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87a CRITS

Open Call: 87a CRITS

Location: Cheltenham, Gloucestershire UK 
Deadline to Apply: 1st 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

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.

 

WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR

  • Brave work, deep work, unresolved work

  • Evidence of serious commitment to your practice

  • Applicants who bring something to the group: ideas, experience, skills

  • Those ready to participate in challenging, critical, and supportive conversations

  • People who want to build something with others

You should be able to commit to:

  • Attending monthly in-person crits 

  • Showing up for others, not just yourself

  • Being challenged and challenging others

  • Working from a place of generosity and honesty

 

WHAT WE OFFER

  • A physical space in Gloucestershire to meet and make

  • A growing critical network invested in authenticity, not commercial polish

  • A supportive environment for people who can’t (or won’t) relocate to cities to “make it”

  • A space between academia, art world, and real life

  • The energy and drive of someone (me, Jo Hepburn) who’s built this from the ground up, with no funding, no gatekeepers, and everything to prove

 

WHAT TO SEND

Please email or use the Google Form to share:

  • A short bio (250 words)

  • A short statement (why 87a? why now?) - to include: A sense of your current questions / urgencies / frustrations and what you hope to bring to 87a CRITS

  • A few images or links to your work (this could be past work, writing, video, etc.)

  • Links to your website/publications/instagram etc.

Send to: johepburnart@outlook.com
Deadline: August 1st 2025
First crit: September 2025

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