unLab – Round 3
up to £5,000
(a maximum of 2 awards in Round 3)
Applications are now open!
A link to the form can be found at the bottom of this page
The deadline to submit an application is 6pm Tuesday 31 March 2026
For many years, a major part of our process in making new work was to ‘retreat’ – to find somewhere remote where we could escape from the daily pressures of our lives and other projects and just be together. Mostly this would be a week together where we would cook for each other, eat together, walk and talk, share films and books and articles and essays. It was time for us as artists to dream, to share and interrogate ideas at the earliest stage of their infancy, to begin the process of imagining what we might make next. We actively refused to set any outcomes in advance. Which annoys funders. Because they want to know “WTAF are you ‘artists’ actually going to do with this money?”. But a lot of the time we couldn’t answer that question. Because we didn’t know yet. Because we hadn’t had any time together to imagine that. So we earned cash from other projects to create this time to spend together. We came away from that time refreshed, excited and closer to each other as friends and artists and with exciting plans for what we would do next. This was our ‘laboratory’. We called it unLab.
This award is for artists at any stage of their career working within an arts producing organisation to retreat and begin to imagine their next project.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Please do not apply for support for projects that are already in progress or have been through any development process. Successful awards must be spent and accounted for by the end of November 2026.
Before applying, please read our Round 3 Applicant Guidance (which includes our eligibility criteria and a copy of the application questions) using the links below:
unAwards Round 3 Applicant Guidance
unAwards Round 3 Applicant Guidance – Large Print
Or listen to the audio version here:
If you have a question about your application, please check our FAQs using the links below. This document includes contact details if you still need to get in touch:
unAwards Round 3 FAQs
unAwards Round 3 FAQs – Large Print