White Buffalo Land Trust (WBLT) is now accepting applications for its 2027 Artist-in-Residence Program at the Center for Regenerative Agriculture at Jalama Canyon Ranch on the Gaviota Coast.
Artists selected for the 2027 program will spend time immersed in the 1,000-acre regenerative ranch on California’s Central Coast.
They will pursue an independent body of work inspired or informed by their time at the ranch, with opportunities to connect with WBLT’s land stewardship, ecological monitoring, research and education teams.
The open call builds on the program’s inaugural year, during which artists working across printmaking, photography, music and sculpture brought distinct creative perspectives to the land, organizers said.
“Through exhibitions, workshops, performances, and community gatherings, their work created new ways for people to encounter the complex relationships between agriculture, ecology, culture, and place,” they said.
The Artist-in-Residence Program asks the question: What becomes possible when artists are invited into the work of regeneration?
“Regenerative agriculture asks us to pay close attention to relationships, patterns, cycles and change over time. Artists do this, too,” said Ana Smith, director of Programs & Engagement at White Buffalo Land Trust.
“Through this residency, we are creating space for artists to spend meaningful time with the land and the people who steward it, and to interpret what they discover through their own creative practice,” she said.
“The work that emerges can help all of us see familiar landscapes differently and imagine new possibilities for how we relate to the places that sustain us,” she said.
Jalama Canyon Ranch is home to oak woodlands, grassland pastures, coastal sage scrub, riparian corridors, and a working vineyard and orchard.
“It serves as a living laboratory for regenerative agriculture, where WBLT and its collaborators explore how land stewardship can contribute to healthier soil, water systems, biodiversity, food systems, and communities,” organizers said.
The artist-in-residence program encompasses a variety of disciplines, including visual arts, sculpture, ceramics, writing, music, dance, fiber arts, photography, and interdisciplinary practices.
Residencies range from six weeks to three months, and include living and material stipends, travel reimbursement, and on-site accommodations.
Each residency extends beyond the artist’s individual practice. Residents participate in at least one public-facing experience, such as a workshop, performance, exhibit, or other creative offering, as well as an educational engagement with local high school students.
The Artist-in-Residence Program started in 2025 with seed funding from the Robert and Mercedes Eichholz Foundation.
It builds upon White Buffalo Land Trust’s commitment to bringing artists, scientists, farmers, ranchers, educators, policy makers, and community members together to advance regenerative agriculture and inspire new ways of understanding and caring for the land.
Through the program, WBLT seeks to expand public understanding of regenerative agriculture, cultivating a community of artists who engage with the land as collaborator and medium, and whose work expands how we see, understand, and relate to the living world.
Applications for the 2027 Artist-in-Residence Program are open through Aug. 30.
To learn more about the program, eligibility, residency dates, and application requirements, visit https://www.whitebuffalolandtrust.org/artist-in-residence.
Founded in honor of the vision and spirit of Lyndsey McMorrow, WBLT is a Santa Barbara based 501(c)(3) nonprofit that practices, promotes, and develops systems of regenerative agriculture for local, regional, and global impact. Click here to learn more.