Southern Alberta

Application Deadline: December 10, 2025
Program Dates: June 1 to June 19, 2026

This three-week residency at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity encourages the exploration of new ideas in literary journalism (creative non-fiction) and experimentation in writing. Designed to challenge and stimulate, the program aims to inspire creative pieces of non-fiction and to assist the writers in their completion. 

A preeminent space for long-form journalism, this residency emphasizes the strengths of thorough and articulate reporting, distinctive storytelling, and literary devices. 

Work created in this program has been published in many outlets including The Globe and Mail, The Walrus, and The Atlantic, and pieces have gone on to win National Magazine and National Newspaper Awards.

Writers will have time to:

• work on their manuscripts in their individual studios.
• consult with faculty members Manjula Martin, Dr. Cheryl Thompson, Shawn Micallef, and professional guest Dan Wells (Biblioasis).
• participate in group discussions. 

Faculty will provide mentorship and one-on-one workshops to discuss:

• story ideas.
• craft concepts such as voice and structure.
• challenges writers may be encountering with their literary journalism.

The faculty will offer mentorship for the first two weeks, with the last week for participants to focus on digging deep into their writing.

Literary Journalism is designed for writers seeking a professional development opportunity in a community of peers with the guidance of an experienced writer/editor, as each participant prepares a long form piece.

Applicants should be experienced professionals, active in the diversified fields of writing, including print or electronic media. This program is open to fiction and non-fiction writers, journalists, freelance critics or curators, artists, and academics, with an emphasis on those who can write for a lay audience with logic, vigour, and charm—and those who have a portfolio to prove it.

This program is run in English and only accepts projects that are being written in English. English is the language of Banff Centre correspondence.

Financial aid is available.

For more information and to apply.

Application Deadline: November 19, 2025
Program Dates: May 25 to June 26, 2026

Nomadism is conceived as a mode of existence and territorialization grounded in practices of regulated mobility. This residency invites participants to engage with the theme of nomadism as both a critical and aesthetic framework. Exploring experiences and relations such as itineraries of humans and non-humans, trajectories of circulation, spatial resistances, and alternative cartographies, nomadism will be approached as a site of inquiry and a form of sensitive and formal attentiveness to the earth. This approach will guide the intentions, conditions, and gestures of art making and artistic collaboration.

Visual Arts residencies at Banff Centre are structured programs of faculty-led activity and mentorship, supporting project-based studio practice.

This program encourages: 

• the development of conceptual thought through faculty talks and studio visits
• the development of technical skills through studio-based experimentation and learning
• discussion-based programs and workshops to support professional development
• cross-cultural engagement with international faculty and participants
• peer-to-peer engagement to foster a professional community.

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. 

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 and drawing
• printmaking
• papermaking
• performance art
• photography and video
• sculpture and installation 

are invited to apply. 

Priority will be given to artists who have not attended a Visual Arts residency at Banff Centre in the past three years. 

Please note that children are not permitted in visual arts studios or production areas.

This program is designed for participation over the entire program period. Variable dates will not be considered.

Financial aid is available.

For more information and to apply.

From October 11 until December 6, 2025, The Looking Glass will be on display at the Esplanade Arts & Heritage Centre in Medicine Hat. This is just one stop on the exhibition's three-year tour of the province with the Alberta Foundation for the Arts (AFA) Travelling Exhibition (TREX) program. 

The Looking Glass is a collection of 17 pieces by 12 artists, curated from the AFA  Permanent Collection. Each piece contains a visualization of reflection, manifesting in different ways. Photographs of common reflective materials prompt contemplation on the relationships we have with the things that surround us, and the impact we have on each other. Distorted self-portraiture forces us to confront conflicting versions of self that exist. Depictions of looking glasses raise questions about credibility and deception. Although common tools for observing and making sense of the world, mirrors are also deeply associated with trickery and illusion. Considering the exhibition, viewers are invited to ponder reflection as a tool for introspection and a method of situating oneself within reality, or, more accurately, one’s perception of reality. 

Featured Artists: James Agrell Smith, Kyle Beal, Stefanja Dumanowski, Cynthia Fuhrer, Christian Grandjean, Tanya Harnett, Gene Leavitt, C.S. McConnell, Paul Murasko, Toni Onley, Felix Plawski and Jacques Rioux

Curated by Sierra Zukowski, TREX Southeast