Ucross Foundation Artist Residency Spring 2027: A Free Two- to Six-Week Wyoming Residency With Private Studio, Meals, and a $1,500 Stipend

Ucross Foundation Artist Residency Spring 2027: A Free Two- to Six-Week Wyoming Residency With Private Studio, Meals, and a $1,500 Stipend

The Ucross Foundation runs one of the most quietly respected artist residencies in the United States, and it is unusually generous in a way that matters to working artists: it costs nothing to attend, provides private studio space and lodging, feeds you with meals prepared by a professional chef, and sends you home with a $1,500 stipend. Set on a 20,000-acre working cattle ranch at the confluence of Piney and Clear creeks in the High Plains of northern Wyoming, Ucross offers something increasingly rare — a stretch of uninterrupted time to make work, with the logistics of daily life handled for you.

The Spring 2027 session is open for applications now. The open call runs from May 1 through July 15, 2026 at 11:59 p.m. Mountain Time, and the residency itself takes place from the first Monday in February through the first Friday in June 2027. This guide explains exactly what Ucross provides, who it is for, how the application works, and how to give yourself the best chance in a competitive pool. It is built from the foundation’s own residency pages rather than a reposted announcement, so you can decide whether the effort is worth it before you start assembling materials.

Key Details at a Glance

Use this table as a fast screen. The sections below explain the reasoning behind each line so you can judge fit and timing before you commit.

What the Residency Offers

The core of a Ucross residency is time and space, protected from interruption. Residents receive a private work space appropriate to their discipline — a studio for visual artists, a quiet room for writers, a space with the equipment a composer needs — along with separate living accommodations. The two are deliberately kept apart so that your working life and your resting life are not crammed into a single room.

Meals are a real part of the appeal. A professional chef prepares lunch and dinner Monday through Friday, which removes the daily grind of shopping and cooking that eats into creative time. Residents handle their own breakfasts and weekend meals, with kitchen access provided. Add weekly housekeeping for bedrooms, fresh linens and towels, reliable cell service, and wireless internet, and the practical friction of daily life is reduced to almost nothing. The point is singular: to let you focus on the work.

Crucially, there is no charge to attend. Many residencies of this caliber either charge fees or expect the artist to cover travel and incidentals out of pocket. Ucross instead hosts residents at no cost and issues a $1,500 stipend to each accepted artist, which can help offset travel to a remote part of Wyoming or simply ease the financial cost of taking weeks away from paid work. For an artist weighing whether they can afford to step out of their income-generating routine, that combination — free residency plus stipend — is what makes the opportunity genuinely accessible rather than merely prestigious.

The Setting and Why It Matters

Ucross sits on roughly 20,000 acres of ranch land in northern Wyoming, near Sheridan, at the point where Piney and Clear creeks meet. The landscape — open High Plains, big skies, the rhythms of a working cattle operation — is not incidental to the residency’s reputation. Many artists describe the environment itself as part of the creative benefit: the quiet, the distance from a city’s demands, and the scale of the land give a different sense of pace and attention.

That remoteness is also a practical consideration. You will need to plan travel to a rural location, and the $1,500 stipend is designed partly with that in mind. Weekends and evenings are your own, and the surrounding land is available for walking and reflection. If your practice benefits from solitude and a slower tempo, Ucross is a strong fit. If you depend on a dense urban network, frequent collaborators dropping by, or specialized fabrication facilities, think carefully about whether the setting supports the specific work you want to do during the residency.

Who Should Apply

Ucross is open to a wide range of practitioners: visual artists, writers, composers, choreographers, dancers, interdisciplinary artists, performance artists, and collaborative teams of up to four people. At any given time the community is small — up to ten artists in residence, typically around four writers, four visual artists, and two composers — which shapes both the intimacy of the experience and the competitiveness of admission.

The foundation asks that applicants exhibit professional standing in their field, but it explicitly encourages both established and emerging artists to apply. That phrasing matters: you do not need a long list of major awards to be competitive, but you do need to present yourself as a serious, committed practitioner with a coherent body of work and a clear sense of what you would do with the time. International artists are accepted, and no age or student-status restrictions are stated on the residency pages, though applicants should confirm any current requirements on the official site before applying.

Ucross also runs distinct Fellowships for Native American Visual Artists and Writers, which carry no application fee. If you are eligible for those, review the dedicated fellowship page, because the terms and application path differ from the general residency.

The Application Process

Applications are submitted online through Ucross’s Submittable portal. The general studio residency carries a $40 nonrefundable application fee; there is no fee for applicants to the Native American Fellowship. While the residency pages do not enumerate every required item, residency applications of this type typically ask for:

• A work sample — the heart of any residency application. Visual artists submit images of recent work; writers submit a manuscript excerpt; composers submit scores and audio recordings. Follow the portal’s format and length limits exactly.
• A project description or statement explaining what you intend to work on during the residency and why uninterrupted time at Ucross serves that work.
• A résumé or CV documenting your professional activity — exhibitions, publications, performances, commissions, or equivalent.
• Session and length preferences, since residencies run two, four, or six weeks.

Because specific requirements and character limits can change from cycle to cycle, read the current Submittable form carefully and prepare your materials to match it precisely. When you choose a session, keep in mind that the Spring 2027 residency runs from the first Monday in February to the first Friday in June 2027; select length and dates that realistically fit your calendar and the arc of your project.

Timeline and Deadlines

The Ucross calendar is built around two sessions a year, each with its own open call:

• Spring 2027 session — open call May 1 to July 15, 2026 (deadline 11:59 p.m. MT); residency runs first Monday in February through first Friday in June 2027.
• Fall session — open call November 1 to January 15 (11:59 p.m. MT); residency runs first Monday in August through first Friday in December.

As of this writing, the Spring 2027 window is open and closes on July 15, 2026. That is a firm, time-zone-specific cutoff, so do not leave submission to the final hours — portal traffic and file-upload issues near deadlines are a common cause of missed applications. If you are reading this after July 15, 2026, the residency is recurring: the next comparable window is the Fall open call beginning November 1, and it is worth setting a reminder to apply then.

How to Build a Strong Application

Selection is competitive — roughly 115 residencies are awarded each year against a much larger applicant pool — so the quality of your submission matters more than any single credential. A few principles consistently separate strong applications from weak ones:

• Lead with your best, most recent work. Reviewers form an impression quickly from the work sample. Curate tightly; do not pad the submission with older or weaker pieces to fill space. Coherence beats volume.
• Make the project description specific. A vague statement about “developing new work” reads as filler. Name the project, describe where it stands, and explain concretely what a two-, four-, or six-week block of uninterrupted time would let you accomplish that your normal life does not.
• Show why the setting fits. You are not required to write about Wyoming, but a brief, genuine sense of why solitude and focused time serve this particular project can help a reviewer picture you thriving there.
• Match the format exactly. Respect image counts, file types, word limits, and audio-length rules. Applications that ignore the portal’s instructions signal carelessness before anyone judges the art.
• Proofread every text field. For writers especially, the application itself is a writing sample. Typos and rushed prose undercut the impression your manuscript is trying to make.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Submitting at the last minute. The 11:59 p.m. MT deadline is unforgiving, and Mountain Time trips up applicants in other time zones. Build in a full day of buffer.
• Ignoring the fee and deposit structure. The $40 application fee is nonrefundable and, per the foundation, fee waivers are not available for the general studio residency. Accepted residents also pay a $50 refundable deposit. Factor these in.
• Treating the work sample as an afterthought. This is the single most important element. A generic or dated sample is the most common reason strong ideas fail to advance.
• Overreaching on session length. Requesting six weeks when your project and schedule only support two can make an application harder to place. Be realistic.
• Assuming eligibility. Confirm current requirements — including anything about students, collaborators, or international applicants — directly on the official pages before you invest time in the application.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does it cost anything to attend? No. There is no charge for the residency itself, and accepted residents receive a $1,500 stipend. There is a $40 nonrefundable application fee (waived for Native American Fellowship applicants) and a $50 refundable deposit for those accepted.

How long is a residency? You can be in residence for two, four, or six weeks, depending on your preference and Ucross’s scheduling.

How many artists are there at once? Up to ten artists are in residence at any one time — typically about four writers, four visual artists, and two composers — and roughly 115 individuals are hosted across the year.

Who is eligible? Visual artists, writers, composers, choreographers, dancers, interdisciplinary and performance artists, and collaborative teams of up to four. Applicants must show professional standing, but both emerging and established artists are welcome, and international artists may apply.

When is the deadline? For the Spring 2027 session, applications close July 15, 2026 at 11:59 p.m. Mountain Time. The Fall cycle opens November 1 and closes January 15.

Is there financial support beyond the free residency? Yes — the $1,500 stipend. Residents are otherwise responsible for their own travel to Wyoming.

Next Steps and Official Links

If Ucross fits your practice and your calendar, the path is straightforward: review the official residency program page and FAQs, confirm the current application requirements and session dates, prepare a tightly curated work sample and a specific project description, and submit through the Submittable portal well before the July 15, 2026 cutoff for Spring 2027. If you miss this window, mark the Fall open call (November 1 to January 15) and prepare in advance.

Start at the official residency program page: ucrossfoundation.org/residency-program.html. Native American visual artists and writers should also review the dedicated Native American Fellowship page, which waives the application fee. Confirm every deadline, fee, and eligibility detail on the official site before applying, since terms can change from cycle to cycle.