Guide: Badlands National Park AIR program
What a great program! I feel so privileged to have been one of the Artists in Residence at Badlands National Park.
I'm writing this review in case anyone else wants to know what they're getting into. Perhaps this will be a search result.
What's the verdict?
Love it!
How do I apply?
Here! (Put this in your calendar for when applications open.)
How much does it cost?
Nothing! To apply or to attend!
Do you get paid?
$300 stiepend.
That's not very much for 4-6 weeks of work!
That's not how I'd describe it. I'd call it 4-6 weeks of free housing/vacation. You can rent out the place you live, if that works for you, and make money that way, since you'll be vacating.
What do you have to do?
Not much! There isn't exactly a formal deliverable, but you want to consider the goals of the park. This one wants more visitors, so they want artists to showcase how cool the park is.
What's the weather like?
The weather was great for me! Maybe in previous and future years it was/will be snowier. I mostly wore pants and long sleeves on hikes.
What's the housing like?
It's like a studio apartment. I'm staying inside the park, yet I have access to heating, AC, a shower, a real bed, and the works!
What is the competition like to get this?
I'm told there were only 30 applications this year, and they selected 3 people, and from another person, that it got "really popular" this year. I don't know if that's a discrepancy or if they frequently get even fewer than 30 applicants.
I'm told our (the winners') applications were above and beyond anyone else's, and they're tired of applications from black and white photographers.
What are the qualifications of people who are selected?
Here's my website, and here's the site of the digital artist here with me.
For me, I think my stand-out qualification was a book deal with MIT Press and writing samples in National Geographic, PBS Newshour, Newsweek, etc.
You most certainly need a portfolio of work and some way to describe yourself as a professional artist, writer, etc.
Are there any other reasons you got in?
The person running the program introduced himself as a taphonomist, a person who studies bodies postmortem! But I’d call him a paleontologist.
My proposal was to gather photos for a photo book of dead animals. So, I think it was fortunate that he happened to like that kind of stuff.
But hey, who knows how many residencies and opportunities I'm not getting because my topic is weird and disturbing!
Are there particular projects they want?
I think you have to consider what the park can use. I'm offering the park my photos, writing, and some not-gross time lapses of sunsets and such. But I think the digital artist is more useful: She's creating posters of park features with repurposable assets. Meaning they could sell posters like "Birds of the Badlands" and easily take out the bird illustrations to make stickers, to use as brochure clipart, etc.
Do you have to be a social media expert?
No.
I'm always asking about this, as I do have a lot of social media success (hit 230k followers on TikTok.com/@RollBones recently!) So, I ask people who run the programs I get into: "What got me accepted?"
No one has ever cited my social media presence as a priority, even though I do put my social media success in my applications. Assuming you have something to put on your application, that can take you just as far or farther than an online following.
In fact, the federal government doesn't really allow TikTok use, hence the reason those National Park TikTok accounts are all impersonations.
I could go on and on on this–and I have, on how you don’t need social media to get trad book deals!
Would you have posted a bad review?
Honestly, no, not if it was bad overall. But this is my honest review of this particular one.
I think this is a reality across the federal government, but there are more delays and inefficiencies than I’d like. One of the three residents missed her chance as, I’m told, she didn’t start the fingerprinting process soon enough. You have to be on top of things and flexible, too.
There also isn’t a clear way to get my work to the park staff, if they want to use it. I just emailed a bunch of people and asked if they wanted anything I’d made. I’m told there are too many regulations on social media for them to want to bother to post much outside of emergency alerts. But, if they don’t mind, I don’t mind.
෴⚘₊˚෴𖥧𖤣𖥧෴˚₊𖥧𓋼෴𖤣𓍊𖥧෴˚⋆.𓇗⋆˚෴‧₊˚𓆑
Let me know if you have any other questions that aren’t answered by this page! Or you can contact the person running it.
