Ealing continues partnership with Venice Art Biennale fellowship
After our first successful year offering a place for a creative from the borough to represent the UK at the Venice Biennale, we can now announce that for a second year we have been successful in gaining a Venice Art Biennale fellowship for one emerging creative in the borough.
Could you be our 2027 representative?
You must be over 18 and a resident in the borough with an emerging creative practice. If successful, you will have the opportunity to work at the British Pavilion for a month.
You will attend training and develop your own practice while in Venice. An incredible and transformational experience for one lucky local!
The London Borough of Ealing is, again, the only council in the country offering this opportunity.
Fee: if successful, you will receive £3,300 towards travel, accommodation and living costs.
Deadline: 30 November, midday
Our partnership with the British Council
The Venice Biennale attracts half a million visitors every year. A celebration of architecture and art, the Biennale explores themes of politics and contemporary cultural and social issues through performance, sculpture and installations.
For this opportunity we have partnered with the British Council as part of the Venice Fellowships Programme, a scheme which activates and enriches world-renowned exhibitions at the Venice Biennale. The successful Ealing resident will spend a month in Venice during the 2027 Architecture Biennale, working at the British Pavilion and undertaking their own creative research.
Celebrating 70 years of diplomatic relations
The 2027 pavillion will celebrate 70 years of diplomatic relations between the UK and Malaysia, bringing together architecture, ritual and cultural memory. Drawing on Malaysian traditions of paper structures created for the Festival of Hungry Ghosts, the exhibition will explore how acts of making and remaking can shape our relationships with nature, place and one another.
The project will be led by UK-based curators Dr Guan Lee and Mike Lim, alongside a UK curatorial team including Maria McLintock and Ben Swaby Selig. They will collaborate closely with Penang-based artisans Ng Chi Wang and Lee Shao Chin.
So what is the Fellowship Programme?
The Venice Fellowships Programme aims to support the exhibition programme and offer a platform for the development of new creative careers and future leaders. The Fellowship offers a unique opportunity for an emerging creative from Ealing to represent the UK on an international level whilst broadening their perspective, making connections and developing their creative practice.
The programme enables creatives to spend a month in Venice during the world’s most important art biennial. As exhibition ambassadors at the British Pavilion, the student Fellows enrich and activate the British Council’s exhibition programme. They engage visiting members of the public and expand the impact of the show. Alongside this practical residency, Fellows have the opportunity to develop their own research or practical creative projects and use the Biennale as a platform for artistic and professional development.
Read the full application guidance here
Who can apply?
This opportunity is aimed at emerging and early-stage creative practitioners living in the Borough of Ealing. There is no age limit, although applicants must aged 18 or over.
We recognise that people enter creative practice at different stages of their lives and through different routes. By early-stage, we mean that you are still developing your professional creative practice and establishing your body of work, networks and opportunities, rather than being an established practitioner with a sustained professional profile. You do not need to be a recent graduate or a particular age to be eligible.
You might:
- be developing your first substantial body of work;
- have had relatively few opportunities to present, exhibit, publish, perform or commission your work professionally;
- be beginning to establish professional networks, audiences or collaborators;
- be returning to creative practice after a significant break or starting a creative practice later in life;
- feel that this opportunity would represent a meaningful step in developing your practice.
If you have any questions about your eligibility, please email Culture@Ealing.gov.uk.
The British Council welcomes creative individuals from all backgrounds, areas of knowledge and/or academic departments, and we particularly welcome applications from underrepresented groups in the creative sector, including those from the following: global ethnic majority, disabled, LGBTQIA+, and those facing social barriers to accessing the arts, the creative industries and other economic opportunities.
Deadline: 30 November, midday
