From jobs, residencies and open calls: here is an updated list of opportunities this January 2023 for artists, writers, and creatives.
For more consistent updates visit our opportunities page here.
Open Calls
The Amex ZA Graphic Arts Challenge
American Express has launched an arts initiative in South Africa that celebrates the vibrancy of Africa and the welcoming spirit that South Africans are known for.
The challenge asks applicants to create a graphic pattern that creatively responds to the theme “The vibrant African marketplace – everyone’s welcome”. American Express will choose up to five winning works, which will then appear on posters and signage at merchants who accept American Express cards.
Each winner will receive R100 000 and have their work publicly exhibited at the Keyes Art Mile in Rosebank, Johannesburg.
To start the entry process, register here.
You’ll receive an email with all the guidelines, rules and T&Cs required to enter.
Deadline: 31 January
JIAS Creative Writing Workshop
The Johannesburg Institute for Advanced Study (JIAS) invites applications from emerging African creative writers for its Second Annual Writers’ Workshop.
From 1 August to 31 October 2023, JIAS will host a group of promising African creative writers. The workshop will be a writing-intensive, three-month program for early career writers who have a current work in progress that they would like to complete or polish. Each writer will focus on her/his/their individual work as well as read others’ work and provide feedback. Writers will greatly benefit from the supportive structure that a writers’ workshop creates.
The JIAS Writers’ Workshop is open to African writers who work in Fiction (long and short form), Creative Non-Fiction, Playwriting, Screenwriting, and Poetry. Workshop participants will be mentored by accomplished, critically-acclaimed, and award-winning writers.
Deadline: 1 February
For more information and to apply, click here.
TAF Unearthed
TAF Unearthed is a 6-month part-time mentorship and professional practice programme, culminating in a group exhibition at the Turbine Art Fair in July 2022. The mentorship programme will take on 10 South African artists in the developing stage of their career, aged 18-35 years, and will focus on conceptual, professional and process-based development.
Artists will be mentored by select industry professionals and will participate in a series of workshops aimed at developing their practice.
Deadline: 31 January
For more information, click here.
Call for submissions: Durban International Film Festival
South Africa’s longest-running film festival, the Durban International Film Festival (DIFF), presented by the Centre for Creative Arts at the University of Kwazulu-Natal, is widely regarded as a leading film festival on the African continent and a vital event on the international film calendar.
The festival proactively promotes the development of the African film industry. It provides a strategic exhibition platform for local products alongside international films within a professionally implemented and reputable cultural experience. The DIFF2023 will be presented with a selection of films to be screened live in Durban coupled with an online festival that will be geo-blocked and limited to audiences in South Africa.
Deadline: 28 February
For more information, click here.
V&A Parasol Foundation Prize for Women in Photography
The V&A Parasol Foundation Prize for Women in Photography is an exciting new annual initiative dedicated to identifying, supporting, and championing innovative women artists working in the field of contemporary photography.
Successful photographers will be selected by an independent selection panel consisting of global industry professionals and inspiring international artists. The selection panel will identify a shortlist of ten artists, with five selected for a group exhibition at the Peckham 24 photography festival in May 2023. Each shortlisted artist will receive a bursary of £2,000 each and participate in scheduled networking events to support career development.
The V&A Parasol Foundation Prize for Women in Photography is free to enter, open to all women internationally; both professionals and amateurs.
Deadline: 22 January
For more information, click here.
The Contemporary African Photography Prize
The CAP Prize is the international Prize for Contemporary African Photography awarded annually since 2012 to five photographers whose works were created on the African continent or which engage with an African diaspora.
Deadline: 7 February
For more information, click here.
Biennale College Architettura 2023
The international call for applications for the first-ever Biennale College Architettura, which will run from 25 June to 22 July 2023 in Venice, is now open.
The College is open to graduate students, graduates under the age of 30, to early career academics (PhD candidates, researchers, assistant professors, tutors, teaching fellows, etc.) and emerging practitioners under the age of 35. In line with the general goals of all Biennale Colleges (cinema, dance, music, theatre, art), this first Biennale College Architettura will seek to complement and enrich the 18th International Architecture Exhibition, The Laboratory of the Future (20 May – 26 November, 2023) by exploring how to place the Exhibition’s central themes, decolonisation and decarbonisation, at the heart of architectural education.
The process will culminate in a documentary, which will be screened as part of the Exhibition.
Deadline: 17 February
For more information, click here.
Call for Submissions: Encounters Festival
The organisers of Encounters, Africa’s home of documentaries, are calling for feature, mid-length, and short documentary film entries for the 2023 edition of the Festival.
After shifting platforms due to the pandemic in recent years, Encounters returns to cinemas and online to celebrate its 25th anniversary from 22 June to 2 July.
The Festival’s audience and reach has continued to transform throughout the decades, but the programming of exceptional documentaries from around the world remains the same.
The Festival invites filmmakers to submit their recent films to celebrate 25 years of creative documentaries in South Africa. The programmers are looking for films that resonate with diverse audiences, encompassing themes of social justice, politics, arts and culture, technology, current affairs, personal stories, health, environment and many more.
Deadline: 10 March
For more information, click here.
Job Opportunities
Mid-weight Copywriter at Curious and Creative
C&C is on the creative hunt! If you’re a mid-weight copywriter, with 2 – 5 years of experience, wanting to join an all femme creative agency get in touch.
To apply, send your CV & portfolio to info@curiousandcreative.co.za
Graphic Designer at The Citizen
The Citizen is looking for an exceptional senior in-house graphic designer to assist the sales and marketing departments. You will be required to support brand consistency. The role may involve managing more than one design brief at a time, allocating the relevant amount of time according to the needs of the job.
Deadline: 28 February
For more information, click here.
Junior Social Media Specialist
Brandright is looking for a junior social media specialist who has a complete skill set to:
- Build organic social media strategies and develop, implement and manage our social media strategy after conducting competitive research, platform determination, messaging, and audience identification (with a 90% client acceptance on campaign strategies)
- Develop and execute organic social media campaigns and content: plan, create and schedule social media content while writing long – and short – form social media messages that attract new users and engage current users (achieve 100% ready to run campaigns within two weeks of client approvals)
- Managing and scheduling content, posts, post boosting, light community management and providing ongoing actionable insights into organic social media performance to relevant stakeholders (achieve 100% positive client impact and target met)
- Reporting and optimisation of social campaigns (ensure 100% on time and accurate delivery of weekly and monthly campaign feedback and reports)
Deadline: 17 February
For more information, click here.
Researcher/Content Coordinator
Travelinfo is looking for a reliable person with an understanding of travel, who is able to source and write travel alerts daily. The main function is to source and produce four short travel alerts in the morning and four in the afternoon.
Requirements:
- Ability to find relevant content and condense and contextualise it
- Ability to follow style
- Understanding of what is relevant to travel agents
- Ability to self-edit
- Attention to detail
- Reliable and helpful
Applicants must submit two examples of travel alerts (no more than 150 words each) with their CVs. The original source must also be included in the alerts.
Deadline: 7 March
For more information, click here.
Residencies
CollaboNation
CollaboNation is an opportunity for musicians from Eswatini, Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe to work together to record original, uplifting songs that are consistent with the social values of MTN Bushfire. CollaboNation is brought to you by House On Fire, the team behind the MTN Bushfire festival.
Deadline: 23 January
For more information, click here.
minus20degree
minus20degree is a biennial exhibition of art and architecture. minus20degree provides a stage for radical artistic interventions in the alpine winter landscape and makes them freely accessible to the public. minus20degree provides a laboratory, with snow as the primary resource for all expressions of art and architecture. The organisers are looking for artists in the field of sound art, video art, performance, theatre, installation, or dynamic land art for their 2024 edition. They are especially interested in art that takes and needs space, art that is mobile or makes the audience move. They also look forward to receiving proposals for sound- and video art that embraces the snowy landscape as an endless projection surface.
Deadline: 31 January
For more information, click here.
SAC International Curatorial Residency Program 2023
SAC International Curatorial Residency Program 2023 is the residency program at Barcelona’s Sant Andreu Contemporani, in collaboration with Fabra i Coats – Fàbrica de Creació and Institut Ramon Llull, available to international curators. As part of the program, they are announcing an open call for proposals to choose an international curator who will be part of the Miquel Casablancas Prize for the Visual Arts’ jury in 2023, and will later develop a curatorial project with a selection of catalan artists chosen from applicants to the prize. The project must be presented at the country of residence of the curator or in another international venue that she/he decides.
The purpose of the open call is to offer the curator personal knowledge of the art context through involvement in the jury of the Miquel Casablancas Prize, and to foster, in the context of young art talent, future collaborations between local and foreign cultural actors.
Deadline: 1 February
For more information, click here.
Digital Diasporas
In 2021 yáo collaborative (formerly China Residencies) launched the first iteration of the Digital Diasporas, a distributed, remote residency which gave artists the space to research, cultivate their practice, and convene across borders. Last year’s residents Tian Zhang, Amy Lam, and Casey Tang inspired many generative conversations and long-lasting connections about colonialisms in multiple contexts, sustainability and equity in arts practices, and all the ways in which we (human, non-human, and ecological) coexist in all our relations. Digital Diasporas was a spacious opportunity for artists to do deep thinking and form cross-border connections without the pressure of producing a final product. This year, the open call returns for a second iteration with an additional residency host in the United States.
Deadline: 15 February
For more information, click here.
The Sound Art Residency
The musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac launches the call for applications for the second edition of its new program: the Sound Art Residency.
The Sound Art Residency is open exclusively to artists who come from one of the four continents represented in the collections of the musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac: Africa, Asia, Oceania and the Americas. There is no age limit to apply.
The jury will give precedence to pieces conceived in connection with the museum’s collections, interests and theme.
The winning project will be chosen in the spring of 2023 by a jury that will bring together various personalities from the world of sound and audio-visual creation. The museum will pay the winning artist an endowment of €8,000 and will also finance the production of the sound work, which will be presented to the public and may become part of the museum’s collections.
Deadline: 19 February
For more information, click here.
