Pie Ranch’s mission is to cultivate a healthy and just food system from seed to table through food education, farmer pathways, and regional partnership.
The Pie Ranch Artist Residency Program was developed in our 2024 Artivism (art and activism) cohort, and we hosted our first residency program in 2025 with 5 artists.
Pie Ranch is an educational non-profit, and an organic farm in Pescadero on the beautiful California coast nestled in a valley with ocean views. We saw the opportunity to build a community of food-justice focused artists.
Read more below about our vision, and our 2026 update.
THE VISION:
The Pie Ranch Artist Residency is specifically designed for artists whose work addresses food issues, farmworker issues, agroecology, Indigenous foodways, and/or food self sufficiency or artists who would like to propose and create new work that address these topics.
We are excited to host artists from multiple disciplines and/or artists who work across many disciplines including but not limited to: visual artists, painters and muralists, film makers, writers and poets, musicians, chefs, photographers, dancers, and more.
We also welcome artists’ collaborations that would like to work on a project together during their time at the residency.
This residency will be self-directed and project-based. Artists can choose to continue working on a pre-existing project that addresses topics of food justice or work on a new body of work.
We prioritize proposals aligning with Pie Ranch’s mission and values and that align with the intersections of art, food, and farming.
As a non-profit educational farm, we are committed to creating a community of artists from diverse backgrounds.
10/13/26 UPDATE:
Due to limited applications, we are canceling this year’s artist residency program. We have already applied to funders for the 2027 season as we hope to have scholarships available again in the seasons to come.
The mission of our Artist Residency remains steady - to expand the impact of our vision and mission of food resilience through arts and culture. We believe that creativity is essential to the soul, that artistic expression is vital to society, and that art can change the world. Because of that, we believe that art can have a deep imprint in the food movement by being able to express and contribute ideas or concepts differently (through visual arts or other) in order to create a deeper connection to the land, community, and the larger food movement.
The Pie Ranch Artist Residency is specifically designed for artists whose work addresses food issues, farmworker issues, agroecology, Indigenous foodways, and/or food self sufficiency or artists who would like to propose and create new work that address these topics.
We are excited to host artists from multiple disciplines and/or artists who work across many disciplines including but not limited to: visual artists, painters and muralists, film makers, writers and poets, musicians, chefs, photographers, dancers, and more.
Please email artist@pieranch.org to introduce yourself and be on our list of invited artists for our next cohort of applications for 2027 season.
If you are a funder that is curious about Pie Ranch’s art programs, please reach out to Kelly@pieranch.org.
