Open Call: 87a CRITS

Location: Cheltenham, Gloucestershire UK (Applicants should be able to travel to Cheltenham once a month for in-person sessions.)
Deadline to Apply: EXTENDED until 22nd August 2025
First Crit Date: September 2025
Contact & Application: via email → johepburnart@outlook.com or this link
Programme Name: 87a CRITS
Run by: Jo Hepburn

 

ABOUT 87a CRITS

87a CRITS is a new platform for committed, risk-taking, radical contemporary practitioners, rooted in Gloucestershire, but thinking far beyond it.

We’re not looking for polite nods and surface-level feedback. This is about building a space where deep thinking, bold making, authentic experimentation and serious practice collide. 87a CRITS is a pilot project for artists, makers and thinkers who believe in the power of work to challenge the current discourse, and each other.

This is not an art club, not a workshop space, not a drop-in. It’s a commitment. A critical community.

 

WHO IT’S FOR

All UK based artists able to commit to monthly in-person meet-ups in Cheltenham.

We’re interested in makers and doers. Not Sunday painters or surface skimmers. People who live and breathe their practice and are serious and confident about how their work contributes to contemporary thinking.

You might be:

• A recent BA or MA graduate

• An emerging artist or writer seeking deeper dialogue

• A self-taught practitioner pushing into research

• Someone in between academia and practice

• Someone who has stayed in Gloucestershire, or needs to, this is for you

• Someone who can give, not just take

You don’t need a specific qualification. We care about the work.
If your practice shows depth, risk, urgency, generosity, and integrity, we want to hear from you.

 

OPEN CALL Closed - reopens summer 2026