Artist Open Call: ArtBomb Commissions 2026
- ArtBomb
- Nov 17
- 4 min read
Updated: 2 days ago
Applications are now open for proposals from artists for two upcoming commissions at ArtBomb. Deadline: 5pm Sunday 4 January 2026 [EXTENDED DEADLINE*]
*Please note that each document states that the deadline for applications is Sunday 14th December 2025. This has now been extended by 3 weeks to Sunday 4 January 2026.
ArtBomb is accepting applications for two new commissions as part of the 2026 ArtBomb Residency programme: Rethinking Migration (Commission 1) and Arts & Homelessness (Commission 2). Each commission will take the form of a residency, consisting of an extended research period beginning in February and working towards a final public sharing of work in June-July 2026.
About ArtBomb's Commissioning
ArtBomb is an evolving creative platform for high quality, experimental and socially engaged works with a political edge, by artists at different stages in their career. Part civic experiment, part artistic intervention, we use our creative lab to subvert public expectations of the high street, showcasing cutting edge art which lands in the public consciousness with maximum impact. ArtBomb is also the driving force behind ArtBomb Festival, an event which animates the city with powerful installations, performances and provocations.
Our year-round residency programme invites artists to inhabit the ArtBomb shop over several weeks. Floor-to-ceiling windows offer nowhere to hide, inviting passers-by to witness artists working in progress. Our transparent and participatory approach to creative practice aims to promote meaningful, honest debate between strangers, and encourages audiences to be part of a creative movement for positive change.
Our 2026 commissioning emerges out of the urgent global themes explored at ArtBomb Festival 2025 (15-17 August) and is grounded in the socio-political context of Doncaster, a city home to repeat rough sleepers, asylum seekers and economic migrants seeking to integrate into daily life.
Rethinking Migration, our first commission, is delivered in partnership with Don Catchment Rivers Trust, CAST, and Changing Lives.
We are seeking an artist or artist collective based in the South Yorkshire region to work collaboratively with our partner organisations and with members of the public — particularly those in transit, migrants, asylum seekers and refugees in Doncaster. We actively encourage applications from artists who identify as migrant or asylum seeker themselves, who feel their voices are currently under-represented in the arts, or who may have experience of collaborating with people who have lived experience of migration, marginalisation and displacement.
Themes might be inspired by ideas of home, animal life, diaspora, food, plants (indigenous and introduced), nomadism, and human purpose, through creative exploration of place, refuge, humans in motion and paths of migration. We expect there to be a public artwork or artistic outcome (in any form or medium) by the end of the process.
For more information on what we're looking for and how to apply, please visit Apply for Rethinking Migration. This will take you to downloadable PDF, which includes extended detail about the commission background, research opportunities, the support we can offer, eligibility and key deadlines.
Arts & Homelessness, our second commission, is developed in partnership with Trussell Trust, Changing Lives, Project 6, CAST and Doncaster City Councils Rough Sleeper Team.
This commission aims to engage people experiencing or at risk of homelessness, exploring themes of security, precarity, self-worth and belonging through creativity. Artists are encouraged to create work collaboratively with communities in multimedia forms, such as (but not exclusive to) painting, street art, performance, video, or spoken word.
We see homelessness as a social condition affecting everyone, revealing the fragile boundaries between security and precarity. There are many definitions of “homelessness”: from rough sleeping on the street or in emergency accommodation, to what one participant dubbed “posh homelessness”- sofa surfing or car camping. We invite artists to reflect on how we reconcile such complex issues as homelessness with a society distracted by hyper-productivity, individualism and aspiration.
Please note that for this commission, we are looking for an artist(s) living and/or working in Doncaster. For more information on what we're looking for and how to apply, please visit Apply for Arts & Homelessness.
How to Apply
Each of the links Apply for Arts & Homelessness and Apply for Rethinking Migration will take you to downloadable PDF, which includes extended detail about the commission background, research opportunities, the support we can offer, eligibility and key deadlines.
Please read this document carefully and submit your proposal to admin@artbombuk.com by 5pm on Sunday 4th January 2026.
If your particular circumstances or access needs mean that the application process is inaccessible to you, please let us know via email and we will do our best to facilitate your proposal in another format.
If you wish to apply for both commissions, please make two separate proposals. Please note that we cannot award both commissions to any one applicant.
All proposals will be treated equally and no favour will be given to production quality or how you apply .
We are currently a small, part time team. If you have questions about making a proposal, please contact admin@artbombuk.com and we will try to respond to you within 3 days.
