BLM opens Canyon Country artist residency in Moab, applications due soon

In Moab, the next voice shaping canyon country may not come from a ranger station or a trail sign, but from an artist with a camera, a paintbrush or a video rig. The Bureau of Land Management opened applications March 31 for its 2026 Artist in Residence program in the Canyon Country District, with this year’s residency hosted by the Moab Field Office and set to run for two to four weeks between Sept. 11 and Oct. 31.

The residency sits in a landscape that already pulls double duty as recreation country and working public land. The Canyon Country District spans about 3.6 million surface acres in southeastern Utah, from the Book Cliffs north of Interstate 70 to the San Juan River near the Utah-Arizona border, and is managed through the Moab and Monticello field offices, which alternate as hosts each year. The Moab Field Office alone covers about 1.8 million acres and, by BLM’s description, is a hub for off-highway vehicle riding, mountain biking, climbing, base jumping, hiking, horseback riding, photography and river rafting, while also supporting oil and gas production, mining and livestock grazing.

That mix is exactly why the residency matters. BLM says the program is designed to inspire, educate and promote stewardship of public land resources, and the agency’s broader Artist-in-Residence effort is aimed at deepening understanding of the natural, cultural and historic resources on those lands. In practice, that means the chosen artist is being asked to do more than make attractive desert work. The residency calls for a community engagement component, and the work is expected to reflect the district’s landscape and stories, the kind of place-responsive interpretation that can make a visitor look twice at a sandstone wall, a river bend or a trail corridor.

Applicants must be visual artists working in media that can be digitally reproduced, including painting, photography, printmaking, sculpture and video. BLM and Canyonlands Natural History Association employees will review the applications, scoring candidates on portfolio content, resume, community engagement proposal and responses to the application questions. The agency says the selected artist will be notified no later than July 15.

The Canyon Country District started its Artist in Residence program in fall 2022 and has hosted four artists since then. BLM also noted that the 2022 program included a multi-site tour with Native American jazz trumpeter Delbert Anderson and his ensemble D’DAT, a reminder that the project has already stretched beyond studio work into public-facing interpretation. A 2024 Canyonlands Natural History Association newsletter said the program had reached its third season and included Susan Jackson as the Moab Field Office selection, with operations manager Joleen Thornsberry saying the partnership gives artists a chance to engage deeply with southeastern Utah’s environment and lets visitors experience art in new and transformative ways.

Applications remain open through June 1. For a region built around iconic views, the residency asks a bigger question: who gets to explain what those views mean, and how that story is told to the millions of people who pass through Moab each year.