Born out of The Shed’s commitment to supporting early-career artists and a diverse range of voices and experiences, our Open Call program selects, fosters, and presents new work across all forms and media from NYC-based artists who have not yet received major support. Participants for Open Call’s second edition will be selected in summer 2020 by leaders in their fields, including other artists, cultural programmers, academics, and members of The Shed’s staff. The Shed will support these projects with a commissioning fee of up to $15,000 per artist or collective, paid in installments based on milestones.

In 2021, Open Call will occupy various spaces at The Shed, including one of our galleries, The Griffin Theater, and our outdoor Plaza, allowing for the presentation of a diversity of artistic experiences and perspectives in these newly commissioned works. We will accept applications for Open Call via the Submittable website between April 13 and May 31, 2020. There is no processing fee for The Shed’s Open Call application.

For a list of past Open Call artists and more information about their commissions, please visit the page for Open Call’s first edition here.

Organized by Emma Enderby, Chief Curator; Tamara McCaw, Chief Civic Program Officer; and Solana Chehtman, Director of Civic Programs, with Madeline Aleman, Open Call Assistant. The program was conceived by The Shed’s Artistic Director and CEO Alex Poots, Tamara McCaw, Emma Enderby, and Senior Program Advisor Hans Ulrich Obrist.