Project Manager
Zoe (she/her) is a designer and editor cultivating community and making media in Green River, UT. As project manager, she oversees the development of Pearl Baker Park and Come Home to Green River, Epicenter's NEA-supported fellowship. In her free time, Zoe co-directs a natural building magazine and explores new landscapes.
Email Zoe here.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
LINDSEY BRICENO, AIA
Board Chair
Lindsey Briceno is an Architect / Project Manager with the National Park Service. She has over a decade of experience working on affordable housing with a focus on community-driven architecture and served as an Enterprise Community Partner Rose Fellow at Epicenter from 2019-21. She holds a Bachelor of Architecture from Louisiana Tech University and a Master of Architecture from the University of Kansas.
ELPITHA TSOUTSOUNAKIS
Vice Chair
Elpitha (she/her) is a Cretan-American designer, printer, and educator based in Salt Lake City. She is an assistant professor and founding faculty in the Division of Multi-disciplinary Design at the University of Utah where she teaches design studios, research methods, and visual strategy. She completed her M.Arch at the UT Austin. Her scholarship combines community based design research in public lands and rural places through the Field Studio, with creative practice in Ochres, and more than human entanglements. She operates the design research collective, Field Studio Geontological Survey (FSGS).
EMILY
LARSEN
.
Treasurer
Emily Larsen is a Utah based curator, arts administrator, historian, and artist. She currently works as the Director of the Springville Museum of Art, where she has worked in a variety of positions since 2014. Her research and writing focuses on the Utah art scene c1880-1950. She is passionate about Utah's art and cultural history and loves working with local Utah artists. Since 2023 she has overseen Springville’s Public Art Program and believes in the power of art to transform communities.
BRYAN
BUENACOSA-BROOKS
Interim Secretary
Bryan Buenacosa-Brooks is a strategist at HUB Collective, a creative agency in Portland, Oregon. He regularly works with clients like the Utah Office of Tourism, Mercy Corps, and rural and urban municipalities from California to Maine solving long-term strategy and vision challenges. Prior to joining HUB, Buenacosa-Brooks served as an Americorps VISTA at Epicenter. He holds an MArch from the University of Washington where he also taught architectural representation studios.
TODD
ERLANDSON, FAIA
Board Member
Todd Erlandson FAIA is an architect at March Studio, a multidisciplinary design firm in Santa Monica, California. He works helping visionary people tell their unique story and achieve their goals through transformative and meaningful architecture. He also teaches regularly at Tulane and Woodbury Universities. Todd holds an MArch from the Southern California Institute of Architecture.
ANTONIO
J HERRERA
Board Member
Antonio Herrera (he/him) graduated from Snow College with a Bachelors of Music with an emphasis in commercial music. After graduating college Antonio returned to Green River Utah where he is now a teacher at the high school. In addition to music Antonio enjoys photographing the beautiful landscapes around Green River.
ALLISON MARTÍNEZ AROCHO
Board Member
Allison runs her studio practice in Salt Lake City, and her artistic interests include painting, sculpting, and tech in art. Allison’s community building experience is centered on cultural education. To date, she has led a Puerto Rican culture study group at the library, and has offered art workshops at the Living Traditions Festival and more. She has also collaborated with artisans in Puerto Rico to help organize art exhibitions. She sees the potential in expanding arts access in Utah, and would love to be a part of that initiative by setting the standard for creating inclusive spaces in the arts.
KAYCE
MAY-RICHES
.
Board Member
Kayce May Riches is a lifelong resident of Green River, Utah, and a dedicated member of the Epicenter board since 2023. With a strong background in education and community service, Kayce is committed to fostering positive change and development in her hometown of Green River.
ADVISORS
Brent Bateman, Esq.
Land Use & Property Rights Attorney
Salt Lake City, UT
Danny Baxter
Designer
Los Angeles, CA
Ren Hatt, JD
Mayor of Green River
Green River, UT
Peter Hay
Cultural Programmer
Salt Lake City, UT
Jamie Horter
Rural Artist & Advocate
Lyons, NE
Amy Jorgensen
Artist, Curator, Educator
Ephraim, UT
Alyssa Kreikemeier, PhD
Professor, Historian, Writer
Moscow, ID
Chris Lezama
Design Strategist & Researcher
San Francisco, CA
Serah Mead
Community Organizer
Moab, UT
Megan Petitt
Event Coordinator
Salt Lake City, UT
Grace Whatley
Artist & Grant Writer
Kanab, UT
Jason Wheeler, AIA
Architect
Salt Lake City, UT
Emilee Wilson Hamm, AIA
Architect
Nashville, TN
FRONTIER FELLOWS
Rosie Gochnour
Serago
Design Strategist
Salt Lake City, UT
Ashmae Hoiland
Visual Artist
Provo, UT
Sandra Salvas
Photographer
Park City, UT
Jarod Wilson Hamm
Graphic Designer
Nashville, TN
Carolina Aranibar-Fernandez
Artist
San Francisco, CA
Russel Albert Daniels
Photographer
Salt Lake City, UT
Lares Feliciano
Artist & Cultural Worker
Alamosa, CO
Teal Gardner
Artist
Boise, ID
Horacio Rodriguez
Artist, Educator & Curator
Salt Lake City, UT
OUR AWARDS
ANDY WARHOL FOUNDATION FOR THE VISUAL ARTS
grant awardee (2024-25)
NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS
grant awardee (2023, 2021, 2020, 2018, 2016, 2014)
WESTAF CARES
grant awardee (2020)
ENTERPRISE ROSE FELLOWSHIP
selected as host organization (2018)
UTAH DESIGN ARTS ’18
selected to exhibit (2018)
UTAH GOVERNOR’S LEADERSHIP IN THE ARTS AWARD
Gov. Gary Herbert (2015)
UTAH MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS
featured artist in ACME Lab (2018)
NONPROFIT OF THE YEAR
Emery County Business Chamber (2015, 2019)
ENLIGHTENED 50
awarded to Sykes by Community Foundation of UT (2015)
UTAH DESIGN ARTS ’15
awarded Juror’s Prize (2015)
RURAL PROJECT OF THE YEAR
Utah Housing Coalition (2014)
CHANGE LEADER
awarded to Sykes by Utah Arts & Museums (2012)
EMERGING LEADERS
awarded to by the Design Futures Council (2013)
OUR VALUES
Passion: Epicenter has an undying passion for our community of Green River. This passion drives the pursuit of our mission. We seek to partner with those who share our passion, and we work to inspire it in others where possible.
Excellence: Epicenter aims to operate at the highest level of excellence. Everything Epicenter creates is intended to be completed as carefully as possible so as not to waste resources. We do not settle for mediocre work.
Stewardship: Epicenter believes that local knowledge is valuable and should often guide our work. Epicenter strives to make decisions that show care for and provide sustainable value to our community, and also ensure the viability and sustainability of the organization.
Transparency: Epicenter is committed to operating openly and transparently. Epicenter makes available accurate, comprehensive, and timely information to our community, the media, and stakeholders.
Honesty: Epicenter is committed to open and truthful communication with everyone, and seeks to partner with those who do the same. Epicenter acknowledges the truth, even when it is difficult to do so. Epicenter knows that acknowledging difficult truths is often the first step in pursuit of our mission.
Empathy: Epicenter believes in responding to the challenges and needs of Green River as residents and neighbors. We identify and acknowledge the various points of view within our community, and integrate them into our actions and activities.