Art Career Workshop: Open Calls & Other Artist Opportunities

Please note: To participate, you need to have an active CUSTODIA membership. You can learn more about the CUSTODIA membership and the workshops here! The fee for both workshops including more resources on CUSTODIA is $77.

Find relevant programmes, avoid expensive mistakes and decide which opportunities are worth pursuing.

• Discovery: Where can I find opportunities relevant to my work?
• Evaluation: Which programmes are credible, and how do I recognise scams and vanity galleries?
• Professional Return: What could I actually gain in recognition, relationships, artistic development or income?

We’ll examine exhibitions, residencies, grants and commissions, including eligibility, fees, hidden costs, contracts and organisers’ track records.
Using the Six Capitals of an Artistic Career, you’ll learn to assess the professional value of different opportunities and distinguish those worth pursuing now from longer-term possibilities.
Vanity Galleries, Scams & Artist Safety

• Are all paid open calls vanity projects?
• How can you distinguish legitimate participation fees from exploitative offers?

We’ll investigate vanity galleries, questionable residencies, misleading awards, hidden expenses and suspicious invitations.
You’ll receive an Artist Safety Checklist to help you verify organisers, assess costs, contracts, insurance and image rights, and recognise warning signs before committing your money or artwork.
Your AI Art Opportunities Manager
You’ll build your own personalised AI Art Opportunities Manager using ChatGPT and my curator-developed research method. It begins with an adaptive interview about your artworks, professional experience, ambitions and practical circumstances, creating a Personal Opportunity Profile for your searches. Your manager will help you:

• Find relevant opportunities across exhibitions, residencies, grants, commissions and other programmes.
• Check eligibility, deadlines, fees and organisers against current official sources.
• Evaluate opportunities according to your artistic goals, available resources, costs and potential professional return.
• Identify what to pursue now, what to prepare for next and what deserves further investigation.
• Keep searching over time, with updated research on demand and recurring checks where your ChatGPT account supports them.

You’ll also learn to use it to investigate individual open calls and recognise information that needs further verification.
You’ll take away:
Your Personal Opportunity Strategy, Opportunity Decision Sheet, Artist Safety Checklist and reusable AI Art Opportunities Manager.