OPEN CALL: RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITY
b‑side invites proposals from artists working in any medium for a site-responsive Research & Development opportunity as part of b‑side 2026
This is a process-led opportunity that offers time and space for exploration within your practice.The Research & Development period will run from April 2026 to March 2027. £2500 fee.
About the Theme — That Other Place
That Other Place is a strand of b-side’s wider curatorial framework, Common Lands, which considers the Isle of Portland as a microcosm through which to explore our relationships to land, locality, and community. Under Common Lands, previous festivals have explored: This Land — Portland’s natural and built heritage, and, Who Do We Think We Are? — identity and migration. We are now inviting artists to explore another strand of Common Lands; ‘That Other Place’ — It explores identity, belonging, imagination, ecology, queerness, and transformation. It asks what happens when the land we are standing on — socially, politically, emotionally, imaginatively — no longer feels like it’s working.
- What does That Other Place mean to you?
- How do we inhabit spaces of transition or uncertainty?
- What identities, stories, or ways of being have been overlooked, misread, or othered — and how might they be reclaimed, celebrated, or reimagined?
We invite artists to respond to That Other Place in ways that feel speculative, playful, or meaningful within your practice.
Who can apply?
Anyone! We welcome proposals from artists at any stage in their career. b-side values diversity and is working to make the application and commissioning process accessible to all and welcomes proposals from those currently under-represented in the arts.
Please see our website for full info and brief. Applications must be made via Curatorspace.
