New ideas blossom when individuals have time and space to imagine how things could be different. In his book ‘The Utopia of Rules’ anthropologist David Graeber writes:  

“The ultimate, hidden truth of the world is that it is something that we make, and could just as easily make differently.” 

We agree! This year our Winter Residency Open Call is based around the theme of ‘Making the World Differently’. To create a sustainable future, we need to change how we think about growth, wealth, consumerism and progress, and we believe creativity can play a vital role in reimagining existing constructs.  

We are looking for artistic ideas that explore technology and that positively speculate and jolt our rooted societal perspectives. We’re interested in ideas that challenge the things we take for granted and reimagine the frameworks through which we see. We’re looking for ideas that provoke imaginations, ask questions, explore possibilities and consider what could happen if we change our angle of view. 

What we’re offering: 

Watershed's Winter Residency (Feb to March 2023) is a rare chance for two creative practitioners from any discipline, career stage and background, to bring the seed of an idea that responds to our theme. You will be supported to spend time thinking, making, asking questions, exploring and sharing possibilities. There is no expectation of outcome, but we will ask you to share your thoughts along the way. 

This year we are trying a different kind of selection process: 

In previous years, we’ve run a traditional selection process for the Winter Residency programme, where interested parties submit detailed proposals for their projects in advance, which were judged by a panel of our team and external artists. This year we’re taking a different approach which we hope will help to minimise the amount of work that is involved in writing and submitting applications. 

We’re asking creative practitioners and artists to submit a very simple Expression of Interest Form to confirm their eligibility for the residency. Our hope is that this part of the application should only take a few minutes to complete. From these Expressions of Interest, we will then draw twelve names at random. The randomly selected applicants will make up our shortlist for the residency. Each will then be invited to attend an application surgery, submit a longer proposal and attend an interview. After this our panel will select and award the two residency places.

You can read more about why we are trying out this different approach here.

So, if you have an idea bubbling about, why not pop your name in the hat?  

Victoria Tillotson, Talent Development Lead at Watershed says: 

“Watershed’s Winter Residency programme offers bespoke support for creative practice and ideas. We place no pressure on outcomes, as we know from experience that freedom to think reverberates in many different ways, inducing change and the creation of incredible artworks over time. We’re also excited to test the use of random selection. We hope our new partially random, selection process will minimise workload for a great number of creatives and will give some who otherwise may be unfairly excluded from a process like this, a greater chance to gain support for their ideas.” 

Shrouk El-Attar, Winter Residency Artist 2022, has this to say about their experience:

“I was super excited to be accepted onto last years' Winter Residency programme and spend 3 months developing my belly dancing robot project. I found that this was just the first step towards an exciting network and endless opportunities. Because I became a resident at Watershed's Pervasive Media Studio, I was able to leave my 9 to 5 as a Senior Electronics Engineer and start my very own electronics engineering consultancy business where I am now able to follow my two passions, electronics and art, on my own terms. It's never easy to take the leap and start something new with nothing to fall back on, but Watershed made it a million times easier. I cannot imagine my life had I not found this opportunity. The Winter Residency is much more than just that!”

We encourage applications from people that are underrepresented in the creative and culture sector (for example if you are from a community that experiences racism, or you are a disabled person (as defined by the Equalities Act in 2010), or you did not go to University or you had free school meals as a child). We aim to be as inclusive as possible and work to accommodate all access requirements. We will openly discuss and tailor how we do things to support you as best we can. 

Contact us on residencies@watershed.co.uk if forms are not your thing and you require support with the Expression of Interest. Please don’t be afraid to do this, we are really happy to assist. 

To find out more about the programme and the application process, please head over to the opportunities page to download the Winter Residencies brief. 

The deadline for applications is Mon 31 Oct 2022 10:00 

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