Artist-in-Residency and Writer Retreat
Open Calls
WilderHaven Residency 2026 is held at Jingmai Mountain in Pu'er, southwest China, near the border with Myanmar. Inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2023, it is the world’s first tea-themed cultural heritage site, representing over 1,300 years of continuous tea cultivation.
Covering 28,000 mu, the landscape features over 3 million tea trees, including 1.1 million ancient trees growing naturally beneath a biodiverse forest canopy. Unlike industrial plantations, Jingmai utilizes a unique “forest–tea symbiosis” system. This traditional understory model—where tea grows alongside protective native trees—has been preserved for centuries without chemical fertilizers or pesticides.
This ecological balance is maintained by the Blang, Dai, Hani, and Wa peoples. Their agricultural practices and ancestral "Tea Ancestor" beliefs have sustained the forest as a living cultural landscape. Historically a vital source for the Ancient Tea Horse Road, the mountain remains a vibrant center of traditional village life, ritual, and craft.
The locals’ agricultural and craft traditions embody a philosophy of ecological balance and coexistence with nature.
Jingmai Mountain’s blend of ancient ecological wisdom and cross-border cultural heritage provides a profound environment for artistic research and slow, place-based practice.
A video related to the culture: History of Tea
About the location: Jingmai Mountain
At WilderHaven, we remain committed to cultivating an inclusive and non-hierarchical space where artists, researchers, and cultural practitioners from diverse backgrounds can come together to share knowledge, experiment, and learn from the land and its communities. The Fall 2026 residency will continue to prioritize research-driven practices, embodied observation, and community-responsive approaches over fixed outcomes.
Who Can Apply
Artists and reseachers (21+ year-old) working in any medium are welcome. International artists are welcome. All accepted residents receive a dedicated workspace tailored to their practice.
We welcome proposals in areas such as:
- Visual arts
- Textile
- Filmmaker
- Digital Media
- Design
- Architecture
- Writing
- Poem
- Sound and music
- Research-based practice
- Ecology and botany
- Social practice
- Cross-disciplinary experimentation
Housing
- Shared twobeds rooms (private bathroom)
- One bed room (private bathroom)
Studios & Workspaces
- Shared Open Studio: with a desk and chair in a traditional building, an open ground space as well
Both sessions offer:
- Time and space for research and creation
- Opportunities to connect with local communities and knowledge holders
- Two group meals and openstudio at the end
- On-site assistant for sourcing materials
Language: Mandarin and English.
Practices of Slowness:
Tea, Textile, and Ecologies of Time
Residency period:May 25 - June 21, 2026 (4 weeks on site) + July (2 weeks online)
Apply through: March 10th - April 1st
Application deadline: April 1st 11:59 PM, 2026 (EST)
The deadline has been extended to April 10
Notification: Two weeks after Due date ( A Q&A Meeting on March 24th, Google Calender link )
Selected artists will also have the opportunity to present their work in a curated public exhibition in Chengdu in September 2026.
This curated hybrid residency explores Practices of Slowness as a methodology of artistic and cultural practice. In contrast to accelerated production and extractive economies, slow making foregrounds time, care, material knowledge, and ecological awareness.
Located in the ancient tea forest region of rural villages in Pu’er Province, the residency invites participants to engage with living traditions where craft, agriculture, and ecology are deeply intertwined. Tea cultivation and textile practices in this region are embedded within long cycles of observation, seasonal rhythm, and intergenerational knowledge.
The unique under-forest tea cultivation system, maintained for centuries by communities including the Dai, Hani, Wa, and Blang, reflects a worldview in which human activity operates within the limits and intelligence of the forest ecosystem.
Through research, dialogue, and site-responsive practice, the residency encourages participants to explore questions such as:
- How can artistic practice engage with slowness as resistance to extractive systems?
- What forms of knowledge are embedded in craft, manual labor, and embodied skill?
- How might contemporary practice learn from indigenous ecological relationships?
- What does it mean to create work that unfolds through process, patience, and place?
Participants are invited to develop projects that respond to tea culture, textile traditions, forest ecologies, and the slow life of locals, while reflecting on broader questions of sustainability, material culture, and cultural continuity.
Group Activity
Participants in the 2026 summer residency will have tea making introduction and textile weaving workshop
Residency Cohort
This residency session will host a cohort of up to 10 artists and researchers.
The small group format is designed to support deeper engagement with the local environment, community exchanges, and collective learning among participants.
Participate fee
APPLY
WilderHaven Award
To support access and creative momentum, WilderHaven offers an award, a merit-based stipend that automatically reduces the residency fee for selected artists.No extra application needed—all applicants are considered based on the strength of their portfolio and proposal.
Note: Artists receiving the award will be notified alongside their acceptance. WilderHaven operates as a self-funded program, it’s free to apply, with residency fees directly sustaining our facilities and local partnerships. While we strive to keep costs accessible, we strongly encourage participants to seek supplementary funding through grants, sponsorships, or crowdfunding initiatives.
Residency period:
Oct 12 —- Oct 25 (Two weeks);
Oct 12 —- Nov 8 (Four weeks), 2026
Apply through: April 1st - May 31st
Application deadline: May 31st 11:59 PM, 2026 (EST)
Notification: Two weeks after Due date
The October session is a free-theme residency open to artists and researchers working across disciplines. Participants are encouraged to develop projects inspired by the landscape, culture, and social context of Pu’er, but proposals are not limited to a specific theme.
Residency Cohort
This residency session will host a cohort of up to 14 artists and researchers.
The perfect size group format is designed to support various engagement and networking, community exchanges, and collective learning among participants.
Group Activity
Participants in the 2026 fall residency will also join a group trip to visit local textile communities
Participate fee
APPLY