ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE
The Station Inn honors founder Tom Davis’ legacy, and love of the arts and culture, by supporting an annual Artist-In-Residence Program.
Artist-In-Residence Program
We celebrated 30 years of operation at our historic Inn in 2023. As part of that celebration, we introduced a new Artist in Residency program, giving the space and time for an artist each year to connect with our area, the railroad, and the rich and diverse history and cultures of Blair, Cambria, and Huntingdon Counties.
Honoring founder Tom Davis’s love for the arts and culture, we established the Artist-in-Residence program to enrich our community and expand our reach beyond Cresson, Pennsylvania.
Julie Fether Rockwell - 2025 Artist-in-Residence
Introduction
Julie is perhaps best well-known in the railroad community as the first professional archivist for the East Broad Top. We first met Julie at Michael Froio’s artist reception in 2023, learning very quickly that Julie is passionate about our area, particularly the history of the Pennsylvania Railroad, and the historic photography of William H. Rau.
Selecting Julie as our second “AIR” was a very natural evolution: she had asked to spend time at the Inn in order to study Michael Froio’s photography, contemplate, and research. This led to a conversation about writing some guest blog posts for the Station Inn, and before we even realized it we had a new Artist-in-Residence. We are very excited to support Julie and her work! — Alex Lang
Artist Statement & Biography
Julie Fether Rockwell is the inaugural Archivist for the East Broad Top Railroad Archives and Special Collections, established in 2021 as a joint operating unit between the EBT Foundation, Inc., and the all-volunteer organization the Friends of the East Broad Top, Inc. A native of Ebensburg and currently living in Huntingdon, Pa., Julie’s professional and personal paths led her to live in different parts of the country since leaving the area for college in 1985; however, Cambria County will always be home.
A “Renaissance Woman” with two master’s degrees under her belt from Indiana University-Bloomington and Johns Hopkins University, Julie’s career paths have taken her from being one of the founding members of the Indiana Shakespeare Company back in the 1990s to becoming a pastry chef and a project coordinator for Lane Community College’s Conference and Culinary Services in Eugene, Oregon, where she lived for fourteen years. When she moved back to Ebensburg in 2013 to care for her family, Julie worked as a project coordinator for the Community-based Studies program and taught courses in American History at Penn State Altoona.
While at Penn State Altoona, Julie worked on student-faculty projects for the Pittsburgh-to-Harrisburg Main Line Canal Greenway, becoming drawn to the histories of the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Pennsylvania Main Line Canal. Her research led her ‘down the rabbit hole’ to learn more about the 19th-century Philadelphia photographer William H. Rau. It was love at first sight (for Rau – and his photographs!). Encouraged by Barbara Hollander, former site coordinator at the Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art in Altoona, Julie curated an exhibit with art educator Stanley Snyder in 2014, featuring selections from the William H. Rau Pennsylvania Railroad Photograph Collection, which is preserved and housed at the museum. She went on to curate three additional Rau Collection exhibitions, most recently, Contours: Land, Rail, Rau in 2024. Studying Rau has become Julie’s passionate scholarship endeavor.
The Main Line from Rau to Froio
Julie’s study of Rau would not be what it is today without her discovery of professional photographer Michael Froio and his From the Main Line project in 2014.
“Immediately, I was in awe of Mike’s mastery of the camera and his documentation of PRR’s original main line (still in use today) and various branch lines cutting through the state. The distinct and stunning similarities between Rau’s and Froio’s photographs, with their bold composition, technical application, and sublime artistic aesthetic, no matter how many times I’ve returned to their photographs, I never grow tired of them. I always see something new. They still bring me to tears.
Together and singularly, Rau’s and Froio’s works are masterful. I am connected to Rau’s and Froio’s photographs because they capture so eloquently the ultimate merging of the natural and industrial landscape that has permanently become one from which we exist.”
The Station Inn's Artist-in-Residence
“I am honored to be this year’s Station Inn Artist in Residence. Being from this area and understanding its landscape, which is so intimately a part of my history, my memory, and practically infused in my DNA, I am excited to become a part of the Station Inn family. Through extensive research, writing, photo documentation, and storytelling, I plan to share my reflections, ‘The Sounds of Trains and Silence,’ to celebrate not only Rau and Froio but also all who love trains, transportation and community histories – and the local flavors and cool sites of Cambria County, architecture, and art, and revere the dynamic and ever-changing landscape, our memoryscapes, and the Art of Place.”
Michael Froio - Inaugural Artist-in-Residence
In 2023, we invited Michael Froio (b. 1976) to be our first artist and to assist in setting up the residency and seating it into our local and regional arts and culture community. Michael is a photographer and educator in the Philadelphia metropolitan area.
Much of Michael’s work focuses on understanding the built environment and how history creates a compelling narrative in photography. For the last 15 years, his work has focused on the landscape and infrastructure of the former Pennsylvania Railroad (whose main line passes right by the Inn’s front porch). Michael’s commissioned work includes architectural, railroad, and heavy industry documentation and research projects in various mediums, including large-format film, digital stills, videos, and time-lapse photography.
Froio’s work resides in noted collections, including the Library of Congress, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Woodmere Museum, and the Camden County Arts Bank collection.
Froio continues to coordinate the Inn’s Artist-in-Residence Program, and his work remains on display in the Yard Office Lounge today.
About the Artist-In-Residence Program
The Station Inn honors founder Tom Davis’ legacy, and love of the arts and culture, by supporting an annual Artist-In-Residence Program (“AIRP”). The AIRP provides an allocation of complimentary lodging for the selected artist to focus on creating their work in and around the Cresson area over a period of time. The artist is invited to exhibit their work in the Yard Office Lounge meeting and event space and in other ways, including lectures, events, social media, and alternative media.
