The Wright-Ingraham Institute’s Field Workshop 2026 is a three-week fellowship that traces the Rio Grande from its headwaters in Colorado’s San Luis Valley into northern New Mexico’s Taos Plateau. At a time of prolonged drought and rapid environmental change, the program brings together a diverse cohort to wrestle with urgent questions at the nexus of land, water and culture.
We are now accepting applications for our 2026 cohort.
This is not a traditional field school. It is designed for graduate students, early-career professionals, artists, researchers, and practitioners who are rigorous in their own disciplines yet committed to working across boundaries. We seek applicants who want to integrate scientific inquiry, design thinking, storytelling, and community engagement into the heart of their practice, and who intend to carry these integrative approaches into their careers.
The Field Workshop convenes a deliberately diverse cohort: ecologists and designers, policy thinkers and farmers, storytellers and scientists. The program unfolds in three phases. In the first phase, fellows travel together across the San Luis Valley and Taos Plateau for site visits, talks, and hands-on field work that build shared knowledge of ecological systems, cultural traditions, and governance structures. In the second, they split into small teams to immerse with regional partners, observing practices such as irrigation, grazing, or restoration and shaping applied projects in direct response to community needs. The final phase focuses on synthesis, as fellows refine their work into practical outputs (such as policy briefs, spatial analyses, oral histories, or creative storytelling) shared at a culminating public symposium with regional stakeholders.
Since 1970, WII’s Field Workshops have prepared leaders to navigate complexity, build adaptive practices, and foster resilience across disciplines and landscapes. The 2026 program emphasizes systems thinking, participatory design, and place-based learning. Fellows will leave with experience that equips them to become the kind of integrative practitioners needed for the challenges ahead.