Moab Arts Reuse Residency
Our Reuse Residency mission is to challenge today's waste-making culture by providing a unique platform for artists at the intersection of art, community, and waste systems. The Moab area is highly impacted by the tourism industry and, as a result, waste management. By facilitating artists’ direct engagement with the waste stream, our Reuse Residency encourages artists to consider their studio practice through the lens of sustainability and to thoughtfully re-assess their processes of material sourcing and waste disposal.
Through a 4-week residency, the program offers housing for visiting artists, studio space, project and community facilitation, a stipend, and access to materials at local waste disposal sites. As a component of each residency, artists spend time providing opportunities for learning, dialog and enrichment within the community.
Materials are provided by Canyonlands Solid Waste Authority and WabiSabi Thrift Store. The residency program is generously supported by the NEA's Grants for Arts Projects program and general operating support funding from the Utah Division of Arts and Museums. Thank you to the Moab Museum for donating admission to resident artists.
Applications are currently CLOSED.
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Please Welcome our
Cole Forrest
More info
coming soon!
Cole joins us from an area whose resource draining has greatly impacted their life and artistic practice to focus on environmental sustainability. Cole is a filmmaker who is passionate about film process and development and is excited to incorporate community goals into their project here in Moab.
Cole is a recipient of the Ken and Ann Watts Memorial Scholarship, imagineNATIVE Director’s Lab, and of the James Bartleman Indigenous Youth Creative Writing Award. They are the 2019 recipient of the imagineNATIVE + LIFT Film Mentorship and a 2020 Artist in Residence as a part of the Sundance Native Filmmakers Lab. Cole is a 2023 participant of the Reelworld E20 Program and the 2024 emerging curator-in-residence at Images Festival. Cole has supported programming at festivals including TIFF, imagineNATIVE, VIFF, Santa Fe International Film Festival, and Pathways Indigenous Film Festival. Cole has been published in GRAIN Magazine, and released a debut co-authored poetry collection titled “Once The Smudge Is Lit” in 2024. Cole is currently developing new film and writing projects including their first feature film. They are grateful to represent their community in all artistic pursuits.
During their Residency here in Moab, Cole plans to experiment with alternative film development methods. While strong chemicals have been used for over 100 years in the film community there is a movement to create and use more sustainable processes. Cole will host a series of workshops and a closing reception, all free and open to the public. All four workshops revolve around creating and developing images with eco-friendly and organic film processes that use coffee grounds, baking soda and vitamin C. Workshop participants will learn how to build cameras and develop film using materials from the waste stream and thrift store. The images and film created through the workshops, along with the work that Cole has created throughout the month-long artist residency, will be presented at the end of the residency.
August 8th: Phytograms - Plants and Film
August 10 - 11: Pinhole Camera Making & Photography
August 21: Darkroom 101
August 24 - 25: Organic Film Photography Processing
August 29: Closing Reception and Screening
Anneloes van Beek
Anneloes van Beek joins the Reuse Residency with a focus on woodworking, creating functional and decorative pieces. Van Beek was trained as a jeweler at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design and it was here that she fell in love with woodworking. She is fascinated by the planning, puzzle-like material, and necessary patience of woodworking. For the last six years, her work has been centered around a series of wall sculptures made by laminating reclaimed wood, carving it into organic forms, and applying reclaimed linoleum ‘shingles’ with small nails and adding colored tiles as pixels.
Something that caught her eye about Moab is its Tree City designation, which the city has held since 1993. When Anneloes sees a plank of wood, she sees a lifetime of stories, twists and bows from years of wind, knots of sapling roots, rings showing years of growth, and then the human marks made on the wood. What was built with it? Was it painted? Does it have to be left to burn or rot when it could be made into something else and live yet another life? Anneloes plans to create a series of reliquary boxes made from reclaimed wood from the landfill. The boxes are a testament to the wood’s origin story and she plans to accompany each one with its own origin story. She hopes that the boxes inspire curiosity in the source of wooden objects in our lives and reconsider what types of wood crafted items we purchase and throw away.
Past Artists in Residence
Each artists brings something to our community through their lens of artistic background and skills. Learn about each artist, explore their work during their residency and see some of their past work below.
Thank you to our program partners:
