Call for Applications: Visual Arts Thematic Residency – On Other Archives, Banff Centre

Deanna Bowen, still from On Trial The Long Doorway, 2019. Single-channel video with sound, 60′23″. Courtesy the Artist.

Call for Applications

Engage with leading contemporary faculty, access exceptional studios and production facilities, and develop your work within a supportive professional community in an inspiring mountain setting.

Visual Arts Thematic – On Other Archives
Application Deadline: May 6, 2026
Program Dates: November 2 – December 4, 2026

Working with institutional, personal, fictional and/or speculative archives, participants are invited to think critically about the archive as a method or ‘technology’ for re-storying social and cultural narratives. Themes may include, but are not limited to: familial/ancestral lineages and cultural inheritance, oral histories, micro-histories, absence, amnesia, re-memory.

Participants will be engaged in stimulating discussion and mentorship by leading faculty Deanna Bowen, Krista Belle Stewart, and Tarah Hogue. Access to Whyte Museum and Banff Centre archives are available by prior arrangement. Please indicate your interest and rationale for access to either of these archives in your project description.

Visual Arts residencies at Banff Centre are structured programs of faculty-led activity and mentorship, supporting project-based studio practice. Participants will be mentored by accomplished faculty through research, experimentation and hands-on learning.

This program supports:

• the development of conceptual thought and creative skills through faculty supported research-creation
• the development of technical skills through skill-based experimentation
• faculty-led discussion workshops to foster critical thought and professional development
• cross-cultural engagement with international faculty and participants
• peer engagement that fosters a professional community towards supporting and sustaining an artistic career.

Studio-based work is further supported by faculty studio visits, lectures, and workshops, fostering a valuable community of learning. Artists are assigned individual studios with access to shared production facilities. Knowledgeable staff are available to provide technical assistance.

Please take note of the program itinerary when planning your project proposal.
Facility access is based on availability of facilitators and priority goes to those requesting access in their initial applications.

Who Should Apply

This residency is for individual artists or duos (no more than two collaborators) who have completed formal training in visual arts at the post-secondary level, or equivalent experience and recognition from their peers acquired through traditional knowledge and practices.

Artists working in, but not limited to, practices in: ceramics, digital media, painting, drawing, printmaking, papermaking, photography, or sculpture and installation are invited to apply.

Banff Centre welcomes applicants of all ages (18+), backgrounds, gender identities and expressions to apply. Artists from historically underrepresented and equity deserving groups are especially welcome.

We are pleased to offer scholarships to support participants in our program. Standard scholarships cover 100% of tuition fees, and up to 25% of meal plan and accommodation costs. Canadian Indigenous scholarship covers 100% of tuition fees, meals, and accommodation cost.

Please visit the program page for more information and to apply.

About Visual Arts Programs at Banff Centre

Visual Arts at Banff Centre offers exceptional programs for professional artists, curators, art critics, and researchers. Visual Arts also supports, develops, and presents contemporary art through the Walter Phillips Gallery.

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For more information, contact:
Admissions
Admissions@banffcentre.ca
403.762.6100
banffcentre.ca/visual-arts