Artist–Scientist Ideas Summit & Fellowship

We are excited to launch a new annual Art + Science Fellowship: Dialogues in Science thru Art & Music. Each year, NCEAS will invite one visual artist and one musician/composer to Santa Barbara for a weeklong Ideas Summit, where they will collaborate with leading environmental scientists around a shared theme. The inaugural 2026 theme is Extinction & Persistence - exploring disappearance, survival, adaptation, and the emotional and ecological dimensions of change. During the summit, Fellows will engage in deep conversation with scientists and scholars, field excursions and ecological site visits, and collaborative experimentation and exchange. Over the following year, Fellows and scientists will continue to connect through quarterly virtual dialogues, culminating in a public exhibition and performance series in Santa Barbara the following fall.