Artists across disciplines invited to explore the intersection of creativity, ecology, and regenerative agriculture on California’s Central Coast
Santa Barbara County, CA – August 4, 2026 — 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, inviting artists to spend dedicated time immersed in a 1,000-acre regenerative ranch on California’s Central Coast.
The 2027 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. 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.
Now entering its next chapter, the Artist-in-Residence Program continues to ask a compelling 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. 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.”
Located along California’s Gaviota Coast, 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.
Artists selected for the 2027 program 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 program welcomes artists working across disciplines, including visual arts, sculpture, ceramics, writing, music, dance, fiber arts, photography, and interdisciplinary practices. Residencies range from 6 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 to create opportunities for connection. Residents participate in at least one public-facing experience—such as a workshop, performance, exhibition, or other creative offering—as well as an educational engagement with local high school students.
The Artist-in-Residence Program was launched in 2025 with seed funding from the Robert and Mercedes Eichholz Foundation and builds upon White Buffalo Land Trust’s ongoing 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 August 30, 2026. Artists can learn more about the program, eligibility, residency dates, and application requirements at: https://www.whitebuffalolandtrust.org/artist-in-residence.