Southwest artist residencies in California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming with deadlines between Fall 2023 and Winter 2024.
Can you feel it? It’s likely crisp in the morning where you live, which means one thing: it’s nearing hermiting time—perfect to stay indoors and apply for 2024 artist residencies.
A bonus: there are all sorts of rad and unique opportunities in the Southwest region, whether it’s creating outdoors and camping in Nevada, dancing in New Mexico, or making art out of landfill materials in Utah.
If you’re still holding on to the tail end of daylight savings time and need to procrastinate, do so by reading Southwest Contemporary‘s previously published artist opportunities from summer 2023, spring 2023, winter 2022, and summer 2022.
California Artist Residencies
Joshua Tree Highlands Artist Residency
Joshua Tree, California
The Joshua Tree Highlands Artist Residency offers a seven-week residency to artists who work in any media a seven-week residency. Scholarship funds, living accommodations, and studio space designed to accommodate a broad range of artistic activities and open studio events are provided.
Deadline to apply: January 10, 2024.
Application fee: $45.
Stipend: $1,500.
Length: Seven-week residencies take place May 1–June 19, 2024, August 21–October 9, 2024, and January 15–March 5, 2025.
Colorado Artist Residencies
Green Box Artist in Residence
Green Mountain Falls, Colorado
The month-long residency in the Colorado mountains at Green Box Arts—which is home to James Turrell’s meditative Green Mountain Falls Skyspace—is located approximately twenty minutes south of downtown Colorado Springs and is open to all early, mid-, and late-career artists. Lodging is provided.
Deadline to apply: October 15, 2023.
Application fee: None.
Stipend: $9,000.
Length: One month.
Land Line: Denver Botanic Gardens’ Artist Residency Program
Denver, Colorado
Selected residents can “use Denver Botanic Gardens’ collections, landscapes, and other resources to create artworks that explore nature and the relationship between humans and the natural world.” The “low-residency format” allows artists to create most of their work in their own studio spaces; however, they are required to visit the gardens at least once within a pre-determined timeframe and attend three virtual cohort meetings to share their progress. Land Line is focusing on four themes for 2024: urban trees and connections to people or wildlife, urban ecology, scientific/botanical illustration, and habitat restoration and native plants.
Deadline to apply: October 31, 2023.
Application fee: None.
Stipend: $3,500.
Length: Timeframe determined by the residency and the artist.
Nevada Artist Residencies
Great Basin National Park Artist-in-Residence
Great Basin National Park near Baker, Nevada
This remote and solitary camping residency at Great Basin National Park is open to artists who live and work in Nevada or Utah. Each resident artist will present one public program in the park; provide a digital portfolio of visual art, writing, music, or performance created during the residency; and donate one physical piece (if applicable) within one year of their residency.
Deadline to apply: October 15, 2023.
Application fee: None.
Stipend: None.
Length: Two to three weeks in July–August 2024, September–October 2024, or January–February 2025.
Black Mountain Institute Shearing Fellowship
Las Vegas, Nevada
This semester-long working fellowship offered through the Black Mountain Institute at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, is for emerging and distinguished writers who have published at least one book with a trade or literary press. The residency, which doesn’t require any formal teaching requirements, asks fellows to engage with the BMI community in the form of office hours and some sort of public-facing engagement. Optional health insurance, housing, and office space on the UNLV campus are part of the nine-month appointment.
Deadline to apply: November 1, 2023.
Application fee: None.
Stipend: $40,000.
Length: Nine months.
Montello Foundation Residency
Montello, Nevada
The artist retreat at Montello Foundation—situated on approximately eighty acres of undeveloped land that is the traditional territory and homelands of the Te-Moak Western Shoshone people—offers artists and writers uninterrupted creative and reflection time.
Deadline to apply: January 21, 2024.
Application fee: $20.
Stipend: None.
Length: Two weeks between May 4 and November 2, 2024.
Buffalo Creek Art Center Residency
Gardnerville, Nevada
Located on a thirty-four-acre property at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountain range, the summer residency is open to sculptors—whether they work in metal, ceramics, wood, stone, or mixed media—who make traditional figurative and abstract three-dimensional works. Residents are provided a free room, workspaces, and access to shop equipment.
Deadline to apply: Ongoing.
Application fee: None.
Stipend: None.
Length: June 1–October 30, 2024. Residents can choose between four-, six-, or eight-week stints.
New Mexico Artist Residencies
Keshet Makers Space Experience
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Keshet Dance and Center for the Arts offers ten-day choreographic residencies—which include creative space, housing, movement classes, and business workshops for movement artists and choreographers of any skill level—to develop their craft.
Deadline to apply: October 31, 2023.
Application fee: None.
Stipend: None, but housing at a local hotel is provided.
Length: Ten days, from either February 28–March 9, 2024, or April 5–15, 2024.
Women’s International Study Center
Santa Fe, New Mexico
WISC offers creative sabbaticals as well as a fellowship-in-residence. It’s open to women writers, artists, scholars, scientists, professionals, innovators, and entrepreneurs who are working in WISC’s broad focus areas, which include the arts, sciences, cultural preservation, business, and philanthropy.
Deadline to apply: Year-round; the next application deadline is November 1, 2023.
Application fee: $10-20.
Stipend: None.
Length: Typically four weeks.
Lincoln Historic Site Artist Residency
Lincoln, New Mexico
Lincoln Historic Site, a state monument comprised of territorial style adobe buildings from the 1870s-’80s, is hosting a residency that encourages interactions with the land—Lincoln is located on the traditional lands of Piro and Apache peoples—and the extensive local historic archival materials. The culmination of the residency, which includes public engagement opportunities, centers the artist’s research and development of new work that showcases ideas and work created during their six-week stay in Lincoln. Housing is provided at the Fresquez House, a single-room adobe dwelling that dates to 1887.
Deadline to apply: December 1, 2023.
Application fee: None.
Stipend: $14,000.
Length: Six weeks.
Helene Wurlitzer Foundation
Taos, New Mexico
The Helene Wurlitzer Foundation, founded in 1954 on fifteen acres in Taos, is one of the country’s longest-running residency programs. The foundation accepts applications from visual artists, literary creatives, music composers, and songwriters.
Deadline to apply: January 18, 2024.
Application fee: $30.
Stipend: None.
Length: Ten to twelve weeks, depending on the session. Sessions run throughout the year.
Roswell Artist-in-Residence Program
Roswell, New Mexico
The Roswell Artist-in-Residence Program, established in 1967 by oil and gas businessman and artist Don Anderson, gives artists “the gift of time.” The program, which focuses on visual artists with studio practices, provides six fellows with a full year of rent-free housing, ample studio space, and a monthly stipend. Southwest Contemporary broke it down in detail during an in-person visit.
Deadline to apply: The submission period takes place January 1-March 15, 2024.
Application fee: $25.
Stipend: $1,100 per month, plus $100 for a spouse/partner and each child living with the grantee.
Length: One year.
Parse Seco
Arroyo Seco, New Mexico
This experimental creative space and art residency, founded in 2016, offers thirty- to ninety-day residencies for underrepresented artists, musicians, and creators, and provides “an inclusive sanctuary for the expression and amplification of minority and marginalized voices.”
Deadline to apply: Ongoing.
Application fee: None.
Stipend: None.
Length: One to three months.
Texas Artist Residencies
Houston Center for Contemporary Craft Artist Residency Program
Houston, Texas
Artists working in wood, glass, metal, fiber, and clay are eligible to apply for this immersive program that requires residents to work in their studios two days a week during HCCC’s public hours as well as opening their studios twice per week to the general public. Residents are afforded 24/7 access to the studios, receive cultural and professional development opportunities, and have the chance to give an artist talk. Additionally, a BIPOC support grant, provided by HCCC and Crafting the Future, is available for application.
Deadline to apply: Applications are open January 1–March 1, 2024.
Application fee: None.
Stipend: $1,000 per month, which includes a housing and materials allowance.
Length: Varies between three and twelve months, between September 2023 and August 2024.
Houston Center for Contemporary Craft and Houston Center for Photography Interdisciplinary Craft + Photography Artist Residency
Houston, Texas
HCCC, in partnership with the Houston Center for Photography, offers a similar residency to the one detailed above but for artists who are working at the intersection of photography and contemporary art with an “experimental, multidisciplinary edge, who are testing the boundaries within both fields.” Additionally, a BIPOC support grant, provided by HCCC and Crafting the Future, is available for application.
Deadline to apply: Applications are open January 1–March 1, 2024.
Application fee: None.
Stipend: $1,000 per month, which includes a housing and materials allowance.
Length: Varies between three and twelve months, between September 2023 and August 2024.
Utah Artist Residencies
Moab Arts Reuse Residency
Moab, Utah
The Reuse Residency, facilitated by Moab Arts, confronts “the perception of waste culture.” Each resident artist receives studio space, project and community facilitation, a stipend, and access to materials at local waste disposal sites in Moab. The residency will host local artists in March 2024 and visiting artists in August 2024. Emily Arntsen reported on-site from a Moab landfill earlier this year.
Deadline to apply: October 31, 2023; the application will close after sixty entries.
Application fee: None.
Stipend: $1,500 for visiting artists; $2,000 (which doesn’t include housing) for Grand/San Juan County resident artists.
Length: Four weeks.
Wyoming Artist Residencies
Ucross Residency Program
Near Sheridan, Wyoming
The Ucross Artist Residency, which has been called the ultimate in artist hospitality, gives visual artists, writers, performance artists, choreographers, interdisciplinary artists, composers, sound artists, and collaborative teams an obligation-free stay of two to six weeks. The Ucross campus, which fosters creativity and congeniality, is located on a 20,000-acre working ranch in the foothills of the Bighorn Mountains.
Deadline to apply: Applications are open November 1, 2023–January 15, 2024.
Application fee: Free–$40, depending on the program.
Stipend: $1,000; Native American fellows receive an additional $2,000 award.
Length: Two to six weeks.
