Opportunities from across the sector

Resources > Opportunities from across the sector

Date Posted: June 9, 2026

Currently open for applications

➡️ The ESRC Digital Good Network is commissioning an artwork or visualisation representing their research and findings. The artwork needs to be simple, engaging and effective at communicating to multiple audiences and will be displayed online, in physical exhibitions, in print and possibly elsewhere. Budget up to £40,000 available for final artwork. Online webinar and Q&A at 12.30 on Wednesday 10 June to answer questions.

Deadline: 1 July, 4pm for EOIs

➡️ Arts Council England‘s Developing your Creative Practice is open for applications. It’s a funding programme that supports you as an individual creative and cultural practitioner to focus on your career development.

Deadline: 2 July, 12 midday

➡️ Guardian Documentaries and arte.tv have joined forces on a new fund to support filmmakers making documentary shorts, exploring the theme of Democracy at Stake in Europe. One winning project will receive £10,000 in production funding, editorial and creative support from both organisations and distribution across Guardian and arte.tv platforms.

Deadline: 14 September

➡️ The VH AWARD supports emerging media artists who engage with the context of Asia. It seeks audiovisual screen-based artworks including video art, motion graphics, animation, games, or films that push the boundaries of audiovisual artworks to reflect on how we understand ourselves and one another. Successful applicants receive production grants, an online residency with Ars Electronica, and global exhibitions. This edition introduces a new “Honorary Mention” category and awards the Grand Prix winner an additional $30,000 grant.

Deadline: 21 July

➡️ RENDR is inviting digital artists, creative technologists, and immersive visionaries to submit their work for exhibition at RENDR Festival 2027. Promote your work as an artist, connect with industry professionals and exhibit your project. Travel and accommodation support available.

Deadline: 13 July

➡️ Arts Admin is inviting contemporary performance artists to apply for Artsadmin Lab 2026, a curated residency programme based at Toynbee Studios. It supports artists in the early stages of developing new work, offering time, space, and professional support to explore ideas without the pressure of producing a finished outcome. Financial support: £1,000

Opens: 20 June

Deadline: 14 July

➡️ Imaginarius 2027 will take place in Portugal – their open call is for national and international artists and organisations working across theatre, dance, music, circus, performance, installation, new media, and multidisciplinary in public spaces. Travel and subsistence support is available

Deadline: 30 July

➡️ The Artist Prize is a new £30,000 open art prize awarded to a single UK-based artist, alongside a solo exhibition at Firstsite in 2028. It celebrates artists from across the UK and is judged by curators from arts organisations across the country. All visual art mediums are welcome. £10+ entry fee applies.

Deadline: 8 July, 12 midday

➡️ Back in the Frame, a new six-month talent development programme from Reclaim The Frame supporting women and people of all marginalised genders returning to screen industries following a career break or other significant period away from professional progression.

Deadline: 6 July, 10am

➡️ Art Explora is an annual award supporting innovative audience engagement projects across all art forms and each year it provides cash awards (of €30,000 and above) to support the most innovative audience engagement projects across Europe.

Deadline: 26 June

➡️ Here’s a creative R&D residency programme is aimed at artists, creatives, technologists and small businesses in York and North Yorkshire who are working with extended reality technologies. Could you benefit from up to five days in the XR Stories immersive lab and expert support from their team of creative technicians and producers.

Deadline: 25 June, 5pm

➡️ The New Emergence Art Prize 2026 is an international open call for emerging artists. There is no set theme, and artists may submit work in any medium. 9 awards supporting artists through cash prizes, materials, mentoring and a residency opportunity.

Deadline: 3 August

➡️ The Doc Society is offering funding to support ambitious, independent feature documentary films and immersive projects intended for theatrical release, from both emerging talent and more established directors. Awarding funding between £5k – £150k.

Deadline: various

➡️ Campaign for the Arts is creating an Affiliate Photographer Network – contribute existing photography to support a national charity and receive an annual retainer of £600, retain full copyright of your work and be credited and/or tagged alongside featured artists/organisations/projects/venues.

Deadline: 1 July

➡️ Applications for the RTS Bursary Scheme are now open. Bursaries are awarded to students from low income backgrounds. All you have to do is demonstrate your passion for pursuing a career in television, film, digital content production or related media industries.

Deadline: 24 June

➡️ Applications to CPH:LAB are open! Submit your experimental media project and explore digital interactive technologies with CPH:DOX‘s talent development programme. Over several months, participants develop projects through workshops, peer exchange and mentorship from leading practitioners, with one intensive residential week together at the CPH:DOX headquarters in Copenhagen.

Deadline: 21 June

➡️ Alternative Classical maintains an arts funding hub, which lists funding opportunities for both individuals and organisations and is regularly updated. It also hosts classical music jobs and opportunities (including trustee roles, music admin positions, composing call-outs and more) that is regularly updated.

Deadline: various

➡️ Social Science Research Council’s Just Tech program invites applications from researchers, artists, and practitioners working at the intersection of technology and society for the 2027 Just Tech Fellowship. It provides a one-year unrestricted award of up to $60,000 to support research, creative practice, or community-engaged work.

Deadline: 28 June

➡️ The BFI Filmmaking fund is open, supporting original live action and animated feature filmmaking. Applicants can apply for:

Discovery feature funding – awards of up to £1,000,000 for projects with debut directors and a production budget up to £3,500,000

Impact feature funding – awards of up to £1,250,000 for projects with experienced and debut directors

Deadline: Round 2 of Discovery Fund opens on 1 July, Impact fund is a rolling basis.

➡️ BFI and British Council offers grants to help short and feature filmmakers, and XR creatives, travel to international events where their work is being presented.

Ongoing

➡️ Arts Council England‘s National Lottery Project Grants is an open access programme for arts, libraries and museums projects. It supports individual practitioners, community and cultural organisations.

➡️ Each month, art platform Creative Debuts awards a £500 grant to a UK-based Black artist.

Deadline: Rolling

➡️ The Grierson-Percy Documentary Grant is a new finishing fund for UK-based independent documentary filmmakers and production companies. For documentary films and series about political or international crises. It will cover essential finishing and/or additional shooting costs. Two-to-three grants ranging from £10,000 to £25,000 will be awarded. Info session and Q&A on 2 June from 6pm.

Deadline: 30 June, 5pm

➡️ Grand Plan offers grants of £1,000 to people of colour, aged over 18, living in the UK, looking to make a leap with their creative practice.

Deadline: Rolling

➡️ British Council can help you screen your feature film to selectors from the world’s major international film festivals and markets.

Ongoing

➡️ The Paul Hamlyn Foundation Migration Fund is open for applications. Supporting collaborations, alliances, and coalitions that build knowledge, solidarity, and power in our communities. For longer term projects funding of up to £60,000 per year (3 to 4 years) and £50,000 per year (5 years).

Deadline: Rolling

➡️ BFI Screen Heritage Fund is now open for applications, offering funding for projects, skills development and training provision to organisations, and a bursaries to those working, or looking to work in the screen heritage sector. Details: BFI National Lottery Screen Heritage Fund | BFI

Deadline: The BFI Screen Heritage Fund is open year-round, and applications are accepted on a rolling basis.

➡️ The UK Games Fund is offering grants between £50,000 – £150,000 for commercial games-for-entertainment content. Expressions of interest are open now.

➡️ Writing opportunities and events from the BBC and across the industry.

Deadline: Rolling

➡️ The BFI also offers National Lottery funding for various immersive, screen-based projects.

Deadline: Rolling

➡️ Ars Electronica and its partners are always on the lookout for creative minds who want to present their work to a wider audience. They have a number of open calls running at the moment.

Deadline: various

➡️ Lincoln Art Centre want to nurture and inspire the next generation of artists or artistic ideas. They are ‘Open to Ideas’ – Submit your idea or work.

➡️ Support is available from Creative UK for companies working in moving image for storytelling, film, TV, games, animation and immersive industries. Organisations can apply for grants up to £2,500 to work with specialists on strategy, marketing, IP or monetisation.

Midlands opportunities

➡️ Eastside Projects and Birmingham School of Art invite applications from visual artists to be the ninth Incidental Artist, supported by a Wheatley Fine Art Fellowship. Artist fee (£10k) and production budget (up to £10k) available.

Deadline: 12 July, midnight

➡️ Warwick Arts Centre will support up to three Coventry or Midlands-based artists or collectives with £2,500 seed funding and space to develop new work around the theme of home.

Deadline: 24 June, 12 midday

➡️ The Birmingham Open Art Competition is accepting entries. The 2026 theme is ‘Birmingham’ and emerging artists are invited to respond to the theme in whatever way feels most meaningful to them. Prizes include a £2,000 cash prize for the overall winner.

Deadline: 19 June

➡️ BOM will be running an Immersive Arts Bootcamp. The 12-week bootcamp focuses on live, immersive performance and participants can apply the new skills learnt to their own live experiences.

Deadline: October

➡️ Midlands Arts Centre (mac) are inviting West Midlands-based artists to create works for a family art trail – Surreal Creatures, taking place at MAC in autumn 2026. MAC will commission six artists, each creating two works. A total fee of £1,000 per artist is available.

Deadline: 24 June

➡️ GirlGrind is looking for talent to feature in Who I Am, Where I Am—a documentary-style campaign celebrating the stories, music, and creative journeys of artists shaping the region’s culture.

➡️ Shout Festival is looking to expand its network and connect with LGBTQ+ Brummie photographers, content creators and videographers to support our future projects.

No deadline

➡️ CWX – Coventry and Warwickshire Exchange connects visionary businesses, ambitious entrepreneurs, and talented creatives across Coventry & Warwickshire. Take a look at their upcoming events.

➡️ Art_Reach has launched INC, a new Impact Network for Creatives, offering a wide range of funded development and training opportunities for creatives and cultural workers, makers or artists in Leicester.

➡️ A database of support for creative freelancers from West Midlands Combined Authority.

Events and Conferences: sign up to attend

➡️ 10 – 12 June – Birmingham Design Festival – Birmingham

➡️ 15 – 17 July – AMA Conference, Together – Leeds

Resources

➡️ BRAID (Bridging Responsible AI Design) has launched a free online course to help SMEs make informed, responsible decisions about designing and using AI. The course is aimed at small businesses, micro‑enterprises, and start‑ups adopting AI for the first time.

➡️ AI Tools with Andrew Davis – designed to save you time, boost creativity and keep you ahead of the competition.

➡️ Arts Council England has created a toolkit made up of seven guides to help you take a thoughtful and collaborative approach to building AI policies and practices that match your organisation’s purpose.

➡️ Creative AI lab is a collaboration between Kings College and Serpentine that aggregates tools and resources for artists, designers, engineers, curators & researchers interested in incorporating machine learning (ML) and other forms of artificial intelligence (AI) into their practice.

➡️ A machine learning emmissions calculator.

➡️ A great resource from Unlimited – Top tips to help arts organisations make recruitment and employment more accessible.

➡️ Freelance writer Kaitlin Arford compiles a bunch of freelance opportunities.

➡️ Thinking of earning money from your content? We’ve produced a guide on what to consider when publishing your cultural content online. It examines platforms, licensing, subscriptions and great case studies from those who have made it work.

➡️ Bianca Gavin has compiled a directory of Arts, Film & TV organisations and contacts working for better diversity and inclusion in the creative industries.

➡️ Julie’s Bicycle has compiled a Creative Climate Justice Hub – a dynamic library of climate justice resources curated for the arts and culture community.

➡️ ScreenUK Industry has published a UK Producers Co-Production Directory to help find producing partners. Filter by the UK producer’s region(s) of interest

➡️ A range of filmmaking toolkits and resources from the BFI Network.

➡️ Immersive Experience Network have produced an Immersive Audience Report.