Currently 4 active curatorial grants, fellowships and residencies open to applicants in Worldwide. 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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This is Gender, the photography and visual culture platform run by Global 50/50, is launching its inaugural Regional Curatorial Fellows Programme for early-career curators and cultural practitioners working across photography, visual culture and gender justice. The premise: images shape how gender, power and social realities are understood, feeding public debate, cultural memory, research, advocacy and policy, yet the communities and visual practices that should inform those narratives stay underrepresented in the institutions that circulate them. The programme's argument is that diversifying who makes images is not enough, and that it also matters who selects, contextualises, writes about, commissions and circulates them. For the first time, This is Gender is embedding regional curators directly inside its global photography competition, which has run six cycles and receives thousands of submissions a year. WHAT THE FELLOWSHIP INVOLVES: working inside the competition and seeing first-hand how a major platform discovers, reviews and champions new work; shaping curatorial decisions by bringing regional knowledge and cultural insight into the selection and interpretation of work; contributing to public-facing projects including exhibitions, editorial outputs and digital storytelling while developing your own writing, framing and curatorial voice; direct engagement with international judges, curators, artists, editors and cultural practitioners; and building a network across an international cohort of peers. WHO SHOULD APPLY: curators, critics, writers, researchers, artistic directors, photographers, organisers and cultural practitioners from global majority countries and historically underrepresented communities. Early-career practitioners and recent graduates are strongly encouraged, and a formal curatorial title is not required. HOW TO APPLY: read the full role description and FAQs on the fellowship page and submit the online application form; the organisers offer the application in alternative formats and are open to a conversation before applying. Applications close 22 September 2026.
SOCIAL DIVE is Tokyo Biennale's open call, now in its third edition and, for 2027, open to both international and domestic applicants (the 2019 round drew roughly 1,500 overseas applications and the 2025 international-only round roughly 1,400). Artists and curators propose projects to be presented as part of Tokyo Biennale 2027, whose theme is 'From Me to Us'. THEME: general producer Masato Nakamura frames the biennale against an age of conflict and division, arguing that to avoid repeating memories of war, violence and exclusion we must reexamine the wisdom and cultural resources passed down across generations. Tokyo carries the memories of neighbourhoods dating back to the Edo period, twice suffered great loss through the Great Kanto Earthquake and the Second World War, and each time was rebuilt through the strength of its citizens; it is also an international city where different languages, memories, beliefs, wounds and hopes intersect. Quoting Kenzaburo Oe, 'I cannot live my life over again. But we can live our lives over again', the call proposes that when a single 'me' encounters others and reconnects relationships, a new consciousness of 'us' emerges. Art projects are treated as a form of cultural prescription, reconnecting people with people, people with places and people with memories. ELIGIBILITY: open to artists, curators, researchers, collectives and practitioners in related fields active in Japan and abroad; applicants must be 18 or older at the time of application; there are no restrictions on nationality, place of residence or base of operations; participants must be able to work in Tokyo during the designated period. ACCEPTED FORMATS: artwork creation, exhibitions, performances, video works, tours, workshops, participatory projects, research projects and curatorial projects. Applications cover both artwork production by artists and art project proposals by curators. APPLY via the Google Form linked from socialdive.jp/en (a Google account is required) during the application period 17 July to 30 September 2026, 23:59 JST. Read the official call documentation for full eligibility requirements and guidelines.
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.
apexart's Open Calls turn a curatorial idea into a funded apexart exhibition, selected by a crowdsourced international jury of more than 600 people in 70 countries. WHO CAN SUBMIT: anyone, from anywhere, with no fees at any level: trained and student curators, artists, writers and creative people regardless of experience, background or location. HOW: a 500-word proposal for a focused, idea-driven, original group exhibition, submitted through the online form during the proposal window. TWO ANNUAL WINDOWS: every October for exhibitions in apexart's NYC space, and every February (to early March) for exhibitions taking place anywhere in the world except NYC; for the international call you must propose a location you have actually visited, with the specific venue settled after selection. SELECTION: jurors vote anonymously online (each proposal gets an equal number of views, submitter names hidden); proposals are judged on the strength of the idea and how well it is communicated, not on connections or CV. WHAT WINNERS GET: a USD 10,000 budget (USD 8,000 for expenses, up to USD 2,000 curator honorarium, plus up to USD 1,000 venue-rental match outside NYC), with apexart covering insurance, publicity, the printed brochure, the opening reception and most logistics including loan agreements and shipping, and staff working closely with the guest curator. Winning proposals become part of apexart's next exhibition season. Check the site for the current window's exact dates; submission forms only go live during the proposal periods.