Land Line: Denver Botanic Gardens’ Artist Residency Program

Denver Botanic Gardens is pleased to launch a new artist-in-residence program in 2021: Land Line. As the Gardens works to foster appreciation, understanding, transformation and stewardship of the natural world, it brings people together in celebration of humanity’s unique connections to landscape. The residency program seeks to inspire and bring awareness to nature, offering individual perspectives. Residency takes place fall 2021, exact schedule agreed upon on a case-by-case basis. Majority of residency activity must be completed prior to 12/31/21.

Land Line’s flexible formats allow for remote residency experiences, shorter-term arrangements, and options for public engagement, both online and in person. Selected creatives will have access to the Gardens’ collections (living plants, natural history, art, books), scientists, curators, and multiple locations for their work, including the Denver York Street location and the working farm and native plant refuge Chatfield Farms location. Artists working in a variety of disciplines and media will be considered, including visual art, music, spoken word, poetry/literature, film/animation, and other born-digital projects. 

Denver Botanic Gardens seeks to support and strengthen diverse perspectives—BIPOC applicants and individuals who identify as part of an historically marginalized group are strongly encouraged to submit. Land Line is supported by the National Endowment for the Arts. 

RESIDENCY FORMATS

In any format, artists in residence are expected to explore and enhance the Gardens’ aim to connect people with plants. There will be opportunities to learn about its priorities when it comes to Colorado ecosystems, similar steppe regions/biomes around the world, native plants and endangered species.

Four different residency formats are available through the Land Line program. The final applicant pool with determine the availability of residency type.  As possible, cross-disciplinary conversation within the residency cohort will be facilitated. 

Remote Residencies

Regardless of location, selected artists for remote residencies will be supported in their explorations and art creation. Virtual tours, videoconferencing and collections information will assist artist endeavors.

Residency Length: 1 – 2 months

Honorarium: $1,000 

Expectations:   One public program; one artwork provided to Denver Botanic Gardens for its Education Collection upon residency completion.

Regional In-Person Residencies

Artists in Colorado and/or the Denver Metro Area can take advantage of regular site visits and in-person meetings to create their [body of] work.

Residency Length: 1 – 2 months

Honorarium: $2,500

Expectations: One public program; one artwork provided to Denver Botanic Gardens for its Education Collection upon residency completion.

Hybrid Residencies

Artists conduct the majority of their residency remotely but visit to talk with staff and explore gardens and collections. Travel and lodging coordinated by the artist and paid from within residency honorarium.

Residency Length: 2 – 3 months

Honorarium: $3,000

Expectations: One public program; one artwork provided to Denver Botanic Gardens for its Education Collection upon residency completion.

Mini Residency: Demonstrations and Artist Talks

For artists who would like to share their work through an online performance/demonstration and artist talk inspired by Denver Botanic Gardens.

Honorarium: $500

Deadline: July 23, 2021

To Apply: Submit the following materials and answer questions accordingly.

Artist Bio (250 word max) 

Artist Statement / Residency Concept (450 word max)

Which residency format do you want to pursue? How will a residency with Denver Botanic Gardens support your artistic practice and foster new investigations? How does your body of work (past, current, or proposed) connect with the natural world and support the Gardens’ mission to connect people with plants—and with each other? How does your work or project bolster diversity of voices and perspectives of how humanity interacts with and responds to the natural world?

Website / Link to Professional Portfolio

Work Samples

According to CaFÉ technical specifications, we accept the following file formats.

• Visual Art: Five representative images, JPEG or JPG only. 1200 pixels or greater on  the longest side. Under 5 MB in size with an sRGB color profile.
   
• Digital media/film: Five representative examples of work, which may include high-resolution digital images, demo reel, or other video or media files no more than 10 minutes in length.
  
  Filetypes accepted: JPEG, JPG, MOV, MP4, WMV, 3GP, AVI, ASF, MPG, M2T, MKV, M2TS. Must be under 100 MB, with a minimum resolution of 640 x 480 and maximum of 1920 x 1080. Aspect ratio of 4:3 or 16:9 with a bit rate above 240 kbps. Frame rate between 12 fps and 30 fps.
   
• Audio performance/ sound art/music/spoken word: Five representative examples of work submitted as digital files, no longer than 10 minutes in length.
  
  Filetypes accepted: AIFF, WAV, XMF, MP3 under 10 MB in size. Bit rate range: minimum 96 kpbs- maximum 320 kbps. Codec: aiff, wav, au. 
   
• Writing: If prose, one story or essay, 2000 words max. If poetry, up to five poems. PDF files only. 

Resume / CV

Two References

Please include name, title or relationship, and email address. 

Additional Details

Denver Botanic Gardens will provide access to the Gardens’ collections, including pressed plants, preserved fungi, and other preserved herbaria collections, living plant collections, rare books, archival materials, art collections, and books and periodicals in the Helen Fowler Library. Staff available for consultation and perspective, schedule permitting.

Artists will provide their own art supplies and other equipment needed to produce artworks. Artist is additionally responsible for payment and arrangement of their own travel, transportation, housing, and related living expenses including meals. 

About Denver Botanic Gardens

Green inside and out, Denver Botanic Gardens was founded in 1951 and is considered one of the top botanical gardens in the United States and a pioneer in water conservation. Accredited by the American Alliance of Museums, the Gardens has a robust living plant collection, natural history collection (herbaria), library and art collection—along with temporary art exhibitions. The Gardens is a dynamic, 24-acre urban oasis in the heart of the city, offering unforgettable opportunities to flourish with unique garden experiences for the whole family – through educational offerings and plant conservation research programs. Additional sites extend this experience throughout the Front Range: Denver Botanic Gardens Chatfield Farms is a 700-acre native plant refuge with an active farm in Jefferson County; Mount Goliath is a high-altitude trail and interpretive site on the Mount Evans Scenic Byway. The Gardens also manages programming at Plains Conservation Center in Aurora. For more information, visit us online at www.botanicgardens.org.

This opportunity is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Application Requirements

Eligibility Criteria