Grand Canyon Welcomes 2026 Artists and Astronomers in Residence
Grand Canyon Conservancy to host a series of artists and astronomers in residence in 2026, offering public programs to inspire and educate visitors at the canyon.
About Grand Canyon Conservancy's Residency Program
Grand Canyon Conservancy’s Residency Program supports Grand Canyon National Park’s priorities of dark sky preservation and inclusive storytelling by welcoming artists, scholars, and scientists from throughout the world to explore and contribute to Grand Canyon’s historic and cultural legacy. Our artists and astronomers engage the public in meaningful ways, adding to the collective scholarship on the region, and celebrating the rich environmental, spiritual, and cultural impact Grand Canyon has on the world.
The Artist in Residence Program offers artists the opportunity to practice and share their discipline with park visitors at one of the most beautiful sites in the world. Through impactful, site-specific, community-engaged work, the program seeks to inspire the community to deepen their knowledge of Grand Canyon.
The Astronomer in Residence Program offers astronomers and dark-sky advocates from diverse fields the opportunity to practice and share their discipline with park visitors under one of the most pristine night skies in the United States. Through educational outreach and creative connection, the program inspires visitors to see the value of night skies, spread awareness about the threats of light pollution, and explore society's complex relationship with natural darkness.
2026 Calendar of Events
March 8 - May 9: Artists in Residence, Nicole Banowetz and Devin Reilly
April 15 - May 15: Artist in Residence, Orquidia Velasquez
May 15 - July 24: Astronomer in Residence, Dr. Logan Pearce
August 29 - October 25: Artist in Residence, Alessandra Vertrees
August 30 - September 27: Astronomer in Residence, Summer Ash
November 4 - December 2: Astronomer in Residence, Dr. Amy Sayle
Meet Our 2026 Residents
Our 2026 residents come to us from Golden, CO, Portland, OR, Ann Arbor, MI, Brooklyn, NY, Mill Valley, CA and Chapel Hill, NC. We can wait to see what they bring to Grand Canyon.
Nicole Banowetz and Devin Reilly
Nicole Banowetz and Devin Reilly collaborate on performative sculptures. They find fascinating and beautiful organisms in the natural world to recreate into wearable and inflatable sculptures which they photograph out in the environment or use in surreal performances.
They began collaborating in 2017 when founding the activist artist group BAAM. In 2022 they put all their belongings into storage to become a nomadic art making duo. They created a giant floating art installation for the Bosch parade in the Netherlands in 2024 and have completed numerous residences together including Sculpture Space in New York, The Aquarium Gallery in New Orleans, Lakeside Lab in Iowa, and Lookout Arts Quarry in Washington.
During their residency, Nicole and Devin will work with the community and our visitors to tell ecological stories with giant inflatable sculptures and costumes. Tiny creatures will evolve at a giant scale. The work will address climate change imagining future pollination and species adaptation in the Grand Canyon.
Nicole Banowetz and Devin Reilly
Banowetz is from Colorado where she studied art and found a passion for sewing large inflatable sculptures. She has showed work in large international exhibitions such as The Amsterdam Light Festival, Bad Art's Hot Air in London, Open Art in Sweden, and PASSAGES INSOLITES in Quebec City, and taken part in environmental exhibitions in California, Colorado, Connecticut, and Finland. Her largest gallery installations were shown in the Denver Art Museum, the Longmont Museum, and Wonderspaces.
Reilly was born in Kansas but moved to Colorado where he met Nicole and their love of microscopic creatures brought them together. Reilly originally studied illustration but found that he preferred sculpture and began to focus on wearable sculpture pieces. He worked for many years as a commercial sculptor, gaining skills in a variety of materials and processes.
Orquidia Velasquez
Orquidia Velasquez crossed the US border as a six-year-old refugee and went on to earn an Associate of the Arts degree from the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising. Living in Oregon, Orquidia continues to challenge herself as a salvage textile artist, exploring new methods and mediums, such as machine and hand embroidery, knitting, weaving, appliqué, soft-sculpture, fiber-collage, drawing, painting and eco-fabric dyeing to tell colorful stories on the diversity of people.
During her time on site, Orquidia will be working with visitors in hands-on fiber art sessions that involve weaving and stitching various aspects of the Grand Canyon environment.
Dr. Logan Pearce
Dr. Logan Pearce is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Michigan, with a PhD from the University of Arizona (2024). Dr. Pearce’s work focuses on detection and characterization of exoplanets - planets around other stars. Pearce is working on advancements in observing techniques for hard-to-detect planets and planets around white dwarf stars, using both the James Webb Space Telescope and ground-based telescopes primarily in Chile.
Prior to astronomy, Dr. Pearce had a 5-year career as a US Navy officer followed by a 6-year career as a science teacher. Originally from Austin, TX, Dr. Pearce lives in Ann Arbor, Ml, with her dog Lani. For almost a decade Dr. Pearce has been actively involved in Astronomy on Tap (AoT), which provides regular public astronomy talks in bars and breweries around the world. Pearce is also a member of the Michigan Dark Skies organization and collects US National Parks (42 out of 63 so far!)
During her residency, she will be conducting public talks on topics including planets, aliens, and dark skies, as well as producing infographics and graphic designs advocating for dark skies preservation. She plans to host at least one Astronomy on Tap event during her residency.
Alessandra Vertrees
Alessandra Vertrees is a multidisciplinary artist, software engineer, and food storyteller exploring memory, heritage, and belonging through the lens of food. Raised on a farm in upstate New York and now based in Brooklyn, she blends technology, ancestral knowledge, and sensory design to investigate how ingredients, especially Indigenous plants, carry stories of lineage, land, and survival. Her work often bridges the digital and the deeply personal, using food as both archive and altar.
During her time at Grand Canyon National Park, Alessandra will trace her maternal family roots in nearby Williams, Arizona, where her abuela and great-grandmother were born. She plans to gather stories, conduct genealogical research, and explore the ecology of local ingredients such as piñon nuts, which are an emblematic food in her family’s history. Through field recordings, recipe mapping, and culinary experiments, she will create a multisensory body of work that reconnects ancestral memory to the landscape of Grand Canyon.
Summer Ash
Summer Ash is a rocket scientist, astrophysicist, and freelance science communicator. She studied Mechanical Engineering at Stanford University, space studies at the International Space University, and radio astronomy in the Astrophysics Group of the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge.
After academia, Summer transitioned to education and outreach, working for the World Science Festival, Columbia University, and the Very Large Array (VLA) at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. Her written work has been published online in The Atlantic, Smithsonian, Scientific American, among other outlets. She has hosted videos and online events for NBC.com, CUNY's Macaulay Honors College, NRAO's Baseline series, and the Intrepid Air & Space Museum. Summer enjoys Jupiter, Orion, supermassive black holes and advocating for equity, accessibility, diversity, and inclusion across all STEM fields.
During her residency, Summer plans to invite visitors to contemplate the nature of the Grand Canyon and the skies above it through solar meditations, moon walks, star maps, and time travel. Summer’s programs will include hands-on activities, guided stargazing, and intimate discussions on the cosmos that will leave you feeling more deeply connected with our universe.
Amy Sayle, PhD
Amy Sayle, PhD, is a science communicator, writer, and award-winning storyteller. As a longtime educator at Morehead Planetarium at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, she communicates astronomy to the public under the planetarium sky, at skywatching events, and on night paddles.
For nearly twenty years, Amy has presented interpretive programs at Bryce Canyon National Park's annual astronomy festival that weave together the science of the night sky with sky lore from around the world. As a founder of North Carolina's annual Statewide Star Party, she partners with parks, museums, libraries, and historic sites to host a weekend of dozens of public skywatching events taking place from the NC mountains to the coast. Amy is an advocate for dark skies and life-long learning.
During her residency, she plans to revise her young-adult novel Swallow the Sun, which is set at Grand Canyon National Park, and offer public programs focused on dark skies and on cultural astronomy.
Support the Artist and Astronomer in Residence Program
GCC’s Residency Program offers immersive and educational experiences to visitors throughout the year and is made possible by member support of Grand Canyon Conservancy.
By supporting the Artist in Residence Program, you help connect visitors with artists bringing new perspectives and insights to Grand Canyon and its surrounding communities. Donations help fund future artists, innovators, and visionaries whose work will grow the cultural and historical legacy of Grand Canyon National Park.
By giving to the Astronomer in Residence Program, you help support educational outreach about the values of dark night skies, spread awareness about the threats of light pollution, and explore society’s complex relationship with natural darkness. Donations to this program will help fund future astronomers’ work in residency as they celebrate and preserve Grand Canyon's dark skies.
Conclusion
GCC’s Residency Program offers immersive and educational experiences to visitors throughout the year. We are excited to welcome the 2026 residents to Grand Canyon National Park! Read about GCC's 2025 residents.
