Announcing the open call for the Winter Residencies and the Dreamtime Fellowship
Posted on Thu 28 Aug
Announcing two opportunities for artists working with creative technology: the Winter Residencies 2025–2027 and the Dreamtime Fellowship 2026.
These two programmes are opportunities for artists to develop, experience and be supported to develop bold new ideas at the intersection of art and technology. Whether you’re interested in exploring the theme of If These Walls Could Talk through the Winter Residencies, or you are looking to push forward your practice in the public domain through the Dreamtime Fellowship, we’d love to hear from you.
About the Winter Residencies
The Winter Residencies 2025–2027 will support four UK-based creative practitioners to develop early-stage ideas focused on the theme If These Walls Could Talk. We want to explore the stories embedded in the spaces we inhabit — the layers of presence that accumulate in our homes and shared spaces. Each of the four residencies comes with a structured programme, financial, technical, and critical support.
There are four residences available with the choice of two tracks:
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Track 1: Is our focussed track offering two residencies with a development period between Feb - March 2026.
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Track 2: Is our flexible track offering two residencies with a development period between March 2026 - Feb 2027.
Martin O'Leary Studio Lead says:
"We're excited to support artistic work that engages with the hidden stories of our homes, and the way we build a sense of place in our lives. We want to think about what it means to live in a space together, and how the pasts and futures of our environments work together to build our present. Most of all, we want to support artists to explore the parts of these ideas that excite them, as part of our community of artists, makers, and researchers."
About the Dreamtime Fellowship 2026
The Dreamtime Fellowship 2026 is a new opportunity initiated and fully funded by Bristol-based artist Luke Jerram through the Jerram Foundation. The Fellowship offers space, time, financial support and resources for a mid-career Bristol artist to take their practice to the next level.
Focusing on public realm artwork that involves technology, the Fellowship provides a year of support to research, test and develop ambitious new work. Alongside tailored guidance from Watershed, the Fellow will receive mentoring directly from Luke Jerram, building on his own experience of making art that travels the world while being rooted in Bristol.
Luke Jerram Founder of Jerram Foundation says:
“Having had the support of Watershed and the Pervasive Media Studio many years ago, it’s a privilege to now be able to support the next generation of artists arriving on the scene in Bristol.”
How to apply
The deadline for the Winter Residences is Wed 1 Oct 2025, 10:00 and the deadline for the Dreamtime Fellowship is Wed 15 Oct 2025, 10:00.
To find out more and apply please head over to our jobs and opportunities page.
About the funders
Watershed’s Artist Residencies are made possible with support from Arts Council England. Our Artist Residencies are additionally supported by our partners in Pervasive Media Studio, UWE Bristol and University of Bristol.
The Dreamtime Fellowship is initiated and fully funded by the Jerram Foundation, and delivered in partnership with Watershed and Pervasive Media Studio.