San Francisco Arts Commission Announces the Selection of the 2026 Artist in Residence at San Francisco Environment

SAN FRANCISCO, March 2, 2026 – The San Francisco Arts Commission (SFAC), in partnership with the San Francisco Environment Department (SF Environment), is pleased to announce the selection of San Francisco-based artist Alica Escott for the 2026 SFAC Artist in Residence (AIR) program.

Escott will spend 12 weeks in residence at SF Environment conducting research around the department’s history, programs, services, and inner workings. Over the course of the residency, the artist will have access to department staff, program partners, and stakeholders and will also participate in SF Environment’s annual programs around Climate Action Month, Earth Day, and SF Climate Week.

The residency will culminate in the creation of a new project that will be responsive to the artist’s experience at SF Environment and guided by the department’s overarching principles of environmental justice, racial equity, and community engagement.

“The San Francisco Arts Commission is proud to partner with San Francisco Environment as the next host of our Artist-in-Residence program and to work with artist Alicia Escott to explore how both the arts and the environment are critical to our collective future,” said Ralph Remington, Director of Cultural Affairs. “Over the past decade, the artist in residence program has expanded how artists engage with City government and the communities we serve, creating new ways to illuminate the essential work of our public agencies. This collaboration reflects our shared commitment to environmental justice, community engagement, and the power of artistic expression.”

Escott moved to San Francisco 21 years ago and at that time had considered giving up her art practice to focus on environmental justice issues with an eye towards working at San Francisco Environment. Fortunately, she decided to reinvest in her art practice with a commitment to focus more directly and exclusively on some of the most pressing issues of our time--climate emergency, consumption, plastic proliferation, resiliency etc. We are glad to provide this opportunity for Escott to come full circle and work with SFE in her capacity as an artist. 

Since 2015, the Artist in Residence program has provided unique opportunities for artists to step into City Departments with unprecedented access to participate in and respond to City processes and impact. To date, SFAC’s Artist in Residence Program has connected 15 local artists within various City departments, including City Hall, SF Covid Command Center, SF Planning Department, SF Public Library, SF Recreation and Park Department, and now SF Environment.

“Alicia Escott’s residency with our department will bring a new and creative lens to San Francisco’s climate work,” said Tyrone Jue, Director of the San Francisco Environment Department. "Alicia's work gives us the opportunity to artistically showcase SF Environment programs that support cleaner air, healthier communities, and lower costs for San Franciscans." 

2026 SFAC Artist in Residence Bio
Alicia Escott is an interdisciplinary artist based in the land we currently call San Francisco. She practices in solidarity with thinkers across fields undoing the construct of “nature” as a thing separated from us and our world. Informed by how we negotiate day-to-day realities amid an awareness of the overarching specter of climate-chaos, mass-extinction, and social and political unrest, her work makes space for the unspoken individual and collective experiences of loss, heartbreak, and grief. Escott approaches these issues with an interstitial practice encompassing writing, drawing, word-making, painting, photography, video, sculpture, social-practice, composting, seed-planting, and activism. 

Escott has exhibited widely at Telematic Media Arts, Berkeley Arts Center, the Headlands Center for the Arts, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, The San Francisco Maritime Museum, The Berkley Art Museum, and Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbra among others. She is a founding member of 100 Days Action and The Bureau of Linguistical Reality and is an adjunct professor at California College of the Arts.

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About the Artist in Residence Program
Launched in September 2015, the Artist in Residence program is overseen by the San Francisco Arts Commission Galleries and is an ongoing program that seeks to build partnerships with a variety of City Departments in order to provide unique residency opportunities that result in strengthening the value of artists participating in the advancement of civic dialogue. 

About the San Francisco Arts Commission  
The San Francisco Arts Commission is the City agency that champions the arts as essential to daily life by investing in a vibrant arts community, enlivening the urban environment and shaping innovative cultural policy. Our programs include: Civic Art Collection, Civic Design Review, Community Investments, Public Art, SFAC Galleries, and Art Vendor Licensing. To learn more, visit sfartscommission.org.  

About San Francisco Environment
Now in its 30th year, SF Environment is the City’s climate accountability, coordination, and equity engine, advancing climate protection to enhance quality of life for all San Franciscans. SF Environment is recognized worldwide for its environmental policies and programs, which center on reducing emissions, achieving zero waste, reducing toxic chemical hazards, advancing environmental justice, promoting sustainable transportation modes, expanding clean energy infrastructure, greening our built environment, and protecting our urban forest. To learn more, visit sfenvironment.org