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Forest Service Artist-in-Residence Applications Open

Published 5:30 am Friday, February 20, 2026

By Atticus Hempel

Photo courtesy of Paul Robbins. Claire Giordano paints a glacier using watercolors as the Tracy Arm Ford’s Terror Artist in Residency for 2024.
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Photo courtesy of Paul Robbins. Claire Giordano paints a glacier using watercolors as the Tracy Arm Ford’s Terror Artist in Residency for 2024.

Photo courtesy of Paul Robbins. Claire Giordano paints a glacier using watercolors as the Tracy Arm Ford’s Terror Artist in Residency for 2024.
Photo courtesy of Paul Robbins Bea Martin Villalba, nature journaler and scientific illustrator, sketches brown bears at Pack Creek Bear Viewing Area as part of the 2024 Kootznoowoo Artist in Residency.
Photo courtest of Bea Martin Villalba. A bear-able adventure, donated artwork after the completion of the residency. Beatriz Martin Copyright.

Note: the VOTW program is interagency, with participation from USFS, NPS, and USFWS. Also, there are 7 participating wilderness areas.

An Alaskan artist-in-residence program, Voices of the Wilderness, is now open for applications until March 1. Accepted applicants will join a ranger in research, education and monitoring projects on public lands in Southeast Alaska between June and August, although the length of residencies vary.

“The idea is to give artists a sense of the stewardship behind America’s public lands,” the Forest Service wrote in a news release.

Residencies are open to artists of all mediums, including visual, film, audio, performance and writing. Having completed a residency, artists donate one piece of art to the VOTW collection.

A scientific illustrator and educator, Bea Martin Villalba, spent eight days drawing bears and cleaning up marine debris with Voices of the Wilderness in 2024. Now her work is displayed at the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center.

“It would appeal to people that really want to disconnect,” Villalba said of program applicants on a call with the Empire. “I was completely surrounded by nature”

Asked about the lasting impact of the program on her life, Villalba described the urgency of participating in the program because of changes in environmental protection legislation.

“I just hope the more people learn about these places, the more they protect them,” Villalba said.

The Voices of the Wilderness program began in 2010 in the Tracy Arm-Fords Terror Wilderness with one artist paddling alongside rangers.

Seven wilderness areas are participating in the program during 2026, including: Kootznoowoo Wilderness near Juneau, Misty Fjords National Monument Wilderness near Ketchikan, South Baranof or West Chicagof-Yakobi Wilderness near Sitka, Tracy Arm-Fords Terror Wilderness near Juneau and Tebenkof Bay Wilderness near Petersburg.

More information, along with the application, can be found at https://www.fs.usda.gov/r10/wilderness.

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