Guidance notes for residency applicants

We only accept applicants in response to an open call. Each open call responds to an area of the collections or a specific theme/medium.

The Adobe Creative Residency at the V&A is a new, fresh approach to bring making into the museum. This programme will enable the museum to employ three full-time residents, five days a week for 12 months. Each resident will work with a designated audience to bring creativity, design and making to diverse audiences. Embedded within the V&A learning team, residents will commit half their time to developing engaging programming across the V&A sites around their craft, this will include V&A South Kensington, Young V&A, and V&A East. New residents will play a key role in the expansion of the V&A's public programming efforts. Residents will also work with local communities across the UK to create a new model of programming outside the museum to build and sustain links with underserved communities. Additionally, each resident will receive studio space, mentorship, resources, access to the museum's resources and staff expertise. Their work will be featured in a six-month display at the close of their residency.

All our residents are audience-focused. We aim for you to draw from our collections to inspire careers in the creative industries as well as future design and artistic practice. You will be expected to work actively with visitors through educational activities, as well as develop your personal practice. Each open call will identify a core audience that we’re keen for you to work with: schools, families or young people. You can see the extent of the V&A's Learning Programmes on our website. Residents will be expected to commit half their time to developing engaging programming around their craft across the V&A sites with the V&A learning team.

Residents are also required to open their studio to the public or show their work in progress to visitors in the galleries through open studio events. If you don't enjoy working with the public and are not comfortable sharing your work in progress, then this residency programme is probably not for you. However, many of our alumni comment about the value of this experience, encouraging them to become more confident and articulate in describing their work and sharing ideas with a variety of audiences.

Our open calls ask for specific art, design, or performance disciplines, although we sometimes might open a theme more widely to multidisciplinary practitioners. We recognise you might have an interdisciplinary approach to making, but it should be clear that your overriding practice meets the expectations of the open call.

Our residencies are aimed at early to mid-career UK-based artists and designers who have worked independently and have substantial experience working within their discipline. The V&A is a large institution, and we want you to make the most out of your residency, so practitioners need to be self-motivated and proactive individuals with a collaborative and mature approach to their work and others.

Bringing wide-ranging and diverse voices into the museum is a cornerstone of the programme. As such, there are no degree requirements to make an application and we're open to hear from practitioners without formal training or conventional avenues into their career, but you do have to be 18 years or over to apply and have the legal right to work in the UK.

The Adobe Creative Residency is a full-time commitment for 12 months, with half of your week dedicated to developing your creative practice and half to supporting the Learning Department as a creative consultant of programmes and delivery. We recognise there will be busier periods for learning and busier periods for your practice, but it should work out to an equal split overall. We also recognise there may be the need for hybrid working at times, and we are willing to discuss your needs, but we encourage residents to embed themselves into the museum for the duration of their residency. For these residencies you will be employed by the V&A with 29 days paid holiday, plus bank holidays. There will be some weekend work for planned open studio events or to lead learning activities with time off in lieu granted for these events. You will also commit to creating a relevant piece or pieces for the residency display based on your work the V&A.

No. Unfortunately, this residency is only for people based in the UK. You must already have the legal right to work in the UK to participate in the Adobe Creative Residency at the V&A.

You would need to make the full-time commitment over the 12 months of the residency. We cannot contribute to any living costs, including accommodation in central London, subsistence, and travel costs to and from your usual working location and the museum. At the V&A South Kensington, we have studio spaces that we assign to specific open calls. In our Learning Centre for Arts Education, we have two studio spaces for interdisciplinary practice, and we also have a specialist studio embedded in the Ceramics galleries. Residents can work in their studio all week (including weekends) between 07.00 – 19.00.

At the end of the 12-month residency, the cohort of three residents will show their work together in a free display at the V&A South Kensington for around 6 months. Residents are required to make a piece(s) for display based on their work at the V&A. Residents will work with curators and V&A staff to meet relevant deadlines and requirements for the display.

While most residents might have equipment that they generally use for their day to day practice, we do have an allocated budget for residency materials and additional equipment that is allocated to the individual needs of each residency, in conversation with the residencies team.

The V&A is currently only recruiting for residents that are practicing in the areas of the open call. The annual open calls will be announced in May. Please follow V&A social media and check the residencies page for announcements.

Our open call process is hosted through the platform Award Force.

There are four stages:

Stage One

At Stage One, please complete a brief expression of interest via a short form on the V&A Residency Programme Awards Force Platform:

British Sign Language users are welcome to email a filmed expression of interest to residencyprogramme@vam.ac.uk, please see the open calls in British Sign Language for further information.

At this stage of the application, we want to:

These will be shortlisted to around 20 applications by the V&A Residencies team to go to the second stage. Unfortunately, we will not be able to offer any feedback on Stage One applications.

Shortlisted Applicants will be notified by the end of the day on Monday 22 July 2024 and invited to Stage Two.

Stage Two

Applicants at this stage will be invited to develop a short proposal for their residency, more details will be shared with those successful. Successful entrants at this stage will be invited to interviews held the week commencing Monday 9 September 2024.

Unfortunately we cannot advise or provide feedback on your ideas or application, but we encourage those interested to visit our What's On page and attend a residency information session ahead of applying. These are held both in-person or online during open call periods. For some inspiration, look at our past residencies YouTube playlist to see what work our alumni residents did during their residency.

We don't have a mailing list for open calls, so we encourage you to follow V&A social media and check the residencies page for new open call announcements.

Read through the open call and think which theme and specific audience focus you want to explore (schools, families or young people).

Look on Explore the Collections to find what interests you.

Read our Learn page to see what audiences we engage with and think about the audience specified in the open call.

When the Award Force application process is live, read through the application questions. Spend time drafting your responses before you submit. We recommend drafting in an offline document in case of any internet issues.

We ask for a link to an online portfolio or a selection of images of your work. Be selective and only share with us work related to the open call that shows your suitability for the residency.

For more information about our residencies, open call, open studios, news and alumni, visit our residencies page.

If we haven't addressed a question you may have, please feel free to email: residencyprogramme@vam.ac.uk