Abu Dhabi-based Warehouse421, the home-grown arts and design center dedicated to showcasing and nurturing creative production across the region, has announced the Open Calls for 2022, including Artistic Research Grant, Artistic Development Exhibition Program, and Internship Program, all designed to support emerging practitioners in the MENASA region.

The programs target creative practitioners and professionals from within the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia regions and who demonstrate a commitment to their chosen creative field.

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The Outreach, an online mentorship workshop will be launched by Warehouse421, headed by Mo Reda.

The workshop aims to provide a personally curated experience to participating artists, assisting them in identifying what steps can be taken to move forward with their chosen career.
“The announcement of the open calls remains an integral part of our work to support the creative community. Warehouse421's mission continues to ensure the availability of opportunities for our region’s creatives to contribute effectively to the development of the arts and cultural landscape here.” said Faisal Al Hassan, Head of Warehouse421.
“Our invitation extends to all creators from The Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia countries to explore our programs, apply for the opportunity to learn and create with a group of leading cultural practitioners, and possibly showcase and exhibit their works at Warehouse421,” Al Hassan added.

Warehouse421 Internship Program

The Internship Program offers internship opportunities for emerging-creative professionals from diverse backgrounds, providing professional preparation and career development to committed professionals in their early careers. These opportunities will provide insight into career paths and future opportunities.

The internship can be structured to follow college requirements, or be tailored for a longer-term engagement for young graduates and art professionals. It can be designed to be remote or on-site, and can be undertaken for college credit. The internship will offer the opportunity to be immersed in a cultural center's operations across various departments with a targeted focus on a specific field.

Depending on the selected area of focus as well as Warehouse421’s needs, interns would work with the Head of Warehouse421, Programs Manager, Education Manager, or Operation Manager.

Interested interns can apply before March 6, 2022.

Artistic research grant

The Artistic Research Grant program aims to support emerging artists from Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia regions, and supports practice-based research investigating new social questions through interdisciplinary methodologies.

Creative practitioners can work through disciplines including but not limited to visual art and curations, design and technology, literary arts, culinary arts, music, theater, and performance. Warehouse421 will award the grantees a budget up to AED75,000 to support their research and project.

Interested applicants can apply until March 13, 2022.

The grant targets topics that investigate the intersections of these disciplines with social and cultural issues, such as communal and public spaces, languages and linguistics, transportation and mobility systems, urbanity and its social and cultural fabric, economics and migration, and art institutions and ecosystems.

The Artistic Research Grant aims to support a rigorous inquiry and in-depth artistic research across multiple disciplines by focusing on the arts and pushing for more substantial engagement between creative practitioners and their communities across the region. The grant will privilege proposals that prioritize the free-flowing research questioning overproduction.

The Grant will support social inquiry in creative disciplines. Practitioners whose research methodology is tactile and experiential, including material experimentation alongside community engagement, and whose outcomes extend beyond contributing to academia to include experiences, accessible content, and experiential artworks, are especially encouraged to apply.

Furthermore, Grantees are required to produce a textual outcome detailing the research process. They are encouraged to conceive other formats of research expression as part of the grant’s purpose to promote wider dissemination of knowledge. Research applications can include but are not limited to performances, school or public programming, symposia, or exhibitions.

The full application, including all supplemental materials, must be submitted online by March 13, 2022.

Artistic Development Exhibition program

In collaboration with The Institute for Emerging Art, Warehouse421 launches its Artistic Development Exhibition Program, an exhibition process that emphasizes the professional and creative development of participating creative practitioners.

The program is open to UAE-based early-to-mid career creative practitioners and successful applicants will be awarded with a AED10,000 participation fee, a AED24,000 production fee, in addition to a solo exhibition.

This program aims to provide opportunities to UAE-based artists with rigorous and sustained practices. It will also encourage artists to think deeply about the reception of their work in a public institution and the connection, communication, and multidimensional interaction with their communities.

Two selected artists will be supported by experienced art educators, interlocutors, and/or curators of their choice to sustain an ongoing dialogue through this process, supported by scheduled group-crits and discussion circles.

With this support, the artists will develop their exhibition from the ideation stage all through to the installation of artworks, production of textual material, and the public engagement program.

The realization and production of their projects will be exhibited at Warehouse421 in 2023.

The full application, including all supplemental materials, must be submitted online and the deadline for is April 3, 2022.

Warehouse421 is also announcing The Outreach workshop, a professional mentorship workshop by Mo Reda, this program will provide participants of all levels and backgrounds with the opportunity to reorient their creative practice in preparation for applying to a variety of programs, grants, or publications.
The application is open to artists in neophyte stages of their careers, including those who haven’t launched their practice yet. The deadline for submitting the applications is February 15, 2022.

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