Postgraduate-Level Course for Artists. Open Call for Applications
Location: The Old Waterworks, Essex
Dates: May–November 2026
Deadline: Monday 16 March, 11:59pm
Overview
Future Ruins and New Worlds (FRNW) is a free, intensive, eight-part postgraduate-level course for practising artists in Essex and the East of England who want to deepen their contextual research and critical inquiry.
Running from May to November 2026 at The Old Waterworks, the programme culminates in a peer-reviewed journal and a public exhibition, positioning participants at the forefront of contemporary artistic research and debate.
Led by artist-researchers Dr Ruth Jones and Dr David Watkins, the programme offers a new model: serious, ambitious, and collaborative, without the financial and structural barriers of traditional postgraduate study.
Re-thinking postgraduate study for artists
Future Ruins and New Worlds reframes postgraduate learning as a collective, speculative, and critically engaged process. It centres dialogue, peer exchange, and alternative knowledge systems, while maintaining academic and professional standards.
Dr Ruth Jones and Dr David Watkins describe the programme as:
“A space for artists to develop rigorous, critical, and imaginative research practices through collective learning, shared inquiry, and speculative world-building. The programme values intellectual depth while making complex ideas accessible, foregrounding peer exchange, collaborative care, and alternative forms of knowledge.”
Participants will engage with key contemporary thinkers including:
Anna Tsing, Rosi Braidotti, Audre Lorde, Jane Bennett, McKenzie Wark, James Bridle, Timothy Morton and Jacques Rancière.
Alongside collective discussion, writing workshops, and experimental practice.
Why now?
With regional access to postgraduate-level arts education significantly reduced, FRNW fills a vital gap, offering artists sustained time, space, and support to develop ambitious research-led work within a strong peer community.
Who should apply?
FRNW is seeking Essex-based and East of England visual artists who:
- Have degree-level qualification or equivalent professional experience
- Are not currently in formal education
- Are practising artists ready for sustained research
- Can attend all sessions in person
- Can commit to the final exhibition
- Are comfortable with reading, writing, and critical discussion
While the programme demystifies academic processes, it is clear about expectations: participants should be prepared for significant independent reading, reflection, and writing between sessions. Access needs will be accommodated wherever possible.
What the course Includes
- Eight intensive seminar-style sessions
- Group critique and research development
- Writing workshops
- Collective editorial process
- Peer-reviewed journal publication
- Public exhibition in November 2026
The course is free, though participants are expected to obtain key reading materials.
FRNW is not an accredited degree, but a postgraduate-level programme offering serious research training outside conventional academic structures.
Application process
Applicants are asked to submit the following in one single PDF document:
- Why you are applying (150 words max)
- Artist statement (200 words max)
- Artist bio (200 words max)
- CV (maximum one A4 page)
- Five images of work or a two-minute showreel
If you include links to films or moving-image work:
- They must be under the stated time limit
- Any passwords required to access them must be clearly included in the PDF
Email applications to: info@theoldwaterworks.com
Subject line: FRNW Application
Deadline: Monday 16 March, 11:59pm
Short-listed applicants will be invited to interview.
About the course leaders
Dr Ruth Jones’ practice and research operates at the intersection of feminism and world-building, offering audiences the opportunity to imagine the world otherwise.
Dr David Watkins’ work investigates connections, from global supply chain infrastructure to the Wood Wide Web.
Together they bring extensive experience in higher education, exhibition-making, and research-led artistic practice, positioning FRNW as a distinctive and ambitious new programme in the region.
Final invitation
Future Ruins and New Worlds invites artists ready to think deeply, read widely, write rigorously, and work collectively to ask how worlds are made, unmade, and imagined anew.
Applications close Monday 16 March at 11:59pm.
Session Dates
Saturday 9 May 2026
Saturday 23 May 2026
Saturday 6 June 2026
Saturday 20 June 2026
Saturday 25 July 2026
Saturday 22 August 2026
Saturday 26 September 2026
Saturday 17 October 2026
Exhibition dates TBC