Announcing the new Emergent resident and shortlist Emergent is a hybrid residency and bursary programme delivered in collaboration with Baltic Centre for Contemporary Arts, Gateshead. Each year, the award is given to an emerging disabled artist with a socially-engaged practice and a small cohort of shortlisted artists are offered tailored support. This year's recipient of the three month residency and £5k bursary is Emma Bentley Fox. The applications It was wonderful to see such a strong pool of applicants for the Emergent programme once again this year. Similar to 2022, we received just under 100 applications, from which one main awardee and a shortlist of four artists were selected by the Shape and Baltic programme teams. This year, our priorities for candidates centred on learnings from the pilot year. Namely, now having a better understanding of what support emerging disabled artists need currently as well as how this matches on to what both organisations are able to provide, we were particularly looking for artists for whom the opportunity felt timely, necessary, and their ambitions could be feasibly realised through this programme. It's always a shame that we aren't able to work with all applicants whenever we run open callouts, but we deeply value the effort and creative brilliance of all artists who submit applications. Whether through Emergent now or in the future, or a different area of our programme, we try our best to find ways to support as many artists as we can. Make sure to subscribe to our mailing list and follow us on social media to stay in the loop and find out about any upcoming artist opportunities. The resident: Emma Bentley Fox 2023's Emergent residency and bursary has been awarded to Emma Bentley Fox. Emma Bentley Fox is a socially-engaged arts practitioner, with a multi-disciplinary approach to art-making. Her practice centres community building and collaborative working to generate moments of joy, healing, intimacy and kinship. Co-founder of Party Mom Society (Leeds, 2018) she has documented, produced and performed in, alternative/inclusive queer nightlife spaces that centre non-conforming Queer experiences. Blue Kiss, Kit & Courtney - Emma Bentley Fox Read Emma's profile The shortlist Belladonna Paloma Belladonna Paloma is an artist, poet & witch living in Shetland, UK. She paints, tattoos, writes poetry, and makes computer games. Her work is into listening to faeries, how divination disturbs linear time, grief rituals, toilets and necromancy. Bella makes artwork primarily as acts of devotion. Most recently this devotion has been centred on the boglands of Shetland, and wetlands more generally, continuing her deep interest in the politics of waste. Biblically Accurate Coolspots Keening Descent (2022) - Belladonna Paloma Read Belladonna's profile Joud Fahmy Joud Fahmy was born in 1994 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Her practice involves Exploring Women voices and expression through the translation of concepts such as family dynamics and gender roles into tangible works of mixed-media sculptures and audio-visual productions. She is interested in initiating dialogues between the traditional and modern and her artwork aims to transcend societal barriers and limitations by being a catalyst for shifting meaning and reshaping culture. Body to Earth, Earth to Earth, Earth to Body, Body to Earth (2023) - Joud Fahmy Read Joud's profile kARTa Kaur kARTa works predominantly with clay, but also uses other media, including photography. Her thematic explorations include verticality and horizontality as metaphors for states of wakefulness/sleep, function/dysfunction, presence/oblivion, health/sickness and the in-between state of not being fully alive nor dead. Quiessence (ongoing) - kARTA Kaur Read kARTa's profile Linny Venables Linny Venables is a visual artist based in Liverpool, working in sculpture, installation, curation and facilitation. Linny experiments with kiln-formed warm glass processes as a form of therapy. Slumping, extruding and manipulating glass in to fluid, colourful, slime like shapes. Slip & sludge (2022) - Linny Venables Read Linny's profile Banner image description: Emma - a slim white person with short blonde hair - lies on her front on a patterned rug looking up slightly to the camera holding a red telephone to her ear. She wears a floaty pink skirt and top with green heels. Image credit: Emma, self portrait, 2021 © Emma Bentley Fox Manage Cookie Preferences