New Forest National Park Artist in Residence Programme

The New Forest National Park Authority and SPUD are working together in partnership to deliver a programme of artist residencies and accompanying exhibitions focused on the New Forest.

The arts are integral to our understanding of landscape. We want to work with inspiring and inspired artists to think in different ways about landscapes, how people interact with them, and the challenges that they face. This new National Park Artist in Residence programme aims to develop a creative partnership between the arts and people that work, live, and visit the New Forest, and showcase that to new audiences.

Aims:

Our aim is to work with and support artists to explore five key areas that are crucial in helping to secure the future of the New Forest National Park:

• Nature Recovery – habitats are restored, expanded, and maintained to enable wildlife to thrive, both within and around the National Park
• Net Zero with Nature – significant cuts in land-based carbon emissions are secured through restoring natural habitats and carbon capture
• Thriving Forest – a living, working Forest is sustained through support for commoning, local produce, sustainable tourism, access to affordable homes and helping to attract high-value businesses and employees
• An inclusive National Park – people within reach of the New Forest, of all backgrounds, abilities and socio-economic groups, value the National Park as an important part of their lives and seek to care for it
• Team New Forest – communities, businesses and organisations work together as a team to deliver the vision of the Partnership Plan, sharing knowledge, ideas, and resources to deliver the best for the Forest.

Artists are able to showcase their work through a month-long exhibition at spudWORKS in Sway as well as a virtual gallery space to help bring the work to a wider audience and encourage collaboration.

The residency programme provides closer links between artists and the people and spaces that make up the New Forest National Park beyond the usual things that people might see. The highly protected nature of the National Park means that we are interested in artists who can work sensitively within these restrictions and respond to this positively in their work. This is an incredible opportunity to build a collection of artists whose knowledge and experience can help to positively promote arts throughout the National Park.

The Brief:

Artists from all disciplines are invited to submit expressions of interest to undertake a paid residency. We are looking for artists with a clear direction in their personal practice.

Each residency will deliver:

• A final exhibition/event (approximately six months after the residency at spudWORKS).
• Engagement with new and existing audiences to make work inclusive and accessible.
• Delivery of at least one public talk during the residency period.
• Engagement with at least one education event, supported in partnership with the New Forest National Park Authority.
• SPUD will provide digital webspace at spud.org.uk to promote each artist’s residency and encourage collaboration amongst artists. SPUD also has an active community of artists at spudWORKS and the resident artists will be invited to take part in this group.

The residency is open to artists or makers working in any medium, visual arts, crafts, performing arts, writing, film, video, or digital media.

Artists in Residence:

So far there have been seven National Park Artists in Residence, generously funded by Arts Council England. You can find out more about them here. 

Applications for the next two residency opportunities (starting Oct 2025 and May 2026) have now closed. 

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For more general information on spudWORKS and the Residency Space visit: https://www.spud.org.uk/newforestartistinresidence