We welcome submissions from UK-based emerging or early career artists (aged 21 or above, with no upper age limit) who are within the first 7 years of their professional practice.
Our full eligibility criteria is here.
We strive to be an organisation that is reflective of the diverse contemporary society we serve. We are keen to hear from artists who are currently underrepresented in the sector due to the experience of barriers linked to ethnicity, class, disability, gender and sexuality.
From this year on, the artist’s submission will not be anonymised with selectors having access to name, location, and any other information provided by the artist. As a national organisation, we want to be representative of all the UK and are encouraging artists who are based in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales to apply.
We also actively encourage artists and practices that have not been historically represented in our programme to send us their work for consideration.
Being selected for our programme includes:
- Exhibiting as part of our exhibitions at South London Gallery and MIMA. Selected artists are offered an artist’s fee, travel and accommodation costs for the openings of both exhibitions and access support where required.
- Participating in New Contemporaries Artist Development Programme, which includes 1 to 1 mentoring; Peer Networking Sessions; Workshops, Talks and other artist development opportunities.
- Being eligible, as NC alumni, for Studio Bursaries, Residencies, Fellowships, Scholarships and other opportunities;
- Being part of an illustrious alumni that spans over 75 years, including: Rebecca Ackroyd, Frank Auerbach, Frank Bowling, Stuart Brisley, Patrick Caulfield, Helen Chadwick, Monster Chetwynd, Kara Chin, Tacita Dean, Sunil Gupta, Mona Hatoum, Damien Hirst, David Hockney, Derek Jarman, Bruce Lacey, Mark Leckey, Rachel Maclean, Haroon Mirza, Chris Ofili, Hardeep Pandhal, Laure Prouvost, Paula Rego, Maryam Tafakory, Rosa Uddoh Johan, Gillian Wearing, Michaela Yearwood-Dan, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye and many others.
To apply, works should be submitted through our submission website between application dates. There is a £25 submission fee. The fee is non-refundable and is to be paid through PayPal on the submission site. This fee directly funds the artist development programme which includes one-to-one mentoring for each selected artist, a fee for participating in the programme including travel and accommodation, access to a programme of workshops and networking opportunities and access support where required.
Artists must be based in the UK and all works must be available for collection and return from a UK address.
Please note the full eligibility is criteria listed here.
