Whitstable Biennale is a festival of contemporary visual art. We commission ambitious and experimental work, focusing on film and performance. We are inviting proposals for a new work to be part of the programme of our next festival, which will be held in June 2018.

Our curators will select one work from this open call. The artist will receive a budget of £1500, inclusive of fees and materials. We will provide equipment and installation support (within reason!). Proposals must realistically reflect this budget.

There is no fixed format for proposals. The festival will take place over ten consecutive days in June 2018. Works include one-off performances and screenings, together with installations and exhibitions that are open throughout the festival. Have a look at our developing online archive to see the type of work we have commissioned in the past. Artists previously selected from the open call include Sarah Wood, Louisa Martin, Rachel Reupke, Oreet Ashery, and Mike Chavez-Dawson.

Proposals can be for fully developed projects that haven’t been shown before, but we are also keen to see early ideas, still in development. We don’t have many traditional venues, so ideas need to be adaptable (we have access to a variety of indoor and outdoor spaces) or specifically planned with knowledge of Whitstable.

Please email us no more than 1 page of A4 outlining your idea. If you would like to submit supporting material, you are welcome to send a 1 page CV, and images (preferably jpeg) or short film/film excerpt (no more than 5 mins, please. You are free also to link to longer works). The festival curators will select one proposal from all entries.

Please include with your proposal your name, email, postal address, and telephone number.

Deadline for submissions: 10am Monday 2 October 2017
Email proposals to: info@whitstablebiennale.com