Artsadmin Bursary => AIR + Lab

As we say goodbye to the Bursary, we prepare to welcome two new Artist Support programmes

After 23 years, the Artists’ Bursary Scheme has concluded.  

Artsadmin’s Artists’ Bursary Scheme ran from 1998 until 2021 and supported over 200 artists working in contemporary performance practices during that time.

As part of the strategic review of Artist Support that we ran last year, we looked at the Bursary offer and assessed where it met and where it fell short of artists’ needs. We found that the support we were able to offer through Bursary was at times too much – too many expectations of delivery, too much time commitment needed from artists – and sometimes too little – not enough depth in our commitment to artists’ development and projects, and not enough financial support to allow for the time required for a step-change in an artist’s practice. 

From this reflection, and a commitment to listen to artists and adapt to the sector and its needs, we are now dreaming of both a deeper and more engaged support offer for an individual artist, and more abundant opportunities for artists to develop work in our building on a rolling basis. 

As we say goodbye to the Bursary, we’d like to introduce you to two new Artist Support programmes: Artsadmin AIR and Artsadmin Lab. With these programmes, we propose two different ways of providing time, space, and money for artists – one long-term in-depth relationship, and more frequent, rolling shorter-term opportunities. These new programmes are rooted in Artsadmin’s mission to support artists and projects that ask questions around social and environmental justice from local to international contexts. 

Introducing…

🎈AIR 

We set ourselves the mission to build an opportunity that represents our desire to support artists and their practices in an impactful way. We understand that artists need time, space, money, and support systems in which to breathe, create, and thrive. 

In 2022, we will be working with our neighbour Toynbee Hall to create a unique Artist-in-Residence programme, connecting the local focus and context of Toynbee Hall to the artistic programme, producing and artist support expertise of Artsadmin, for one full year of supported research and engagement with the context offered by these two organisations. 

AIR will offer one artist rent-free lodging in an apartment in Toynbee Hall as well as a yearly salary equivalent to London Living Wage, a desk and studio time in Artsadmin’s home at Toynbee Studios, and full access to the staff-support and context of both organisations. Toynbee Hall is a charity that works alongside people facing poverty and injustice to build a fairer and happier East London.

We will be publishing a brief towards an open call process, involving Artsadmin staff, Toynbee Hall staff, an independent artist and Aldgate/Whitechapel community representation in the Spring, with an artist invited to participate by late 2022. The pilot edition residency will commence in Spring 2023.

🧪Lab 

According to our feedback data, the two clearest barriers to making work for artists are space and money. The resource offered by Toynbee Studios, the building provides us, and the artists we work with, with the invitation to rethink how we make work in new and uncharted realities. The circumstance of reduced studio hires over the various lockdowns also gave us the opportunity to test out new models of support. 

Artsadmin Lab is a curated programme where the Artsadmin producing team collaboratively selects and invites 8 artists per year to join us in Toynbee Studios for two-week residencies, with a financial stipend of £1000.  

The support is intended as an almost pre-R&D period to assist artists interested in exploring an idea related to social and environmental justice at an early stage. We specifically want to support work that is live and interdisciplinary.

As a producing organisation, Artsadmin Lab offers a chance for our creative team to meet and engage with new artists and artists we already have existing relationships with, at the very earliest stages of new project development.  If you would like to talk to us about a new idea, please get in touch with one of our Artists’ Projects producers here.