Currently 12 active open calls open to applicants in Worldwide, across AI, arts, film, journalism, research, tech and cross-disciplinary practice. 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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A fully funded art-science residency from Ars Electronica and Ceske Budejovice, European Capital of Culture 2028, exploring how art and science can collaborate on urgent environmental challenges: climate emergence, sustainable agriculture, geoengineering, permaculture, water resource management, and the broader ecological impacts on local communities. Selected residents work in direct collaboration with local scientists in Ceske Budejovice. WHO CAN APPLY: artists, designers, creatives and artist collectives with more than 5 years of professional creative practice and documented interdisciplinary work; experience in community engagement and science collaborations is essential; applicants must be 18+, of any nationality, and legally eligible to work and travel in the EU. WHAT YOU GET: a EUR 24,000 package (EUR 6,000 artist fee, up to EUR 15,000 production, up to EUR 3,000 travel and subsistence) plus one month of housing covered separately; two winners are selected. STRUCTURE: the residency runs January 2027 to April 2028, with a required on-site stay of up to one month in February/March 2027, an optional stay in August/September 2027, and a March 2028 stay for festival installation, exhibition and deinstallation. HOW TO APPLY: online form with project title, a written proposal of max 250 words, a scientific direction statement (max 100 words), artistic vision (max 100 words), community connection plan (max 100 words), a super short pitch (3 to 30 words), 3 to 7 images, an optional 1-minute video, a portfolio link and contact information. Two-round selection (online application then interview); winners notified by November 2026. Deadline 28 September 2026 at midnight CET.
NEXT ART AI is an open AI art competition run by the HOBAN Cultural Foundation, welcoming participants of all backgrounds regardless of career, nationality or age, and framed as a way to reflect on the future of AI art through new modes of expression and artistic experimentation. TWO CATEGORIES: AI IMAGE ART, for works in a single-image format at 150dpi or higher, submitted as JPG, JPEG, PNG or BMP up to 10MB; and AI VIDEO ART, open to a wide range of video formats including animation, motion graphics and live-action footage enhanced or transformed using AI, at 1080p or higher, under one minute, 30 or 60fps recommended, stereo 48kHz audio recommended, as mp4 (h.264) or mov. Video entries are submitted as a URL via YouTube, Vimeo, Dropbox or OneDrive, or an alternative platform if those are restricted in your region; links that are inaccessible due to privacy settings may be excluded from judging. WHO CAN ENTER: individuals or teams of up to three including the representative, though you may not submit both as an individual and as part of a team. Team representatives create the account in their own name and all members submit a consent form for personal data. Applicants under 19 need a guardian's signed consent. One work may be submitted per category. RULES ON AI AND ASSETS: work must be original and created by the applicant or team, and must be image or video art created using generative AI platforms. Works that have previously won an award in another competition are not eligible. Free or paid external assets, game engines, AI frameworks, open-source tools and editing software may be used freely, but applicants must hold licences permitting commercial use for every element, and work infringing third-party rights is excluded. Even where external assets and editing software are used, the creative process must involve AI, whether AI-assisted direction, transformation, generation or other AI-based processes, and the choice of AI tools, the scope and method of their use, and the prompts themselves are all weighed in evaluating the creative use of AI. TIMELINE: applications open 1 September 2026 and close 30 September 2026 at 11:59pm KST, preliminary round early October, final round late October, announcement and ceremony early November, exhibition late November 2026. Organised and hosted by the HOBAN Cultural Foundation, sponsored by HOBAN Group, with Seoul Shinmun and EBN as media partners. Details and schedule are subject to change at the organiser's discretion.
Social Dive is the Tokyo Biennale 2027 open call for art projects and artist-in-residence proposals developed through research and engagement with local communities across Tokyo. Participants immerse themselves in the city's neighborhoods, from temples and historic wooden buildings to business districts, train stations and shopping streets. Selected projects are developed at 11 designated sites: Toeizan Kaneiji Temple, Yushima Seido, Otemachi/Marunouchi/Yurakucho, Kyobashi, Nihonbashi, Yaesu, Kanda, Ueno Station, Tokyo Dome City, Akihabara Electric Town, and Bakurocho/Higashi-Kanda. Proposals must respond to the biennale theme From Me to Us and be presented during Tokyo Biennale 2027 (1 October to 11 December 2027). WHAT YOU GET: JPY 100,000 honorarium, round-trip travel up to JPY 300,000, accommodation in Tokyo, project development support up to JPY 200,000, venue coordination, interpretation and translation support, and an invitation letter. WHO IS ELIGIBLE: artists, curators, researchers, collectives and practitioners in related fields, aged 18 or older, from anywhere in the world; must be available for on-site research, collaboration and implementation in Tokyo with a residency of at least one month including the opening; one proposal per applicant. SELECTION: two-stage evaluation on theme responsiveness, originality, feasibility and community collaboration. DEADLINE: 30 September 2026, 23:59 JST. TO APPLY: via the online form with profile photo, personal statement (150 words), two key visuals, project summary and background, detailed description (400 words), budget breakdown and schedule, and CV or portfolio (max 5 pages). Free to apply.
The curatorial strand of the Braunschweig Projects fellowship programme at Braunschweig University of Art (HBK Braunschweig), funded by the State of Lower Saxony, offers one curator a twelve-month fellowship beginning 1 April 2027. The fellow develops a curatorial concept culminating in a final exhibition and presentation in January/February 2028; projects should ideally connect to a museum, collection or cultural institution in Lower Saxony. WHAT YOU GET: EUR 1,600 per month for twelve months, a rent-free studio apartment designed for one person (with a EUR 250 monthly contribution towards incidental living costs charged to the fellow), a subsidy of up to EUR 4,000 to support exhibition activities and a EUR 2,000 travel budget. ELIGIBILITY: applicants must have gained initial curatorial experience of at least three years; no formal degree is specified. Fellows may not hold regular income from third parties or other state funding during the fellowship, and must spend at least eight months of the HBK lecture period on site in Braunschweig. Participation in the Welcome Weeks (19 to 30 April 2027) and the final presentation is mandatory. APPLICATION: submit a project draft covering research, preparation, implementation, budget and communication plans via the HBK application portal. DEADLINE: 4 October 2026, 23:59. The artistic fellowships strand (fine arts and sound art) runs in parallel with the same deadline.
The International Bad Video Art Festival (BVAF) is an independent, artist-run initiative founded in 2017 by video artists and B-movie fans Natalia Monakhova and Andrey Slaschilin to explore whether something like bad video art exists. While B-movies have long formed a cultural niche with their own heroes and fans, the concept of bad has not been explored as actively in other art sectors; the festival studies extreme forms of video art and singles out certain works as bad videos or B-videos, probing questions of quality and boundaries in art. The IX edition takes place in November 2026 at Civico 23 Art Space in Salerno, Italy. WHAT THEY WANT: videos at the intersection of bad art, bad painting and bad cinema, meeting any of these criteria: technically poor (low resolution, over- or underexposed, unstabilized, wrong focus, poor or absent sound, bad editing, wrong color correction); lacking content (irrelevant, empty, shot just for the sake of it, without purpose, idea or concept); or consciously or unconsciously exploiting the aesthetics of camp, trash or B-movies. When submitting, explain why you consider your video to be bad; no concept statement needed. RULES: one video per artist or collective, between 1 and 8 minutes. No animation, no videos made by people under 18, no family home videos, no porn. Dialogue in languages other than Italian needs Italian subtitles, or send an SRT file and the festival will assist with translation. APPLICATION: free, via Google Form linked from the festival site. DEADLINE: 5 October 2026.
First Flights funds emerging filmmakers worldwide making live action and documentary shorts in any scripted genre (scripts up to 30 pages). The autumn 2026 round awards up to GBP 7,000 / USD 10,000 in cash toward production costs, plus two Kodak awards of five 400ft rolls of 16mm film stock with complete processing, and one USD 10,000 post-production package from Periscope. Selected filmmakers also receive festival submission assistance and distribution opportunities through partner organizations. APPLY with project details, logline, synopsis, director's vision statement, completed script, director biography, budget and lookbook (sizzle reel optional); independent judges score originality, creativity, plot, pacing, characters, entertainment and message, with interviews for long-listed candidates. Production must begin within six months of the deadline. ENTRY FEE: tiered, GBP 30 until 30 September or GBP 40 until the final 31 October 2026 deadline.
Async Museum is an independent digital space dedicated to web art with a distinctive point of view, existing to discover artists who use the web as their primary medium and to recognise their work as a new aesthetic. Its core philosophy is that the web browser is a twenty-first century canvas. Async Museum is officially seeking submissions of web-based artworks, welcoming both established practitioners and emerging voices who are pushing the boundaries of what the next generation of art can be. NOTE: this is an exhibition opportunity for web-based art rather than a paid grant; no artist fee is stated. To share your practice and submit your work, visit https://asyncmuseum.com/submit. Deadline: 1 December 2026.
The European Media Art Festival (EMAF) in Osnabrueck invites submissions for its 2027 edition in three sections: Film (experimental films of all lengths and any theme), Installation (installative, interactive, spatial or sculptural media art works) and Expanded (performances, live events or workshops). WHAT YOU GET: all films selected for the International Selection are equal winners of the EMAF Award with EUR 400 prize money each; films in the Features section (over 60 minutes) receive a EUR 250 screening fee; curated programmes pay EUR 80-250 depending on length; installations and expanded projects receive a EUR 500 fee with production costs paid by the festival. Selected artists are invited to the festival with free accreditation, three hotel nights (potentially longer if setting up is required) and a contribution to travel costs. RULES: maximum 2 works per artist; only works completed in 2026 or 2027 are eligible; no premiere status required; works entered at previous editions will not be reconsidered. Films up to 60 minutes are viewed for the International Selection, films over 60 minutes for Features. Installation entries should relate to the 2027 festival theme of the archive (as an instrument of knowledge production, a site of critical intervention and a space for alternative visions of the future); Installation and Expanded entries must include a comprehensive description, tech rider, cost calculation and visual materials. Non-English-language works must have English subtitles for the selection screening. Submit digitally via the EMAF registration portal (no DVDs or physical media). Selection decisions are emailed from mid-March 2027. DEADLINE: the call closes as soon as 2,200 entries have been received, or at the latest on 15 December 2026, so submit early. No entry fee.
Sheer Spite Press, a Montreal-based independent press running since 2024, is open for submissions of zines to be distributed digitally as PDFs through its new digital distro (no print at this time). PRIORITIZING work that is long, text-centric, passionate, personal, anti-authoritarian and accessible (probably not poetry), on topics like community care, friendship, history, food, sex and kink, memoir, DIY and adventures. TERMS: the press sells your PDFs, you choose your own pricing and keep up to 80 percent of sales, paid quarterly (very modest sums expected); distribution is non-exclusive, so you can keep selling your zines anywhere else. Note this is a revenue-share distribution arrangement, not a grant or stipend. Submit via the CryptPad form linked from the call; questions to lee@sheerspite.ca. No submission fee. Open until 31 December 2026.
OSIP is the European Space Agency's standing front door for unsolicited novel ideas, launched in 2019 and now the main entry point for new concepts into ESA, both in response to specific problems and through open calls. HOW IT WORKS: ideas are submitted through two mechanisms. Campaigns are targeted calls responding to specific questions with defined timelines (recent examples include Future Navigation Demonstrators and elements for the EOCognitiveLab mission); Channels are permanently open, open-ended calls on broader topics with no deadline. Submissions can go through an optional community discussion phase, with voting and comments, before expert evaluation by ESA. WHO CAN SUBMIT: individuals, businesses, universities and organisations anywhere in the world. The catch for funding: to implement a funded idea yourself, you must be eligible to do business with ESA under Article 18 of its procurement regulations, which in practice means affiliation with an entity in an ESA member state. WHAT FUNDING LOOKS LIKE: successful ideas are typically supported as co-funded PhD or postdoctoral research (ESA plus a university), early technology development activities, or system studies; amounts vary by route and campaign. WHY IT IS ON THE DESK: this is the one genuinely public, always-open route into ESA for independent researchers, technologists and artists working with space data or space technology concepts; new campaigns appear regularly, so checking the platform periodically is worthwhile. Submit via ideas.esa.int.
Contemporary art magazine commissioning paid art writing and criticism, with pitches accepted on an ongoing basis (online reviews/pitches continuous; themed print issues have set deadlines, e.g. the Spring issue around 15 September 2026). A direct paid outlet for criticism on digital, new-media and AI art. ELIGIBILITY: writers at all experience levels are invited; not restricted to Canada. Mostly pitch-based, with short online reviews accepted unsolicited.
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.