International call for next New Forest National Park Artists in Residence

International call for next New Forest National Park Artists in Residence

Arts charity SPUD and the New Forest National Park Authority have announced the next round of artist residencies are open to applications worldwide.

The New Forest National Park Artist in Residence Programme is an opportunity for artists of any discipline to work with and comment on a chosen area, idea, or community within or engaging with the New Forest.

The brief is deliberately open to encourage artists to build closer links between people and the National Park.

Expressions of interest are invited for the next two residencies. The first will take place throughout October 2024 with the exhibition in May 2025. The second will run from 5 May to 2 June 2025 and will exhibit in October of that year.

Director of SPUD, Mark Drury said: ‘We are delighted to be launching our next international call for artists, in partnership with the New Forest National Park Authority.

‘This is an incredible opportunity for artists of all disciplines and media to apply and respond to the very special qualities of the New Forest.’

New Forest NPA Access and Learning Manager, Jim Mitchell said: ‘It’s exciting that artists from potentially anywhere in the world may come to the Forest, possibly even for the first time, and be influenced and inspired by it.

‘The programme was only made possible thanks to public funding from the National Lottery through Arts Council England.’

Current Artist in Residence Alex Julyan will exhibit ‘Grand Designs’ next month, focusing on elements of den building. Alex stayed in the Forest in October 2023 and, in a first for a National Park residency, mentored another artist, Ben Adamson during that time. You can read more about Alex’s time in the New Forest here.

Ben will also exhibit in May in SpudWORKS ‘Living Room’ space, which won ‘Best Non-Residential Building’ in this year’s New Forest National Park Authority Building Design Awards. During this time, Jasper Rouwen will be taking up residency and will exhibit in October. Jasper currently lives and works in Amsterdam and through his art explores extraordinary moments in everyday life, or ‘mundane madness’ as he describes.

The new residencies will be the third and fourth main artists out of six over a three-year period.

Find out about the work of previous artists in residence and how to apply at: https://www.spud.org.uk/newforestartistinresidence