According to Shireman, the program provides lodging to selected artists for a two-week period during the summer in order to allow artists the opportunity to work within the park environment.
Artists then donate a representative piece of original work resulting from the park residency.
The interaction between Glacier National Park's landscape and artists is not a new phenomenon. One of the most well known artists associated with the park was Charles M. Russell. The self-taught painter, sculptor, and storyteller came to Glacier in 1907 and spent almost twenty summers on the shore of Lake McDonald. The Great Northern Railway invited accomplished European and American artists such as John Fery, Kathryn Leighton, and Winold Reiss to live and work in Glacier. Local Flathead Valley artists Joe Abbrescia and Nick Oberling were selected for the program in 1998 and 1999, respectively.