London Open Live

London Open Live is open to individual artists or collaborative groups who meet the following criteria:

• Be living or working in one of the 32 London boroughs
• Be aged over 18 at the time of application deadline
• Have been working in performance and/or live art forms for a minimum of 3 years
• Not be studying in formal education (except PhD) at the time of deadline, or have plans to do so until at least after the exhibition period
• Apply with work created since June 2022, when the last London Open was held. Submissions can include proposals for existing or new works.

Collaborative applications are eligible as long as at least one member of the group meets the criteria above. However, all applicants should be at least 18 years of age.

Whitechapel Gallery recognises that some artists face structural barriers as a result of disability, gender or gender expression, socio-economic backgrounds, sexuality, age, ethnic origin, religion, pregnancy and experience of migration.  We particularly encourage applications from artists from historically under-served groups.

Up to 13 applicants will be invited to participate in London Open Live through an open application process. London Open Live will showcase work made by artists at any stage in their careers, bringing together a diverse range of original and exciting ideas and practices from both emerging and established artists.

Selection will be informed by ensuring a balance of career stages and live practices, work that reflects on and exemplifies the importance of live art today and aligns with Whitechapel Gallery’s responsibility as a public institution and belief in supporting collaborative, permeable, bold practices that are unafraid to take risks and/or address issues and concerns relevant to the times we live in.

Selection will be informed by ensuring a balance of career stages and live practices, work that reflects on and exemplifies the importance of live art today and aligns with Whitechapel Gallery’s responsibility as a public institution and focus on supporting collaborative, permeable, bold practices that are unafraid to take risks and/or address relevant issues.

Applications and works will be selected by a panel of artists and curators with particular experience of and interest in live art practices:

• Anne Bean, artist
• Lois Keidan, co-founder Live Art Development Agency
• Martin O’Brien, Artist and Senior Lecturer in Live Art, Queen Mary University of London
• Harold Offeh, artist
• Whitechapel Gallery (Leila Hasham, Head of Exhibitions and Hannah Woods, Assistant Curator)

Selected artists will be awarded:

• Budget of £1000 (inclusive of all taxes and expenses)
• Technical and production support from Whitechapel
• Annual Whitechapel Gallery artist membership card
• Support by Whitechapel curatorial and marketing teams
• Opportunity to connect with all selected artists in dedicated networking events.

The application form will be active from Thursday 28 November 2024, with a deadline of Monday 13 January 2025.

To apply, fill out the application form and refer to the FAQs for any questions.

We want to ensure the application process is not a barrier for any artist wanting to apply. If you need further clarification, please contact ArtQuest.

• To help our small, part-time team process all applications in good time, please get in touch before Friday 13 December if you want to arrange an alternative application.
• We have a small access budget available for anyone with financial barriers to making work or applying.

Anne Bean is a London-based artist whose artistic practice, spanning over 50 years, has been pivotal in the development of live and performance art in the UK. Captivated by processes, she is a multidisciplinary artist working with sculpture, installation, sound, photography, painting and drawing. Since 1970, Bean has presented solo and collaborative projects worldwide. Recent solo projects include Reflect (2023), commissioned by Lumiere, Durham, and Sparks and Spells (2022), commissioned by Turner Contemporary, Margate for the exhibition Stephen Cripps: In Real Life. Recent group exhibitions include Women in Revolt: Art and Activism in the UK 1970–90, Tate Britain, London (2023). Collaboration is central to Bean’s work, and she recently worked with Zambian artist Serah Chule at the Venice Biennale 2024. She is engaged in ongoing work with women from countries of conflict as a member of the collective PAVES; as well as her worldwide,  sound exploration, as part of Bow Gamelan Ensemble (1983-1990), on which a new film, funded by DACS Recollect programme, will be premiered at Tate in 2025. Bean was the recipient of the Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award, 2024

Lois Keidan co-founded the Live Art Development Agency (LADA) in 1999 and was its Director until 2021. Previously she was Director of Live Arts at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), London (1992-1998); responsible for national policy and provision for Performance Art and Interdisciplinary practices at the Arts Council of Great Britain (1990-1992); and worked at Midland Group, Nottingham and Theatre Workshop, Edinburgh.

Martin O’Brien is an artist who works across performance, writing and video art. His work uses long durational actions, short speculative texts and critical rants to explore death and dying, what it means to be born with a life-shortening disease, and the philosophical implications of living longer than expected. Martin has cystic fibrosis, and all of his work and writing draws upon this experience.  He has shown work throughout the UK; Europe; USA; and Canada, both solo performances and collaborations with the legendary LA artist and dominatrix Sheree Rose. Recent works include Until the Last Breath is Lived, Tate Britain (2020), and The Last Breath Society (Coughing Coffin), ICA London (2021), as well as residencies at Whitechapel Gallery (2023) and Southbank Centre (2024). Martin was winner of the Philip Leverhulme Prize for Visual and Performing Arts 2022 and is Senior Lecturer in Live Art at Queen Mary University, London.

Harold Offeh is an artist working in a range of media including performance, video and social arts practice. He has exhibited widely including Tate Britain, London; South London Gallery; Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridge; Studio Museum Harlem, New York; MAC VAL– Val-de-Marne Contemporary Art Museum, Paris; and Art Tower Mito, Mito. His forthcoming solo exhibition will open at Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge in November 2025.

Offeh studied Critical Fine Art Practice at Brighton University, MA Fine Art Photography at the Royal College of Art, and in 2020, completed a practice-based PhD exploring the activation of Black Album covers through durational performance at Leeds Beckett University. He lives in Cambridge and is Interim Head of Programme for MA Contemporary Art Practice at the Royal College of Art, London

Leila Hasham is Head of Exhibitions at Whitechapel Gallery. Prior to that she was Head of Artistic Programme at ICA London (2021-2024) and Deputy Director at Forma (2020-21). Leila was Curator at Barbican Art Gallery in London from 2011-2018 where her major projects included: Francis Upritchard: Wetwang Slack (2018); John Akomfrah: Purple (2017); Trajal Harrell: Hoochie Koochie (2017); Ragnar Kjartansson (2016); Station to Station (2015); Walead Beshty (2014); The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier (2014); The Bride and the Bachelors: Duchamp with Cage, Cunningham, Rauschenberg and Johns (2013); Bauhaus: Art as Life (2012); and Pioneers of the Downtown Scene: New York 1970s (2011).

Hannah Woods is Assistant Curator at Whitechapel Gallery and she has worked on numerous projects including Zineb Sedira: Dreams Have No Titles (2024), Sonia Boyce: An Awkward Relation (2024)and Peter Kennard: Archive of Dissent (2024), as well as the performance activations for Lygia Clark: The I and the You (2024).Prior to this, she worked at Barbican Art Gallery in London on exhibitions including Noguchi (2021), Carolee Schneemann: Body Politics (2022)and RE/SISTERS: A Lens on Gender and Ecology (2023). Hannah is founding editor of motor dance journal, a print publication dedicated to dance and performance practices, and recently co-curated STAGE/PAGE/SPACE (2024) at San Mei Gallery, London.