Danielle Guidici Wallis, a local independent artist, imagined a residency program that would create opportunities for artists like her. Influenced by the natural world and the issues that impact it, Wallis created art using invasive plant species, helping to education the public on recognizing them and understanding the impact they have on local ecosystems.

Wallis has an MFA from Stanford University where she was the recipient of the Murphy Cadogan Grant, the James Borelli Fellowship in Art, the Anita Squires Memorial Fund in Photography and a fellowship from the Cantor Center for the Visual Arts. She has also had her art widely exhibited in California and beyond. A sculptor and environmental artist, she imagined a more vibrant art community engaged in community-driven arts initiatives that integrated art, ecology, and civic engagement.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, she watched as her community got outside and engaged with nature in ways that made them feel connected. She imagined what it would look like if art was also readily available in public spaces. She partnered with The Artlands Creative, a non-profit, and applied to Arts in California Parks for a planning grant to support the creation of a program with community input and partner support that would bring her vision to fruition.

“I thought we could really bring awareness to some of the environmental issues and engage people to consider these issues through the arts,” Wallis said. “There are not enough opportunities like this in public spaces where people doing art and making changes can inspire others.”

Wallis was awarded the grant and worked to complete the planning stages of the grant by 2024, and began the process of creating Regional Eco Arts Community Hub (REACH) with Daniel Gohman, Executive Director of The Artlands Creative. Their first step was to gather and collate community input and build partnerships with other local organizations.  Sylvan Park emerged as a potential community garden site that could highlight California native plants as well as plants that could be used for textile art, while serving as a space for an artist-in-residence program.  The Artlands Creative received a second grant from Arts in California Parks for implementation in 2025.

REACH is now offering a one-month, work-only residency for four artists and four writers in two locations, at the Sylvan Park community garden in Redlands and in Morongo Basin area in partnership with Big Morongo Canyon Preserve. Other partners in the program include City of Redlands, University of Redlands, Big Morongo Canyon Preserve, Redlands Conservancy, Inland Empire Resource Conservation District  Inlandia Institute, and Arts Connection (the Arts Council of San Bernardino County).

Applications are open to artists and writers in San Bernardino and Riverside County until December 14, 2025. Artists are required to explore environmental issues including, but not limited to, climate change, extreme heat, drought, flooding, food insecurity, displacement, environmental justice, and biodiversity loss. This call is open to artists in all disciplines including visual arts, performance, music, writing, film, and interdisciplinary practices that demonstrate interest in environmental issues and have a desire to engage directly with the community.

Each artist/writer will be given a studio space at no cost for the four-week period of their residency. Artists will be expected to devote a substantial amount of time to their projects and will be given a stipend of $700 per week for 4 weeks, totaling $2800. There will be an additional materials stipend of $500 available for visual and performing artists.

Each artist will be required to provide two public facing events/activities during their residency.  They will also be asked to participate in a culminating program at the Redlands Asistencia in September.

As an adjunct Professor at the University of Redlands, Wallis has brought students on fieldtrips with Rivers & Lands Conservancy to discover endangered habitats in person and in hands on ways. Artists like Wallis and her students can bridge gaps in science to transform complex concepts into relatable stories or visuals, making science accessible to more people. Artists help our communities to discover why conservation efforts matter to them and how nature might inspire, create connection and desire to remain connected. The REACH residency is an exciting opportunity for local artists and conservation partners to connect our communities to the environment through a new lens.

Rivers & Lands Conservancy connects our community to natural, wild, and open spaces of Southern California through land conservation, stewardship, and education.

Link for Residency: https://www.theartlands.org/reach

Rebecca K. O’Connor is the Co-Executive Director of Rivers & Lands Conservancy, has an MFA in Creative Writing and Writing for the Performing Arts from UC Riverside and is the author of several books on the natural world.