The Visual Arts residencies at Banff Centre provide artists with the opportunity for focused work, spacious studio access, and insightful mentorship centered on project-based studio endeavors. Participants benefit from the guidance of experienced faculty who facilitate research, experimentation, and collaborative learning experiences. The application deadline is set for May 6, 2026, with program dates spanning from November 2 to December 4, 2026.
Participants are encouraged to critically engage with various forms of archives, whether institutional, personal, fictional, or speculative, as tools or ‘technologies’ for reshaping social and cultural narratives. The thematic scope includes, but is not limited to, familial and ancestral lines, cultural heritage, oral and micro-histories, as well as themes of absence, amnesia, and re-memory. Esteemed faculty such as artists Deanna Bowen and Krista Belle Stewart, along with curator Tarah Hogue, will provide mentorship and stimulating discussions. Applications are due by June 3, 2026, for the program running from January 25 to February 26, 2027.
Embracing themes of speculative futures, science fiction, myth-making, and world-building, artists will explore the creation of potential selves and worlds, examining embodied futurity. Led by artist-faculty Rajni Perera and Marigold Santos, this program considers futurity as a hopeful, restorative, and anti-oppressive concept. By challenging Eurocentric and heteronormative perspectives of the body, the program opens up new possibilities for self-identity, agency, and personal reclamation. For more information and application details, visit banffcentre.ca/visual-arts.
