Artist Open Call - Kitchen Table Weekender

 28th February - 2nd March, 2025

A weekend of creative development, allyship and professional guidance for women and non-binary visual artists.

Kitchen Table is a collaborative initiative by contemporary art curators Dr Ella S Mills of talking on corners and Vashti Cassinelli of Southcombe Barn. Our partnership is focused on supporting women and non-binary visual artist professionals at any stage in their career. 

This artist-centred programme provides time and space to consider your current work and future potential. It focuses on you and your practice through reflective critique, collaborative creative thinking, professional guidance and well-being in the unique, ancient landscape of Dartmoor National Park.

Who Will Benefit

Any UK-based or international visual artists who: 

  • Have an active practice as a visual artist – at any stage of their career
  • Want to recalibrate and recognize their capabilities as contemporary artists
  • Hope to push their practice forward and reach new audiences and organisations
  • Are excited to discuss ideas with their peers and grow their networks

What's Included

  • Focused time to consider your ideas and push your practice in a rural space
  • Networking, discussion and community building with artists and curators 
  • Collaborative and structured learning with active industry professionals 
  • Two night’s accommodation in an intimate home and residency setting committed to inspiring creativity
  • Opportunities for walking and hiking in the ancient landscape of Dartmoor 
  • Free access to our onsite wellbeing treatments including sound bathing, wild swimming pond and wood-fired sauna
  • Home-cooked nourishing meals

Further Information

Group size is limited to 6 places (7 maximum) for a programme aimed at an intimate and focused experience.To ensure that the cohort is aligned and to get the best possible peer to peer support we are asking for interested artists to send us an expression of interest with 100 word outline of your practice, and a link to your website/instagram etc. The cohort will be comprised of a group who appear the most creatively akin. This opportunity is open to visual artists at any stage of their career, from anywhere in the world. 

Dr Ella S Mills has worked and studied in the contemporary art industry and academia for 20 years. Her research projects and speaking invitations have involved organisations such as the National Gallery, V&A, Royal Academy, Bluecoat Liverpool and Modern Art Oxford. She has published widely including for Art Monthly, Journal of Contemporary Painting, and exhibition catalogues for Turner Prize winner Lubaina Himid and nominees Ingrid Pollard and Claudette Johnson. Ella was Post-Doctoral Researcher on the Black Artists and Modernism Project, led by Sonia Boyce, a project culminating in the BBC4 documentary Whoever Heard of a Black Artist. She is currently Associate Lecturer in Fine Art and History of Art of the University of Plymouth and creative director of curating practice talking on corners with artist printmaker Lorna Rose. 

Vashti Cassinelli is a contemporary art curator, founder of Southcombe Barn, an artist residency, retreat and gallery space creating an inspiring, nurturing and grounded environment for artists to develop ideas and connections between landscapes, communities, here and beyond borders. Southcombe Barn is committed to fairer representation in the arts and supports early, through to established, career artists. Within Southcombe Barn we have a range of ecosystems including wildflower meadows, temperate rainforest woodland, ponds and streams. Set within the Dark Skies Reserve, nights can be spent gazing up at star-filled skies and sunsets and sunrises enjoyed from nearby tors. The Dartmoor National Park has incredible walks and wild swimming spots.

How To Book

Location: Southcombe Barn, TQ13 7TU
Price: £750 p/p sharing room or £950 for single occupancy 

Times: 4pm Friday 28 Feb – Sunday 2 March 1pm 

For expressions of interest please send 100 words about your practice and a link to your website/social media to info@southcombebarn.com or talkingoncornersproducing@gmail.com

Please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions regarding access or general enquiries.

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