BELLTOWER HOUSE ARTIST RESIDENCY

A gift of creative sanctuary in southern New Mexico.

About the residency:

Belltower House Artist Residency is a gift of space and time. It is granted, free of cost, to artists, writers, musicians, and craft practitioners looking for quiet and focus towards their practice.

About the building and grounds:

The Belltower House sits on 50 acres. Several producing fruit trees and vines live on the property amid a few ancient cottonwoods, a spring-fed pond, and acres of rocky hills.

The home is an old adobe, built onto periodically for at least the last 150 years. Through this process of accumulation (a bedroom here, a bathroom there) it has grown into a jumbled structure with bedrooms, an office, living room, kitchen, bathroom, multiple porches, deck, several outbuildings, and the eponymous belltower.

One of those outbuildings is a spring house, which sits over an artesian spring that bubbles naturally out of the hillside. This springhouse has been used variably as a studio, dining room, social space, and place of reflection. Wild plants grow at the spring head and goldfish swim in the pools.

There is also a large barn usable for sculptural work or messy media. (However, there is no power at the barn.)

The residency comes equipped with:

  • 1 queen bed and 1 full bed
  • Dishes and cookware, linens, basic home needs
  • Gas stove, microwave, fridge, tiny dishwasher
  • A small library of fiction and nonfiction books
  • High speed internet
  • Couches
  • Desks
  • A record player and speakers throughout the house
  • Washer / Drier
  • Mini split heating / cooling units
  • Two woodburning stoves (one in the house, one in the spring house)
  • A piano (very out of tune right now)
  • Kitchen herbs (rosemary, oregano, sage, chives, hops)

About the area:

The residency is in Palomas Canyon, a farming valley a 15 minute drive from Truth or Consequences, in Southern New Mexico.

Truth or Consequences (population 5000) is known for its hotsprings. There are a half dozen different bathhouses available to soak in. There is also a local movie theater, a brewery, galleries, a few restaurants, a bakery, a coffeeshop, a local grocery, a weekly farmer’s market, a bulk order food coop, and a Walmart. It’s a very quirky and pleasant place to be.

Palomas Canyon is a working agricultural valley. While there is a lot of space around the residency, sound carries. You will hear dogs, farm equipment, and guns (both target practice and hunting) at times.

People travel here both for stargazing (a dark sky spot) and birdwatching (directly on the migration paths of many species, including the Sandhill Cranes which overwinter here).

Belltower House sits within Ndé Benah, the lands of Apache Nation, tended by the Chiricahua Apache peoples since time immemorial. Belltower House contributes to the Chiricahua Apache National Foundation annually.

Getting here:

Belltower House Residency is off the Interstate 25. The closest working airports are Albuquerque and El Paso, both 2 hours away by car. The closest train goes to Deming, NM. Las Cruces, which is an hour south, is the nearest place for a “city day”– with late night coffeeshops, theaters, a mall, natural food stores, a university, etc.

While there is a bus from Truth or Consequences once a day to Albuquerque, and a few regional transit options that you can piece together to Las Cruces or El Paso, the residency itself cannot be reached without a car.

Please note that New Mexico and Texas both have active border patrol checkpoints on major highways. If there is any uncertaintany about your visa or legal status, we cannot recommend that you travel here at this time.

The Residency Experience:

Belltower House is granted free of cost for the duration of the residency dates. Any travel, production, or meal costs are borne by the artist. Residents are asked to donate a token of their practice at the end of the residency, such as a drawing, a print, copies of a chapbook, etc.

Time moves slowly in the desert. This is a residency where days feel long, and creativity unfolds at its own pace.

A typical schedule might look like:
  • 4-5 days a week spent in focus in the studio
  • 1-2 days a week spent soaking, socializing, or eating in Truth or Consequences, Hatch, or Hillsboro
  • 1 day a week resting
  • A few days during the course of the residency on a longer day trip, such as White Sands National Park, El Bosque Del Apache, Silver City, Santa Fe, or El Paso

However, ultimately your time is your own and your days are what you make of them. While we require a project proposal, there are no required outcomes at the end of the residency. If you arrive and find that you must work on something else– or if the work does not come– we trust that the rest was needed.

Requirements and expectations:

  • A car is required to get here. Being able to drive is a must. There are no local rideshare options.
  • The desert is very peaceful, but also demanding (dust! snakes! hot! cold! altitude!)– please be prepared for rural living.
  • This is a country house. Bugs, wildfire smoke, and wind-based power outages can and do happen.
  • While the house does not have stairs, the ground is rough and doorframes are small. Those with mobility impairments or other disabilities should reach out with specific needs. Service animals are welcome.
  • Outside maintenance contributions are welcomed (weeding, sweeping, pruning, etc) but any land art projects or landscape alterations should be discussed.
  • It can get lonely here– solitude should sound peaceful not scary.
  • There are days where eating out in town is hard (most restaurants are closed Monday / Tuesday) – being able to cook or snack at home is important. There is no food delivery.
  • You must not accept another residency or travel away from the house for more than a few nights over the course of the residency period.
  • We expect a careful use of materials and understanding of their ecological impact.
  • This is a beloved shared space. Please be tidy and respectful, above all else.

Application and selection:

Applications are project-based and welcomed across media and discipline, including visual, audio, written, moving, and digital media. (Wet, messy or toxic materials must be used outside or in the barn– not the house.)

Belltower House residencies are project-based. Only one resident / project will be accepted at a time- there will not be anyone else staying in the residency house or grounds over the duration of the residency. Collaborations are welcome but collaborating residents should be prepared to share private spaces with one another. If you would like to apply with a creative partner while working on different projects, please submit separate applications but indicate that you would like to be in residence together. If you would like to apply with more than one project proposal, please submit a unique application per project. Families, caretakers and partners are generally welcomed but require discussion around specific circumstance. Please indicate if you would be traveling with a companion on your application.

Residents are selected through a review process by a small panel of artists, writers, and poets. Submissions are weighed through a combination of creative promise, relevance and feasibility of proposed project, benefit of the residency to career or practice, fit with rural living requirements, and genre and medium balance with the season’s other residents.

Required application materials:

  • CV / Resume
  • Portfolio of past works containing:
    • 10 images & work descriptions
    • or 5 minutes of video
    • or 10 pages of writing
    • or 10 minutes of audio / sound recording
    • or a combination thereof (eg - 5 images and 5 pages of writing)
  • Brief artist statement
  • A project description of what you would like to work on in residence
  • A short statement about what this opportunity would mean to you at this time
  • A $15 application fee

2026 Residency Dates:


Spring 2026 -

Session 1: Flexible start - May 20
Session 2: May 27 - June 24 (5 weeks)

Fall 2026 -

Session 3: August 26 - Oct 7 (6 weeks)
Session 4: Oct 14 - Nov 18 (5 weeks)

Residencies are 5 to 6 weeks in length and begin and end on a Wednesday. We also accept applications for flexible "as available" residencies, which can be as short as 10 days and are offered when holes in the schedule allow.

Belltower House Artist Residency is currently accepting applications for the 2026 residency year!

Deadline for the Spring 2026 Session is CLOSED.

Deadline for the Fall 2026 Session is June 15, 2026.

APPLY.

Contact:

Belltower House Artist Residency is run by Everest Pipkin, with help from Quail.

For updates, open calls, and event announcements, join our mailing list:

We gladly accept donations of any amount to help offset the cost of running the residency and to cover application fees for artists in financial hardship. You may donate via Paypal, Venmo, or Credit Card. (We are currently unable to offer a letter for tax deduction purposes.)

For any questions, please email us at belltowerhouseresidency@gmail.com.