About Visual Arts

Visual Arts programs focus on professional development, research, and training opportunities in media and visual arts. The programs provide access to world-class facilities in photography, sculpture, print media and papermaking, ceramics, painting, performance, architecture, new media, television, video, curatorial, and critical studies, and textiles. Residencies are for professional artists with an exhibition record who have had formal training in visual arts, or equivalent experience and recognition from their peers.

Visual Arts programming at The Banff Centre is comprised of three main areas:

• Creative Residencies offer artists a unique opportunity to explore, expand, and develop their practice within various studio environments. These also facilitate theoretical and intellectual growth through peer groups, lectures and mentors, and provide access to the tools and support needed to nurture the creative process.
• The Walter Phillips Gallery, established in 1975, is committed to the production, presentation, collection and research of visual art and culture. The Gallery exhibits and collects painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, textiles, photography, and new media-based works. The Gallery's substantial collection of video art is housed in the Paul D. Fleck Library at The Banff Centre and is available for public viewing.
• The Banff International Curatorial Institute (BICI), which adds a new level to the existing structure of support for artists and cultural workers at The Banff Centre, with the consideration of the field of visual and media art curatorship. The Institute provides unique support for emerging and mid-career curators through its curatorial residency and work study programs and provides professional development opportunities through think tanks, symposia and publications.