Currently 5 active curatorial grants, fellowships and residencies open to applicants in the EU. Hand-curated and updated weekly. Almost every entry is funded; a few notable unpaid open calls and festival submissions are included as clearly flagged exceptions. Browse the list below, or use the interactive desk for filtering and shortlisting.
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Scuola Piccola Zattere is an independent non-profit centre for continuous education and research in the expanded field of contemporary arts, running exhibitions, commissions, fellowships, workshops, seminars, performances and public discussions as one connected research ecosystem rather than separate strands. Two international fellowships are offered. The support is unusually solid for a research fellowship: EUR 5,000 as a grant, EUR 2,000 as a research budget, accommodation, travel and a study space for three months. SEASON THEME: the 2026-2027 cycle is titled Living Document, investigating archives, regulatory documents, collective rituals, games, performative instructions, and the relationship between bodies, architecture and social organisation. Fellows join that shared inquiry while continuing their own work, and are expected to keep an active presence in the institution and contribute to public events through workshops, seminars, presentations, screenings or performances. The fellowship overlaps with the run-up to and opening of the 2027 Architecture Biennale, which is a real advantage if your research benefits from that traffic. ELIGIBILITY: artists, curators, researchers, architects, choreographers, performers and writers of any nationality, as individuals, collectives or duos. Good English is required, and non-EU applicants need a valid passport for international travel. No age limit, but the organisers say it is especially intended for practitioners in the post-academic stage of their career, typically under 40. You must be prepared to spend the full period in Venice, so this is not a remote or partial-attendance fellowship. WHAT THEY WANT: an active research process that can develop through discussion and experimentation, tied to the Living Document theme, not a finished stand-alone project proposal. The motivation letter, portfolio and public programming proposal are read as one integrated application. Deadline 4 September 2026 at 10:00 CEST.
VBKÖ, the Austrian Association of Wom*n Artists founded in 1910, invites proposals for its annual programme running March 2027 to February 2028. The call reads the present moment through the resurgence of authoritarianism, fascism, militarisation, colonial violence and extractive capitalism, and the parallel privatisation of care and criminalisation of solidarity. Drawing on María Galindo's framing of feminism as a project of social transformation and Sara Ahmed's account of feminist work beginning with refusal, the programme treats alternative ways of living as something rehearsed collectively through organising, creating, caring, listening, remembering and struggling. VBKÖ seeks a programme of practices that nurture communal care and build a platform for collective rehearsals: proposals that allow for tenderness, that are not afraid of ugly feelings and different truths, and that explore how contemporary queer and feminist perspectives resonate across artistic, social and political movements. FORMAT REQUIREMENT: only exhibition formats bringing together multiple artists, collectives or collaborative practices are accepted. Solo exhibitions, individual presentations and projects centred on a single artist's work are explicitly not supported. Proposals that activate the exhibition through public programming (screenings, performances, workshops, lectures and other events) are encouraged. Regular opening hours are Fridays and Saturdays 2pm to 6pm; any additional hours must be arranged and staffed by the selected group. The association acknowledges that its own history is marked by violence, exclusion and discrimination on the basis of religion, class, gender, sexuality and ethnicity, and states that it actively opposes all forms of discrimination including trans-exclusionary radical feminism. APPLICATION: a single PDF (max 5MB) with a programme description (max 2 pages, images welcome, English or German, including preferred dates and duration), a CV and biography for every participant (max 1 page each), a financial plan (Fair Pay encouraged), technical requirements, and contact details including email, mobile number and main residence; three high-resolution images of work or exhibition sketches sent within the email or via a download link, labelled with artist name, work title, year and proposal title (video links may be included in the proposal). Send to opencall@vbkoe.org with the subject line 'Open Call + your proposal title'. Incomplete applications will not be considered. A shortlist is compiled by the VBKÖ team and final selections are made by the VBKÖ board with an external jury member experienced in contemporary art, activism and community building; shortlisted applicants may be asked to present to the jury. Results are announced at the beginning of October 2026. Deadline 10 September 2026, 23:59. Free to apply.
Mondriaan Fund grant for written and/or spoken-word publications about contemporary visual art: article series, long reads, podcasts, video essays, social-content series, and similar formats published across magazines, newspapers, online platforms, public media or social media. Aimed at strengthening reflection on, criticism of, and journalism around visual art practice in the Netherlands and the Caribbean part of the Kingdom. Eligible applicants: existing or new platforms (online magazines, public media, podcast outlets, etc.) AND individuals working as curators, critics, social-content creators or journalists. New initiatives and collaborations may apply. Two cycles per year; the next deadline is 15 October 2026, 16:00 Dutch time / 10:00 Caribbean time (an earlier 2 April 2026 round has already closed). Grant covers up to 70% of eligible expenses, with two pricing structures: fixed €2,480/month for short 1-6 month work periods, or a flexible grant of up to 12 months for larger project plans (amount determined by submitted plan and budget). Round budget €229,000. Good fit for science-communicator / critical-tech / art-and-AI long-form writing, podcast series, or video essay projects. Applications submitted via the Mondriaan Fund online portal after creating an account; documents cannot be uploaded after the deadline. Free to apply.
Residency programme run by the Art Explora Foundation with the Cite internationale des arts at its Montmartre site, supporting work that engages scientific and technological exploration and the major social and environmental issues of the present. Residents receive a studio-apartment of around 50 sqm, a monthly living grant of EUR 1,000, a production grant of up to EUR 3,000, and a round-trip travel grant, plus access to production facilities and local networks. Two tracks are offered: a SOLO programme for artists and writers across visual arts, performance, digital practices, literary and other experimental disciplines, and a COLLECTIVE programme for duos or collectives working collaboratively on interdisciplinary, experimental or research-based projects, for which a single studio-apartment designed for collaborative work hosts two residents sharing a bed, and only one member should submit the application. Eligible artistic disciplines are visual arts, performance and live arts, digital arts, curatorial practices, and writing and literary practices; eligible research fields are humanities, social sciences, cultural studies and history, technological innovation, and ecology. No output is required at the end of the residency, but participation in the Open Studios is mandatory. ELIGIBILITY: artists, artist collectives, researchers, curators and writers of all nationalities, no age restriction, with a minimum of five years of professional activity and works or research exhibited at national or international level. The Cite lists 20 to 22 residencies per year on this programme. Deadline 6 November 2026, 23:59 Europe/Paris. Questions: residences@artexplora.org. FLAG: the grant figures above come from the open-call text supplied to the desk; neither the Cite nor Art Explora publishes amounts on the programme page, so confirm them, along with the exact deadline, before applying.
Funding for preliminary research into exhibitions, events, articles or presentations. For curators. Continuous deadline.