Residencies, Grants, Workshops and Other Opportunities for Environmental and Place-Based Creative Projects

Residencies

A Studio in the Woods
A program of the Tulane University Xavier Center for Bioenvironmental Research. Flint and Steel are five week residencies designed to allow artists to join forces with academic partners. Artists and Tulane University faculty members will be united to inspire each other in the development of new work, to excite the public, and to ignite social change. Addressing the artists’ desire to be more effective and have longer lasting impact with their outreach, these collaborations will empower the artistic practice with scholarship, student manpower and academic resources from Tulane. We ask artists to describe in detail how the opportunity will affect their work, to identify potential departmental partners, to propose a public component to their residency and to suggest ways in which they will engage with the local community.

Arte Studio Ginestrelle
Arte Studio Ginestrelle is a residency for writers and visual artist set in the Regional Park of Mount Subasio of Assisi, and at the Writing residency, located in the historical town of Assisi in Italy.  It offers residencies to writers and artists from all artistic disciplines and its aim is to support excellence and originality. For application forms and residencies programs, please, contact artestudioginestrelle@gmail.com.

Artsmith Artist Residency and Scholarship to Writer Island Workshop
Each year Artsmith grants up to five Artist Residency Fellowships for artists, scholars, and writers to have one week of focused time to create new works. The residency takes place on Orcas Island in Washington State’s San Juan Islands. The Artsmith Peer Review Panel, comprised of artists, writers, and scholars, selects Fellows based primarily on two main criteria: 1) How well the proposed work will benefit from the residency setting (with special consideration for work that engages with the environment) and 2) Do the statement of intent and work sample reflect originality and evidence of pushing the boundaries of craft. September 30 annual application deadline. Artsmith also offers the Doug and Ann Johnson scholarship for one participant to attend the fall Writer Island weekend workshop. The scholarship includes admission to the workshop and two nights’ lodging at the Kangaroo House Bed & Breakfast on Orcas Island. August 31 annual application deadline.

Caldera
Every winter we invite artists from all over the world to our Caldera Arts Center near Sisters, Oregon. Artists are provided private A-frame cabins and share access to wet and dry studios, a darkroom, a kiln, editing facilities and rehearsal and performance space. Because we believe a range of backgrounds enhances the communal experience, residencies are open to artists from any field, as well as scientists, engineers, and environmentalists. While it is not required, an embrace of how art and nature communicate is encouraged at Caldera. Annual application deadline in mid-June.

Land Arts of the American West
Land Arts of the American West is an ongoing experiment in an interdisciplinary model for an Arts pedagogy based in place. The Land Arts program provides students with direct, physical engagement with a full range of human interventions in the landscape, from pre contact Native America architecture, rock paintings and petrogylphs to contemporary Earthworks, federal infrastructure, and the constructions of the US Military. Land art includes gestures both grand and small, directing our attention from potsherd, cigarette butt, and track in the sand to human settlements, monumental artworks, and military/industrial projects such as hydroelectric dams, interstate highways, mines, and decommissioned airfields. Each year the Land Arts program travels extensively throughout the southwestern United States and north central Mexico to live and work for over fifty days on the land. Our time is divided between investigating cultural sites such as Chaco Canyon, Roden Crater, Hoover Dam, Wendover Complex of the Center for Land Use Interpretation, Juan Mata Ortiz, Spiral Jetty and the Very Large Array and working in the variety of eco-niches provided by our campsites at places such as the Grand Canyon, Grand Gulch, Gila Wilderness, Bosque del Apache and Otero Mesa Grasslands. Our current focus is on the issues of sustainability with a particular interest in food production and water use in the southwest. Various grants with spring deadlines.

PLAYA
PLAYA is a retreat for creative individuals who are committed and passionate about their work, and who will benefit from time spent in a remote location. They offer seclusion and quiet in a natural environment and the opportunity for interaction, if desired, with a cohort of residents and the local rural community. A residency provides the time and space to create substantive work or to research and reflect upon one’s creative or scientific processes. Residents can focus on their projects, immerse in a desert landscape of basin and rangeland, and find inspiration through self-directed inquiry. Located in the Oregon Outback, near Summer Lake in Lake County, PLAYA manages its Residency program and a range of community and educational outreach activities. Residencies are provided without a fee offering the gift of time and space to eligible applicants, and span two multi month sessions each year.

Signal Fire Outpost Residencies
Signal Fire provides opportunities for artists and activists to engage in the natural world. Our projects instill self-reliance, catalyze creative energy, and invite interdisciplinary collaboration. We utilize public lands to advocate for the access to— and protection of— our remaining wild and open places in order to enrich and sustain society. Signal Fire was formed in 2008 in response to the urban demand on working artists. We have hosted filmmakers, writers, visual artists, musicians, and creative agitators. Application deadlines vary. Join mailing list for updates.

Sitka Center for Art & Ecology
The Residency Program has provided more than 200 artists, writers, musicians, architects and natural science scholars the opportunity to conduct their work in the unique environment of Cascade Head and Salmon River estuary. Up to six residents at a time, usually from different disciplines and stages in their careers, live and work on campus for up to 3 1/2 months free of charge. All residents perform community outreach during their stay, offering free exhibits and lectures on campus, presentations to area schools or community groups, and/or conducting scholarly research for local educational institutions. Annual application deadline in April.

The Spring Creek Project
The Spring Creek Project offers two residency programs: 1) The Collaborative Retreat at the Cabin at Shotpouch Creek is a two-week-long retreat for two participants who wish to pursue a collaborative project, or two participants who each have individual projects and who anticipate a synergistic benefit from each other’s presence. At least one of the applicants must be a writer who takes inspiration from the natural world. The second applicant may also be a writer, or he or she may work in any other field (e.g. science, philosophy, music, art, crafts, etc.) and 2) Long-Term Ecological Reflections is a collaboration between the Spring Creek Project for Ideas, Nature and the Written Word, the Andrews Forest Long-Term Ecological Research Program; and the Pacific Northwest Research Station, with funding from the US Forest Service. In all of our programs, writers are encouraged to visit designated study sites for reflecting on and writing about the forest and their relation to it. These writings, which will form a collection spanning hundreds of years, will be gathered in permanent archives at Oregon State University, and are accessible via the web-based Forest Log.

United States National Park Service Artist in Residence Program
Artists have created art in national parks since the late 19th century when famed Hudson River painters captured the majestic views of our nation’s western parks. Today, the sights and sounds in national parks continue to inspire artists in more than 50 residency programs across the country. Whether staying in a remote wilderness cabin at Denali National Park and Preserve in Alaska, or contemplating history at the Herbert Hoover National Historic Site in Iowa, or working in a contemporary studio overlooking the stone-lined fields at Weir Farm National Historic Site in Connecticut, these programs provide artists with unique opportunities to create works of art in varied natural and cultural settings. There are programs for visual artists, writers, musicians and other creative media. Programs vary, but residencies are typically 2-4 weeks in length and most include lodging. Often artists are invited to participate in park programs by sharing their art with the public. Each park in this directory has its own application process and timeline so visit the park’s website for further information.

Writers’ Residencies at Vermont Studio Center
The Vermont Studio Center is the largest international artists’ and writers’ residency program in the United States. Each month the Center hosts over 50 writers and artists from across the country and around the world. The residencies run for between 2 and 12 weeks. Applications are considered year-round on a rolling basis; however, applicants who wish to be considered for a fellowship that covers the full cost of a four-week residency must submit a fellowship application by one of three annual award deadlines: 15 February, 15 June, and 1 October, 2016.  For further information about the application process visit the Vermont Studio Center website.

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Workshops

Bread Loaf Orion Environmental Writers’ Conference
The Bread Loaf Orion Environmental Writers’ Conference is an annual, week-long writers’ conference, based on the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference model, that’s designed to hone the skills of people interested in producing literary writing about the environment and the natural world. The conference is co-sponsored by the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, Orion magazine, and Middlebury College’s Environmental Studies Program.  Email: blorion@middlebury.edu, phone: (802)443-5286

The Environmental Writing Institute
Founded in 1990 by long-time EVST Director Tom Roy (Professor EVST) and Henry Harrington (Professor, English and EVST) at the University of Montana, the Environmental Writing Institute was one of the first writing conferences in the country to focus entirely on nature and environmental writing, issues, concerns, and approaches.

EWI participants each year (15 maximum) include both aspiring and accomplished writers–essayists, journalists, scientists, outdoor writers, natural historians, students, and teachers from around the country.  Participants are published and unpublished writers whose concerns range widely and wildly from the preservation of biodiversity to the conservation of community, from the ecology of high mountains to the wildness in vacant urban lots.  Some participants, familiar with other genres—from poetry to scientific writing—may be trying the personal, narrative, or natural history essay for the first time.

Fresh Water, Fresh Voices
This summer will mark the first Fresh Water, Fresh Voices writing conference in Marquette, Michigan (July 20-23)! The conference pairs half-day workshops and craft talks with guided outings on the trails and lake. Workshop leaders include Pam Houston, Diane Les Becquets, Frank X Walker, Mark Sundeen, Nicole Walker, Peter Geye, Kimberly Blaeser, and others. Participants will also be able to take advantage of rock climbing, biking, canoeing, and kayaking excursions, and hikes that include Anishinaabe teachings on the local ecosystem of Michigan’s beautiful Upper Peninsula. It promises to be an inspiring weekend that links writing and place in complex and experiential ways. Please consider joining us, more information at the Fresh Water, Fresh Voices website. Please direct any questions to conference director, Dr. Rachel May (rmay@nmu.edu).

Sterling College Writing in Place Summer Writer’s Workshop
This immersive 2-week writers’ workshop draws upon Sterling College’s long history with the Wildbranch Writers’ Workshop to bring together leading writers, teachers, and environmental thinkers and to explore resonances between place, nature, food, and culture in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom.Thanks in part to a partnership with the Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment (ASLE), Sterling is proud to be able to bring together some of the leading voices and teachers in environmental writing today.

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Grants

LexArts EcoArts Grants
The program aims to generate increased awareness of environmental issues important to Lexington, celebrate Lexington’s unique bluegrass environment, educate citizens about water quality and conservation, and promote a healthy and sustainable quality of life. Each finalist will be invited to visit Lexington to develop a site-specific public art proposal and will be paid $2,000 plus $600 in travel costs. Ultimately, as many as three proposals will be selected, each with a budget of up to $25,000 (as of 2013/2014).

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Environmental Arts Organizations

The Ashden Directory
Bringing together environmentalism and the performing arts.

EnviroArts
Orion Online is a collaboration between The EnviroLink Network and The Orion Society. This site is home to the best of the Environmental Arts, featuring essays, poetry, interviews, and portfolios gleaned largely from the pages of the award-winning magazines: Orion and Orion Afield. This site is updated frequently, so check back often for new additions!

EcoArt South Florida
The mission of EcoArt South Florida is to encourage ecological health and decrease negative human impact through the rapid expansion of EcoArt in each of South Florida’s five watersheds. EcoArt SoFla implements our goal to catalyze the development of South Florida as a major center for EcoArt practice through collaboration with communities in each watershed.

The Center for Sustainable Practice in the Arts
The Center for Sustainable Practice in the Arts is a Think Tank for Sustainability in the Arts and Culture.The CSPA views sustainability as the intersection of environmental balance, social equity, economic stability and a strengthened cultural infrastructure. Seeing itself as evolved out of the principles of the 1987 Brundtland Report and 1992 Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit, the CSPA aligns itself with the policies of Agenda 21 for Culture as a resource to artists and art organizations. The CSPA’s activities include research and initiatives positioning arts and culture as a driver of a sustainable society.

Greenmuseum.org
This online museum emerged from our own experiences making environmental art and from seeing firsthand some of the challenges facing artists, community groups, nonprofit organizations and arts institutions when it came to presenting and discussing environmental art. More than a museum, we see greenmuseum.org as a giant collaborative art-making tool. We hope you find it useful, friendly and easy to navigate.

International League of Conservation Photographers
International League of Conservation Photographers furthers environmental and cultural conservation through communication initiatives that create vital content and disseminate conservation messages to a wide variety of audiences.

Orlo
Orlo is a nonprofit organization exploring environmental issues through the creative arts.

Women Environmental Artists Directory
Focusing on women’s unique perspectives we collaborate internationally to further the field and understanding of ecological and social justice art.

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Outros sites e organizações / Other organizations and sites