Artist-in-Residence Program
Artist in Residence Program

Artist-in-Residence Program

The program provides an opportunity for artists to pursue their work in the inspiring landscape and history of Caribou Ranch. By sharing their art, we hope to add to residents’ enjoyment of open space lands and create a legacy of art preserved for future generations.

2024 Applications

Sorry, the application deadline was Feb. 29. Late applications are not accepted.

Artists’ Stay

Selected artists will stay in the historic DeLonde Barn at Caribou Ranch.

  • Artists can stay up to four days and three nights from mid-July to mid-September.
  • Artists will not share residence with another artist. Artists are permitted to bring one adult companion if desired.
  • A resident ranger is available on-site for support.
  • Applicants must agree to the Program Rules & Guidelines.

The residence includes:

  • Solar-powered electricity for lighting, cooking, and heating water.
  • Outlets for low-powered electrical devices (there is no Wi-Fi, but most phone carriers provide service in the area).
  • Twin-sized bunk beds (no tents or camping allowed outside the living quarters).
  • Outhouse with pit toilet and solar-powered camp shower and sink.
  • Outdoor dish washing station.
  • Dining area and kitchen furnished with drinking water, electric stove-top burners, toaster oven, cooking utensils, and cleaning supplies.
  • Two large RTIC coolers (there is no refrigerator).
  • Outdoor picnic table (campfires are not permitted).
  • Emergency phone.

Area highlights:

  • The open space property offers a variety of landscapes to explore including streams, waterfalls, forests, and beautiful vistas.
  • Wildlife in the area include moose, elk, black bears, beavers, bats and nearly 90 species of birds.
  • The Blue Bird Mine complex is nearby and is where miners from the 1870s to the 1960s extracted silver ore. In the early 1900s, the site was a whistle stop for the Denver, Boulder & Western Railroad.

2023 Selected Artists

Sophie Adams

Primary Medium: Crafts

Sophie’s inspiration comes from the natural world. Her pieces reflect her own curiosity, to spark questions about the world we live in; scientifically, morally, and energetically. Sophie taps into her ability to write, embroider, paint, control electronics, work with fabric, create music, and visualize in images, and would like to feed that ever-bubbling spring at Caribou Ranch. Sophie wants to serve as a bridge, to express her learnings through images, words, and sounds, subsequently providing a potential path to gratitude, beauty, and peace for those with whom her work speaks.

colorful artwork on a purple garage door

Marie Bush

Primary Medium: Photography

Marie is a creative fine art photographer based in Lafayette, Colorado. Nature, especially the forest, is where she finds sanctuary, a place of healing, growth, strength, peace and beauty. For many years Marie has worked on a series, “Intimate Colorado”, by photographing numerous wilderness areas including Caribou Ranch and Open Space. Through her images, she hopes to convey a sense of refuge, inspiration, and renewal to the viewer. Her goal is to immerse myself in the diverse landscape photographic opportunities that Caribou has to offer. Marie hopes to explore the forests, meadows, and streams in all kinds of light and weather conditions.

mountain creek with a bush in the background

Bill Enyart

Primary Medium: Painting

Bill has a longtime love of Colorado outdoors and his first painting that sold on site was at Caribou Ranch. He has returned there many times to paint and he counts it as one of his favorites for beauty, wildlife, and rich history. Bill went there once in 2020 just before he started oil painting en plein air. He currently is active in Boulder County arts and is represented in several galleries and has won awards at numerous painting events. Bill also has written the outline of a children’s book that features Caribou Ranch and his goal is to complete it in 2023.

Painting of a lake with mountains in the background

Xan McKenna

Primary Medium: Painting

Xan grew up in Colorado and the dramatic natural landscapes of the Southwest has always captivated her and inspired her artwork. Immersion in nature has played an immensely important part in shaping her artistic focus, and she is always seeking new opportunities to spend time in nature to inspire new art, especially in Colorado and the Southwest. Climate change poses a threat to both the environment and to the art it inspires, and as a Colorado resident Xan has experienced many devastating fires due to climate change. This threat is one that is very present in her life, both as an artist and as a being, who depends on the environment.

painting of cliffs

Sarah Nance

Primary Medium: Writing

Sarah is currently an assistant professor in the Department of English & Fine Arts at the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. As a teaching-focused institution, the Air Force Academy does not leave her much time for writing and research, so summer work as well as residencies have given her pockets of time to work on her poetry manuscript, titled This Road Ends in Water. In navigating memory, loss, destruction, and pain, her manuscript attempts to reconstruct the life and death of her father.

Contact Us

Parks & Open Space

Monserrat Alvarez
moalvarez@bouldercounty.gov
303-678-6268