Featured Opportunities
Find your next creative breakthrough. Discover creative awards, competitions & funding. Submit to design contests, film festivals, writing competitions…
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World Press Photo Contest 2026
World Press Photo Foundation
Free to Apply
Closing: 17th January ’26
Annual international contest recognizing the best photojournalism and documentary photography. Free to enter, open to all professional photographers working in photojournalism and/or documentary photography worldwide.
Three format categories: Singles (single frame photos shot in 2025), Stories (4-10 photos shot in 2024-2025), and Long-Term Projects (minimum 6 photos from 2025, spanning at least 3 different years). Work judged across six worldwide regions: Africa; Asia Pacific and Oceania; Europe; North and Central America; South America; and West, Central, and South Asia.
Winners receive prizes up to €11,000, inclusion in annual traveling exhibition visiting 60+ cities worldwide, publication in yearbook, inclusion in public archive, and international recognition. Winners selected by independent regional and global juries. All singles shot in 2025 eligible for World Press Photo of the Year.
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FluxusMuseum Prize for Experimental Video 2026
Fluxus Museum
Free to Apply
Closing: 16th January ’26
An international experimental video prize open to anyone worldwide (no age restrictions or formal degrees required) including visual artists, dancers, performance artists, filmmakers, animators, writers, actors, musicians, and collectives.
Applicants submit a video proposal (up to 3 minutes) presenting new, original work between 1-15 minutes in experimental Fluxus spirit. €45,000 total distributed: 100 shortlisted artists receive €100 each and are uploaded to FluxusMuseumTV for public judging. 10 finalists receive €1,000 to develop their work, then another €1,000 upon submission of finished work. Finalists exhibit at FluxusMuseum gallery in Paros, Greece (June-October 2026). €15,000 distributed among winner and runners-up at exhibition end.
Single-channel films only, displayed on monitors/projectors with headphone audio. Artists retain ownership.
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Development Lab for West Midlands Artists
Outside In & The New Art Gallery Walsall
Free to Apply
Closing: 15th January 2026
A free two-day Development Lab for artists based in the West Midlands who face barriers to the art world due to health, disability, social circumstance, or isolation. Taking place at The New Art Gallery Walsall on Thursday 5 & Friday 6 February 2026. Limited to 8 artists selected through application process.
Programme includes guidance on arts funding opportunities, portfolio development with feedback, sessions on workshop design and facilitation, and support to develop next artistic steps.
Selected artists receive £40 travel bursary. Attendance on both days is compulsory. Provides professional development support for artists encountering significant barriers to inclusion in the art world. Places allocated through application process.
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UNESCO AI Ethics Residency
Somerset House Studios & UNESCO
Free to Apply
Closing: 15th January 2026
Remote residency commissioning three international artists (NOT UK-based) to create new online works critically engaging with intercultural ideas around AI, ethics, governance and regulation. For mid-career artists over 18 with 6+ years’ experience producing and presenting work, from any discipline. Particularly interested in non-Western perspectives.
Each artist receives £7,500 artist fee plus £7,500 production budget. 3-month R&D period (April-June 2026) includes monthly meetings with Somerset House Studios’ producers, advisory sessions with UNESCO, dedicated mentor from Studios community and UNESCO Expert Network, regular cohort meetings, facilitated introductions to Studios artists/alumni. Artists attend UNESCO’s Global Forum on Ethics of AI in June 2026 (location TBC, travel and accommodation covered) to share research/works in progress with international policymakers from 80+ countries. Final works presented on Somerset House’s Channel platform December 2026, with potential London event. A
rtists must engage with UNESCO’s Recommendation on the Ethics of AI human-rights-centred principles. Must NOT use generative AI tools in artwork creation. Applications accepted in written, audio or video format. Selection panel includes Marie McPartlin, Dr James Wright, Dr Jahnavi Phalkey, Nouf Aljowaysir.
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Scottish Portrait Awards 2026
Scottish Arts Trust & National Galleries of Scotland
Free / £15 per work
Closing: 15th January ’26
The Scottish Portrait Awards celebrate Scottish talent and creativity across three categories, hosted at the Portrait gallery in Edinburgh for the first time in 2026. Open to artists over 16 who were born, or are living or studying in Scotland. The Scottish Portrait Award in Fine Art (any 2D/3D medium or time-based media) offers prizes of £5,000 first prize plus National Galleries commission for Scotland’s national collection, £1,000 second prize, £500 third prize, £1,000 Young Fine Artist (16-25 years), and £1,000 June Carey Award for Etching.
The MPB Scottish Portrait Award in Photography (any photographic process) offers £5,000 first prize plus National Galleries commission, £1,000 second prize, £500 third prize, £1,000 plus £250 MPB voucher for Young Photographer (16-25), and £1,000 Albert Watson Portrait Prize. Scotland Now! Phone Portrait Award (phone photography of Scottish residents, taken after 1 January 2025) offers £500 first prize. Total prizes of £16,000.
Around 120 works selected for fine art and photography exhibitions, top 60 phone portraits on digital display. Judges include Kirsty Wark, Albert Watson OBE, and Calum Stevenson. Exhibition Autumn 2026 – Spring 2027.
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Open Call: The Hepworth Wakefield Print Fair 2026
The Hepworth Wakefield
Free to Apply
Closing: 14th January 2026
Sales opportunity for emerging and established UK-based artists, textile designers and illustrators working in screen print, etching, monoprint, giclée, risograph, lithograph, collagraph, linocut, letterpress and other print media. Taking place Saturday 13th and Sunday 14th June 2026 (10am-5pm) at Carding Shed, Tileyard North (adjacent to The Hepworth Wakefield). Around 60 artists, collectives and galleries across various stall types, reaching approximately 4,250 visitors over the weekend (based on 2025 figures). Weekend includes family activities, street food, discounted exhibition entry.
Four stall options: Standard Table (£200), Standard Table + Print Rack (£250), Large Stall with wall space (£300), Booth (£400). Applications via CuratorSpace, submit up to 5 work examples. Stallholders must attend both days and have £5m Public Liability insurance. Selected by panel in late January 2026.
Promotion via gallery website, social media (107k Instagram, 32k Facebook), e-newsletters. Previous media coverage: BBC, Crafts Council, Elle Decoration, Guardian, Time Out. Accessible ground floor venue. Encourages applications from underrepresented artists.
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Call for Artists: Photomontage as Activist Practice
Autograph
Free to Apply
Closing: 12th January ’26
Autograph is inviting artists working with collage and/or photomontage to question or disrupt dominant narratives to submit their work. Open to anyone of any age, based anywhere in the world (text captions must be in English), the call is particularly keen to work with emerging artists in the early stages of their artistic career who may not have had a mainstream platform before. Artists must have a series of 10 or more pieces of work.
Successful applicants will receive a £400 fee, an online exhibition on Autograph’s website featuring around 10-20 images, and editorial support from Autograph’s experienced staff. The work will be promoted via Autograph’s newsletter, social media channels and networks. Initial submissions require just three representative images via Google Form.
The call is inspired by Autograph’s exhibition “I Still Dream of Lost Vocabularies,” examining issues of political dissent and erasure through collage. Judges include Bindi Vora (Senior Curator), Sunil Gupta (photographer), and Livvy Murdoch (digital content and learning manager).













