About the residency
Exploring place through painting and its expanded field. A new international collaboration between Camberwell College of Arts, University of the Arts London and the Italian Cultural Institute in London.
Who is the residency for
Early-career Italian artists under the age of 40, currently living and working in Italy. You must have an expanded painting practice, which may incorporate mediums such as film, performance, installation, print and technology.
Residency dates
Monday 2 November to Friday 27 November 2026.
What the residency offers
4 weeks in London at Camberwell College of Arts. The opportunity to develop a new body of work that responds to the locality and theme of place in a studio setting, with time to focus on developing your practice. This is an opportunity to work with the local community to develop work at scale.
What we expect from you
- To create a new body of work that responds to the theme of ‘place’.
- Use Camberwell Space at least 3 days a week as a working studio – we want you to feel comfortable and able to experiment and work with materials, process, scale etc. (Please note, Camberwell College of Arts is open from Monday to Friday: 8am to 9pm, Saturday: 10am to 6pm, Sunday: Closed).
- Engage with students, academics and artists at the College through 1 or more artist talks in collaboration with the Fine Art team.
- Work with the university’s public engagement team to identify appropriate opportunities to work with the local community.
- Run at least 1 practical workshop or exchange with local young people living in Camberwell/Peckham.
- Present the work through a final event, open studio or work-in-progress show at Camberwell Space during the residency.
- Participate in an evaluation of the residency.
Residency theme: Place
Place is a key concern for our work
At Camberwell College of Arts, we think about social responsibility and have strong connections with the local neighbourhood and arts ecosystem. Camberwell and Peckham are diverse and culturally rich. Peckham is home to 1 of the largest Nigerian diaspora communities in the UK. Elephant and Castle hosts London’s second largest Latin American communities. In the borough more widely over 120 languages are spoken.
Your response to place
We ask you to respond to, critically engage with and explore place broadly. You might want to think about the following themes: people, relationships, culture, shared local and global histories and traditions, identity, belonging and transnational exchange within the city.
We encourage you to consider:
- How place can be a site of struggle where different groups negotiate power versus a melting pot where diverse people and cultures mix.
- How language shapes cultural identity.
- Oral histories, stories and collective memories.
- Regeneration (a holistic process of improving a neighbourhood's physical, economic, and social conditions) versus gentrification (a specific, often negative, outcome of regeneration where new, wealthier residents move in, displacing lower-income residents, leading to cultural shifts, increased costs and changing the area's character.)
- What it means to be an international artist coming into a community for a short-term period. How might that shape interactions and encounters with the people there.
- Community engagement and the importance of relationship building.
What the residency provides
Artist fee
£2,000 (this fee includes travel, visa costs and subsistence, 1 x student focused delivery e.g. artist talk and 1 x public activities/workshop).
Flights
£600 (round trip flights).
Accommodation
2-bedroom flat with kitchen in central Pimlico location of Chelsea College of Arts UAL (in kind value of £2,500 based on Airbnb research, 30 min bus ride from Camberwell and 5 min walk from tube station).
Free studio space
Free studio at Camberwell Space for 4-weeks (approximately 98m2, in kind value of £1-1,750 based on UAL room hire rates).
Production costs
£1,400 (to cover material and production costs resulting from the residency).
Public events and activity costs
£3,400 (to cover workshop/event materials, refreshments, event staffing, photography and final event/open studio/work-in-progress show).
Mentoring and resources
Curatorial and networking support from the Fine Art team within UAL and London; opportunity to engage with UAL PhD and researchers, practitioners and students; access to UAL Library.
Support from the Public Engagement team
To include regular check-ins and mentoring sessions to support you with the ‘Place’ brief and engagement with public audiences and the local community.
Key dates
Residency dates
2 November – 27 November 2026
Applications open
Monday 20 April 2026
Application deadline
Monday 18 May 2026, 9am
Shortlisted applicants contacted
Week of 25 May 2026
Shortlisted applicants interview
Week of 1 June 2026
Residency artist selected
Week of 8 June 2026
How to apply
Person specification
UAL are committed to creating opportunities that are accessible to all. We particularly welcome applicants from diverse backgrounds, including race, disability, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion and belief, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, and those with caring responsibilities.
Essential:
- Artists who make paintings or work with ‘expanded painting’ in their practice (e.g. artworks that might push the medium of painting beyond its traditional boundaries and could incorporate other mediums such as film, performance, installation, print, technology, social engagement and those working at scale).
- Proficient in the English language.
- Practising for at least 5 years. For example, 5 years since graduating art school or equivalent.
- Experience of planning and delivering events with public audiences.
- Awareness of issues facing communities that inhibit or prevent their access to art and/or design.
- Good communication, interpersonal and facilitation skills (experience of working with children and young people to deliver creative activity.)
- Ability to think and plan creatively and critically.
Eligibility
- Applicants must be able to demonstrate they are an Italian national, based in Italy, 18-40 years old.
- Applications will not be accepted from any current employee of the promoting institutions, nor from those that have taken part in drafting or issuing this open-call or, more generally, in organising the project.
- The selected artist must not be in any situation of legal incapacity and not have any criminal convictions, nor any pending charges established in accordance with the law.
Application procedure
Please send your application in written form.
Maximum 1000-word covering letter and 2-page CV.
This should include:
- Project title.
- Outline of proposed project and response to the theme of ‘Place’.
- How would you approach engaging with the local community?
- Why are you applying for this residency in London and how do you think it will benefit your art practice?
- What you think you will gain from the creative community at Camberwell College of Arts? What do you think you could offer?
- A short statement about your practice.
- How do you plan to use the studio during your award?
- Have you already visited London?
- Images of previous works, with titles, maximum 12 (links to your website or social media accounts if relevant)
- A maximum 2-page CV including summary of Higher/Further Education, exhibitions, awards, prizes and publications; other professional experience; indication of whether you can speak/read English and 2 referees.
Submit your application with the subject line: ‘Italian Artist Residency’ via email to: community.engagement@arts.ac.uk
Formats
- Title any files with your full name, followed by ‘Italian Artist Residency’.
- Written: 1 x PDF file of no more than 20MB in size, including contact information for 2 referees.
- Please do not send additional physical and electronic materials in support of your application, as it cannot be reviewed. It is also not possible to return any such materials to you.
Selection criteria
Applications will be assessed using the following criteria:
- Quality of the applicant’s creative outputs/portfolio.
- The extent to which the applicant’s proposal reflects the purpose and concept of the award, its theme of ‘place’ and requirements.
- The extent to which the proposal responds to, critically engages and connects with the local area and population.
- Viability of the proposal as a project to be carried out at Camberwell College of Arts.