A selection of international open calls and opportunities for contemporary art related competitions, prizes, exhibitions, awards, proposals, and grants for artists, writers and curators.
This is an edited listing. We update this feature once a week on Fridays from a selection of submissions, newsletters, magazines and blogs. Our editorial team only select opportunities they feel offer a clear benefit to the submitting artists. To recommend an opportunity for listing, please fill in the form in the sidebar. We email around 19,500 art practitioners weekly with selected opportunities.
Exhibition Opportunity
Call for Visual Art - Funka Fest Arts Festival
Funka Fest Arts Festival seeks to promote the professionalization of the artistic practice and broadens the cultural offer, stimulating the circulation of contemporary art and the creation of new audiences. It is also intended to highlight the current trend towards the interdisciplinarity in the art field, articulating heterogeneous proposals around one theme line.
The Call for Visual Arts hosts finished artworks and projects, from national and foreing creators. The axis of reflection for Funka Fest fourth edition is the verb “inhabit”, therefore, all proposals must address to any of the meanings, interpretations or reflections on this theme line.
Deadline 15 March 2019
Funka Fest Arts Festival
Facebook: @funkafest.org
Twitter: @FunkaFest
Apply here
Commission
Social Works?: Live - Artists Commissions
Artists are invited to bid for a ‘stall’ at Social Works?: Live, and to host / facilitate an activity or intervention within the space during the event (4th floor, Benzie Building, Manchester School of Art). Proposals may interpret the brief of ‘stallholder’ in a range of ways. Each selected artist will be allotted a pitch within the venue, including a table, which can be used as the site of your activity, or as a hub to represent your activity while you move elsewhere within the space. Your proposal should respond in some way to one of the themes of Social Works?: Live: profile, exchange or resources.
There will be 9 commissioned stalls. A fixed fee of £350 (to include expenses) will be paid to all selected artists. You do not have to be an Axisweb member to apply for a commission.
Deadline 15 March 2019
Axisweb
Facebook: @axisweb.org
Twitter: @axisweb
Apply here
Commission
Call for Proposals: Day With(out) Art 2019
For Day With(out) Art 2019, Visual AIDS is accepting proposals from artists and filmmakers for short film/video works responding to the ongoing epidemic. We welcome proposals from both emerging and established artists in a range of forms, including documentary, narrative, and experimental. Artists and filmmakers who are living with HIV are encouraged to apply.
Deadline 15 March 2019
Visual AIDS
Facebook: @visualAIDS
Twitter: @Visual_AIDS
Apply here
Screening Opportunity
Open Call for UNCENSORED Festival
UNCENSORED is an interdisciplinary festival on pornography at the intersection of art and activism, bringing together more than 30 artists, sex workers and activists from the UK and abroad.
The festival will reflect on the existing and forthcoming legislation regarding sexually explicit content in the UK. It will address the ever-growing incidences of censorship in web platforms, explore diverse permutations of censorship along with their artistic and political implications and map what is at stake in the regulation of pornography in the 21st century. UNCENSORED celebrates freedom of expression whilst creating a dialogue between art, pornography and queer-feminist politics, in an immersive, sex-positive space for collective reflection, exploration and play.
Deadline 18 March 2019
UNCENSORED Festival
Facebook: @uncensoredfestival
Twitter: @UNCENSOREDFest
Apply here
Exhibition Opportunity
Bad Art Fandom Exhibition Opportunity
We cordially invite you to be a part of the world of Fandom, a wonderful place where you can express your deepest celebrity centric desires! Why look up to the skies for guidance when you can stare into the screen of your phone and get all the answers you need from your favourite celebs latest live feed? Whether you express your obsession in the form of the classic postered-up teenage bedroom, or you wholly embrace your devotedness to your chosen ‘living God’, as Toby Sheldon has done , Fandom welcomes all of these self destructive tendencies. And don’t worry if your obsession isn’t a part of the white Hollywood male elite, Fandom welcomes all forms of Icon , and encourages the niche.
Accepting 2D & 3D work, artist performances, tribute acts, and open to any kind of submissions.
Deadline 20 March 2019
Bad Art
Facebook: @badartpresents
Twitter: @badartpresents
Apply here
Commission
Public Art Commissioning: Call-out for Expressions of Interest
The University of Reading is seeking Expressions of Interest for the first in a series of art commissions situated on campus. Commissions will use 'the library' as a conceptual, metaphorical, academic, physical, spatial or poetic starting point.
The commissioning brief encourages and invites a wide range of proposals with different approaches and forms of artistic engagement. The University is seeking to commission a dedicated and experienced artist who places emphasis on artistic process and realises artwork that will foster curiosity, broaden horizons, and engage the diversity of the University's communities.
The overall budget for this commission is £40,000 including fee, research, fabrication, installation, all expenses and VAT.
Deadline 22 March 2019
University of Reading
Facebook: @theuniversityofreading
Twitter: @Rdg_uni_arts
Apply here
Artist in Residence
Open Call: Residency Proposals 2019
Residency 11:11 is seeking proposals for Spring, Summer and Autumn 2019 from emerging practitioners for whom it is relevant to spend time working in London.
The programme aims to connect its guests to the city’s diverse communities, politics and artistic landscape, encouraging artists and practitioners to explore local collaborations and conduct site specific research, utilising the programme’s network and contacts.
Deadline 24 March 2019
Residency 11:11
Facebook: @residency1111
Apply here
Artist in Residence
neo:residency 2019
neo:studios invites new BA & MA graduate artists (2018-2019) to apply for its 2019 Artist Residency Programme. One artist will be selected to work in our studios and University of Bolton for a period of twelve weeks, followed by the opportunity of a solo exhibition.
Deadline 25 March 2019
neo:studios CIC
Facebook: @neoartists
Twitter: @neo_artists
Apply here
Prizes and Awards
The Ivan Juritz Prize 2019
We are delighted to announce that the 2019 Ivan Juritz prize is now open for entries from postgraduates enrolled on a programme anywhere in Europe. The prize has expanded: this year there will be a winner for each category: text, image, sound. The three winners will each receive £1000 and a residency at Cove Park.
This year’s deadline is 29 March 2019 and the prize is judged by Gillian Wearing, Rachel Cusk, Jeremy Harding, and Ryan Wigglesworth.
Deadline 29 March 2019
Centre for Modern Literature and Culture, King's College London
Facebook: @CovePark
Twitter: @IvanJuritzPrize
www.ivanjuritzprize.co.uk
Competition
FotoFilmic Scholarship - Danny Lyon Seminar
The FotoFilmic Scholarship covers 100% of the tuition cost to register for Danny Lyon’s June 14-15 Seminar. Traveling and accommodations (Vancouver, Canada) remain the responsibility of the Scholarship Winner. FotoFilmic does however assist all participants to book lodging and travel to the Seminar venue.
ELIGIBILITY: students pursuing careers in and being currently enrolled in photography, the visual arts & journalism are welcome to apply. Both undergraduate & graduate students are eligible. If selected proof of enrolment will be required. There is no country or age limitations. Recent graduates (January 2018 and after) are also encouraged to apply.
Deadline 31 March 2019
FotoFilmic
Facebook: @fotofilmic
Twitter: @fotofilmic
Apply here
Commission
Margate NOW 2019 - Open Call
Margate NOW is the sixth Margate Festival - an ambitious, cross-artform festival; an inclusive and egalitarian programme rooted in Margate. Celebrating an extraordinary range of artists it will animate unusual spaces and is conceived as a journey through town creating a sense of curiosity and buzz around landmark locations and the current moment. The programme will take place alongside the Turner Prize 2019 exhibition at Turner Contemporary, running from 28th September 2019 to 12th January 2020.
Deadline 31 March 2019
Margate Festival
Facebook: @margateartfestival
Twitter: @MargateFestival
Apply here
Prizes and Awards
New Technological Art Award 2019
This international competition is open to all age groups and for all nationalities. The aim of the competition is to present works in accordance with NTAA's mission. The competition is open to all age groups and to all nationalities. Artists can present their candidacy for one art work less than two years old at the time of its submission, but which may already have been exhibited. English is the working language.
There is no artist fee. Free accommodation for the artists is available in Zebrastraat. The 20 projects selected by the jury will be rendered public at the website in June 2019.
A cash award of 5,000 euro will be allocated to a work and to its creator
Deadline 31 March 2019
Zebrastraat
Facebook: @newtechnologicalartaward
Twitter: @Zebrastraat
Apply here
Competition
Statements 2019 — Open call for performative pieces
Kunstraum Lakeside invites artists and cultural practitioners to participate in the 2019 program by submitting their own “Statement.” We are looking for performative pieces that relate to the annual topic while experimenting with modes of representation in the visual arts in the context of an institution at the interface between art, science, and technology.
The second program year at Kunstraum Lakeside will be devoted to the concept of “process.” Just as research, while fundamental to an investigative practice for generating knowledge and insights within an artistic context, can also become the actual subject of representation, the process also has the potential to emancipate itself from the work of art and become an experiment in its own right.
Deadline 31 March 2019
Kunstraum Lakeside
Facebook: @KunstraumLakeside
Apply here
Exhibition Opportunity
Open call for IN-SONORA 11
IN-SONORA is a platform aimed to support and show experimental artistic proposals related to sound and interactive art from an open and multidisciplinary point of view. Since 2005 IN-SONORA has coordinated activities and bets for this international biennial event in Madrid.
This event is open to installations and sound and interactive objects, live experimental events, sound pieces, video pieces, twitter residences, public presentations, workshops.
Deadline 31 March 2019
IN-SONORA
Facebook: @insonora
Twitter: @INSONORA
Apply here
Fellowship | Sponsored
Open Call: The Drawing Year
Spend a year drawing and see how it changes your practice...
The Drawing Year is a one-year, MA-level course offering up to thirty students the opportunity for intensive research and practise in drawing from observation. It sees drawing both as an end in itself and in relation to other areas of practice.
There are no tuition fees for The Drawing Year – all students are awarded a full scholarship and receive a free studio space. Applications are now open for entry in September 2019.
Deadline 1 April 2019
Royal Drawing School
Facebook: @royaldrawingschool
Twitter: @RoyalDrawing
Apply here
Prizes and Awards | Sponsored
Woon Foundation Painting & Sculpture Prize 2019
Open to final year, UK based undergraduate Fine Art students
The Woon Foundation very generously funds an open call shortlist exhibition - including three major prizes - each year to the total value of £40,000. The 1st prize supports a Fellowship designed to offer a fine art graduate a structured opportunity to further develop their critical and conceptual understanding as well as their studio practice.
Woon Foundation Painting & Sculpture Prize is an important component of the partnership between Northumbria University and BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art. Now in its sixth year, the Prize is open to all UK undergraduate Fine Art students who are in their final year of study, graduating in summer 2019.
The Art Prizes
1st Prize the Woon Tai Jee Art Fellowship will include:
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A year-long Woon Residency in the Woon Tai Jee Studio at Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne for the duration of the Fellowship from September 2019 until October 2020
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A bursary of £20,000 to be used to pay for the Fellowship in the Woon Tai Jee Studio, Northumbria University, and to contribute towards materials and subsistence
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The requirement to work towards a body of new work, which will be exhibited in a solo show in one of Northumbria University’s galleries in October 2020
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A mentor to support the critical and professional development of the Fellow
2nd Prize the Lim Ai Fang Art Prize = £9,000
3rd Prize the Cheong Kam Hee Art = £6,000
For the first time, we are delighted to be able to offer all ten shortlisted artists 12 months Axisweb membership. Axisweb is an online platform supporting, mentoring and profiling artists.
Deadline 1 April 2019
The Woon Foundation / BALTIC 39 / Northumbria University
Facebook: @baltic39 / @NorthumbriaLondon
Twitter: @balticmill / @NorthumbriaUni
Apply here
Prizes and Awards
The Alpine Fellowship 2019 Visual Arts Prize
Awarded for the best visual arts response to ‘Identity’ – the theme of the 2019 Alpine Fellowship Annual Symposium. The winner and two runners up are invited to attend the Fjällnäs symposium. Winner receives £2000 and a further £1000 towards shipping and installing the winning piece.
Rules: Open to all nationalities, aged 18 and above. All visual media permitted including, but not limited to, painting, sculpture, digital, and installation. Limited to one entry per person. Entries should include appropriate images or video and details of the work including a short description of how it is related to the theme of 'Identity.'
Deadline 1 April 2019
The Alpine Fellowship Foundation
Apply here
Screening Opportunity
Open Call - Addis Video Art Festival
Theme: ‘MUTUAL PERIPHERY’
The border between Ethiopia and Eritrea has reopened after 20 years of shutdown following a war with more than 80000 fatalities. These sister countries were once a unified nation, sharing history, culture and language, the only two countries in the world to follow the thirteen month Julian calendar.
In response to this historic moment the festival seeks videos shorts that examine ideas and interpretations of 'Mutual Periphery'.
Deadline 1 April 2019
Addis Video Art Festival
Facebook: @www.addisvideoartfestival.net
Twitter: @AddisVideoArt
Apply here
Exhibition Opportunity
Glitches and Defects Exhibition Open Call
Group Exhibition in Rome, Italy. July 2019
FREE ENTRY Artists are invited to submit 1 to 3 artworks addressing the theme
Accepted media: Photography, Digital Graphic, Visual Data
In the digital age we are surrounded by images, an overload of saturated media. We demand for high quality and expectations of technology to produce seamless perfection, we are used to seeing and expect a seamless flow of information on screens. A technical failure in digital technology can interfere our viewing experience, glitches and defects within any medium are accident that disturb our senses.
What happens when the technology fails? Photographers and digital visual designers are invited to submit works that offers a vision on the topic.
Deadline 7 April 2019
LoosenArt
Twitter: @LoosenArt
Facebook: @loosenart
Apply here
Exhibition Opportunity
Bomb Factory Exhibition Open Call
The Bomb Factory is a contemporary arts hub in Islington that champions an exchange of ideas with a commitment to education and establishing a culturally enriching resource for the creative community. We are looking for bold, contemporary exhibition proposals for two-week-long exhibitions in the Bomb Factory Art Foundation space. This opportunity is open to emerging and established contemporary artists and curators. Applicants should send a 300-word description of their proposed exhibition, a one page CV and up to eight images or links to videos. Please note if you are planning a parallel talk or programme to accompany your exhibition proposal and available dates.
Deadline 11 April 2019
The Bomb Factory Art Foundation
Facebook: The-Bomb-Factory-Art-Foundation
Twitter: @BombFactoryArt
Apply here
Exhibition Opportunity
Hotel Generation 2019
hotel generation is a UK wide, young digital artist development programme run every year by arebyte Gallery, mentoring four shortlisted participants from outside of London through an open call and culminating in a solo exhibition for one of the artists selected by a panel of esteemed judges.
In its third edition, hotel generation 2019 will centre around the theme of home and will be open for proposals from 1st March to 14th April 2019. The programme will run from May to July with an exhibition at arebyte Gallery, London, in December 2019.
Deadline 14 April 2019
arebyte Gallery
Facebook: @arebyte.Gallery
Twitter: @arebyte
Apply here
Exhibition Opportunity
Self-Service show - Call for entries
We are looking for artists’ moving image work for the exhibition Self-Service which will take place in the atmospheric crypt of St John’s Church as part of the Waterloo Festival in June 2019.
Taking its lead from the check-out counters of supermarkets and petrol station forecourts, this exhibition will bring together short works that explore the idea of ‘self-service’. We are interested in seeing work that relates to this theme in multiple ways.
Self-Service will be curated by London Group members David Theobald and Genetic Moo.
Deadline 15 April 2019
The London Group
Facebook: @thelondongroup1
Twitter: @TheLondonGroup1
Apply here
Exhibition Opportunity
Shape Open 2019: Submissions Open
The Open is Shape's annual exhibition of artwork by disabled and non-disabled artists created in response to a disability-centred theme.
The Open provides a space where disabled and non-disabled artists can discuss views and ideas about issues and topics which are often sidelined within artistic debate. This year's theme is ‘In Circles’.
Works submitted to the exhibition should respond, abstractly or literally, to ideas on the theme, and contribute to the discourse on what disability is and could be. Artists are invited to submit work in 2D, 3D, video or audio form via our online portal here.
Any artist can apply to our call for submissions and exhibitors will be selected by a panel of arts industry judges.
Deadline 15 April 2019
Shape Arts
Facebook: @shapearts
Twitter: @ShapeArts
Apply here
Prizes and Awards
Hermione Hammond £2,000 Drawing Award 2019
The Hermione Hammond Drawing Award is a £2,000 award for current art students to encourage and reward the practice of contemporary representational drawing. It was established in 2012, in memory of the artist Hermione Hammond (1910-2005) to encourage the practice of representational drawing among art students.
The award is open to current students at recognised art institutions in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. Entrants must be aged 18 or over. Submission is free; there is no charge to enter.
Deadline 18 April 2019
Hermione Hammond Drawing Award
Facebook: @mallgalleries
Twitter: @mallgalleries
Apply here
Artist in Residence
ARCUS Project 2019 IBARAKI Artist-in-Residence Program
The call for fully funded 100day at artist-in-residence in Japan is now open! Period of Program September 4th through December 12th, 2019 ELIGIBILITY
The Applicant must:
- be an emerging artist engaged in contemporary visual arts or other related fields.
- be born on or after January 1, 1979.
- have nationality of country other than Japan.
- not be enrolled in educational institution during the program period. *EXCEPTION: those who are in Ph.D. program are eligible.
Deadline 19 April 2019
ARCUS Project
Facebook: @ARCUSProject
Twitter: @arcusproject
Apply here
Artist in Residence
Land404 Summer Residency
Land404 invites a small group of artists to take part in a month long residency at our farm culminating in an exhibition on a nearby cape. We ask the participating artists to work with the nature and community surrounding the farm. Thematically investigating the relationship between modern people and nature as well as urban and rural states of being. The participants are encouraged to work freely with the themes. No discipline is preferred, but we are extra interested in experimental approaches, interdisciplinary work and social practice.
Deadline 25 April 2019
Land404
Facebook: @land404
Apply here
Fellowship
The FLAMIN Fellowship
Film London Artists’ Moving Image Network (FLAMIN) invites early-career artist filmmakers living in England to apply for The FLAMIN Fellowship, a major development scheme offering £2,500 funding, bespoke mentoring and a year-long programme of professional practice workshops led by industry specialists.
Deadline 29 April 2019
Film London Artists' Moving Image Network (FLAMIN)
Facebook: @FilmLondon
Twitter: @FL_FLAMIN
Apply here
Artist in Residence
Call for applications for the Solitude fellowship program 2020–2021
Akademie Schloss Solitude is happy to announce its 17th call for applications for its international and interdisciplinary artist-in-residence-program, which runs through April 30, 2019. The name Akademie Schloss Solitude unites the belief in artistic, scientific exchange with the notion of a refuge, a credo which underlays the construction of the Schloss Solitude from the very beginning. Residencies at Akademie Schloss Solitude enable fellows to devote themselves to their research projects under favorable material and intellectual conditions. Every two years, the jury awards a maximum of 65 fellowships of a period between six, nine or twelve month. This year, the Akademie in cooperation with KfW Stiftung is launching the new program with the specific content-related focus »Mutations«.
Deadline 30 April 2019
Akademie Schloss Solitude
Facebook: @Akademie.Solitude
Twitter: @SolitudeNetwork
Apply here
Curator in Residence
Free events and workshops space at Stour Space
We are looking for art organisations, charities, artists, social activists who need a free space to organise workshops, test new audiences, develop new work, organise events.
We are particularly interested in experimental, cross-disciplinary art, live art, sound, AV performances, and projects focused on diversity, social inclusion, displacement, and empowering people from marginalised communities through art and culture. Selected projects and organisations will benefit from free use of space, support with project/event production, promotion, use of in-house AV equipment, and discounts in the cafe/bar. More information provided on application.
Please send us a short description of your organisation/project/event and why you are interested in this opportunity to events@stourspace.co.uk
Deadline 30 April 2019
Stour Space
Facebook: @StourSpace
Twitter: @StourSpace
More info
Artist in Residence
REAKTOR Potenziale | Open Call
REAKTOR presents the first edition of its open call for contemporary art. The open call, REAKTOR Potenziale, seeks works that are imbued with the spirit of the times and that show timeless quality. Particular emphasis is to be placed on space-defining art for the REAKTOR’s architectural core, i.e. its main hall.
The chosen artists will be invited to flesh out and implement their submitted concept as part of a fortnight’s residency and then showcase it to the public as part of an exhibition. The REAKTOR team will be on hand to assist with the finalisation and support the implementation. A budget of up to EUR 3,500.00 is available for the exhibition production.
Deadline 30 April 2019
REAKTOR
Facebook: @REAKTORWien
Apply here
Grant
UK-China Connections through Culture Grants
Running for nearly a decade, Connections through Culture is a long-term programme to develop exciting cultural collaborations between artists and arts organisations, supporting long-lasting relationships between China and the UK.
The programme offers support, information, advice, networking opportunities and development grants to artists and arts organisations in China and the UK.
China and the UK both have a rich cultural heritage. Artists and arts organisations in both countries can benefit from the inspiration gained from exchanging ideas and sharing their cultural history.
Although the grants are available to all UK artists, Connections through Culture receives additional specific support from the Scottish government for projects with a Scottish connection.
Deadline 5 May 2019
British Council
Facebook: @britishcouncil
Twitter: @BritishCouncil
Apply here
Screening Opportunity
32 Festival Les Instants Vidéo
The Festival Les Instants Vidéo is an event dedicated to video art and electronic poetry with its multiple forms, monobands, installations, performances, multimedia. The organisation now accepts submissions for the 32nd edition of the festival taking place in November 2019 in Marseille.
Deadline 1 June 2019
Instants Vidéo Numériques et poétiques
Facebook: @instantsvideo
Twitter: @InstantsVideo
Apply here
Competition
Glyndebourne Tour Art Competition
Are you looking to raise your profile as an artist?
Glyndebourne - the world-class opera house in Sussex - have launched their annual Tour Art Competition. They are challenging new artists to submit an artwork based on the theme of ‘Lost and Found’ - a common thread in the three operas that are on tour in 2019.
Visual arts have always been an integral part of Glyndebourne and the annual Tour Art Competition offers a platform for new artists to raise their profile. New artists, aged 16+ with less than five years experience of showing their work are invited to submit one artwork by 5 July 2019. A panel of judges will consider the creativity and technical execution of the artworks and how well each piece interprets the brief, before selecting a shortlist and the eventual winning entry.
The winning artist will see their artwork on the cover of 10,000 copies of the Glyndebourne Tour Programme distributed at Glyndebourne and theatres in Canterbury, Milton Keynes, Liverpool, Woking and Norwich. Their work will also be part of an exhibition, with all shortlisted works, at Glyndebourne this autumn.
As part of the prize, the winner will receive four free tickets to a world-class opera production at Glyndebourne during the Tour 2019. All shortlisted entrants will also win two free tickets.
Deadline 5 July 2019
Glyndebourne
Twitter: @glyndebourne
Facebook: @glyndebourne
Apply here
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