Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity Launches Over 30 Arts Programs for 2026 Spring and Summer Sessions (and Beyond!)
By
Banff Centre Communications
Posted on
September 25, 2025
Banff Centre Campus. Photo by Donald Lee.
The post-secondary institution in Banff, Alberta celebrated a roster of programming to begin in 2026, including longstanding programs in Visual Arts, Literary Arts, and Music, in addition to several new programs and exciting updates, in a live webinar. You can watch the recording now here.
BANFF, AB, SEPTEMBER 25, 2025 – Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity is thrilled to reveal a lineup of arts programs for the spring and summer sessions in 2026 and beyond. As a world-leading post-secondary institution dedicated to arts, leadership, Indigenous culture, and mountain culture in the Canadian Rockies, this new roster is open for applications today across a wide variety of artistic disciplines for artists of all stages in their career.
Built to support practitioners of all fields, as well as those wishing to work between and across disciplines, the following departments revealed new programming: Indigenous Arts, Visual Arts, the Walter Phillips Gallery, Theatre Arts, Literary Arts, Music, Professional Training Programs, Mountain Culture, and the Leighton Artist Studios.
In a public webinar on Wednesday, September 24, each program Director spoke about their upcoming programs. That webinar is now available to view on Banff Centre’s YouTube page here.
Program durations vary, but regardless of length, their residential nature provides an extraordinary and often career-changing environment in which to explore creative freedom, take risks, and push the boundaries of your practice. Whether you come to start, further develop or finish a project, to do research or simply experiment, time spent at Banff Centre is almost always enriching in ways that have lasting impact.
Josephine Ridge, Executive Director, Arts at Banff Centre
Highlights include (in chronological order):
- Fuse: Music Residency 2026 – April 13 - May 2, 2026
- A new Music residency invites musicians, singers, conductors, and concert experience creators working in Classical, Jazz, Electronic, and related disciplines to engage with their curiosity and creativity alongside faculty that spans acting, circus performance, dance, composers, and the Australian Chamber Orchestra
- Playwrights Lab 2026 – May 11 - 23, 2026
- Banff Centre’s celebrated playwrighting program returns to the Theatre Arts department for Canadian writers to develop new works with celebrated faculty Nina Lee Aquino, Keith Barker, Colleen Murphy, Yvette Nolan, Emma Tibaldo, and Banff Centre’s International Playwright in Residence, two-time Tony Award-winner Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (Appropriate, Purpose)
- Story Sharing Residency 2.0 – May 11 - 29, 2026
- This three-week Indigenous Arts residency supports Indigenous storytellers in developing existing work through a balance of self-directed studio time, faculty-led workshops, peer sharing circles, and one-on-one feedback sessions designed to deepen the creative process
- Nomadisms – May 25 - June 26, 2026
- A four-week Visual Arts residency exploring the theme of “nomadism” through experiences and relations such as itineraries of humans and non-humans, trajectories of circulation, spatial resistances, and alternative cartographies
- Moonlighter Film Camp - Field Skills – June 26 - 29, 2026
- A new series of programs in Mountain Culture leads several practical four-day workshops for creatives identifying as women in the outdoor filmmaking industry in partnership with Well Travel Collective
- Audio Recording Engineer Summer 2026 – July 8 - September 9, 2025
- This Professional Training Program for emerging recording engineers offers the opportunity to be immersed in a combination of Music programs, including Chamber Music, Summer Opera, Jazz & Sonic Arts, or the Banff International String Quartet Festival
- Crime Writing 2026 – August 17 - 28, 2026
- Banff Centre’s Literary Arts department continues its exploration of genre writing with a deep dive into crime writing with faculty Nita Prose, Wayne Arthurson, and David Heska Wanbli Weiden with the professional guest Alison Callahan of Simon & Schuster
- Banff International Curatorial Institute: Curating While Black – January 25 - February 12, 2027
- A hybrid online/in-person three-week residency and symposia brings together Black curators developing individual research projects for solo development time alongside group discussions and learning opportunities among a cohort and program faculty, organized through Banff Centre’s Walter Phillips Gallery (taking place in the Winter session of 2027)
- Leighton Artist Studios: Solo, Group, and Photography – Year-Round
- A trademark program at Banff Centre, these isolated artist studios mostly located in a forested area of campus are now accepting three streams of applicants based on solo, group, or photography, with one intake date for residencies that take place year-round
To find out about all upcoming Arts programs at Banff Centre, visit banffcentre.ca/programs.
See Banff Centre’s Media Room here.
For photos, information or interview requests, please contact:
Carly Maga
Director, Communications
Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity
tel: +1.403.763.6210
cell: +1.403.431.3423
carly_maga@banffcentre.ca
About Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity
Founded in 1933, Banff Centre is a post-secondary institution built upon an extraordinary legacy of excellence in artistic and leadership development. What started as a single course in drama has grown to become a global organization leading in arts, culture, and creative decision-making across dozens of disciplines, from the fine arts to Indigenous Wise Practices. From our home in the stunning Canadian Rocky Mountains, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity aims to move everyone who attends our campus - artists, leaders, thinkers, and audiences - to unleash their creative potential and realize their unique contribution to build an innovative, inspiring future through education, performances, convenings, and public outreach. banffcentre.ca