FABRICA + SUSSEX CONTEMPORARY.
RESONANCE.
FABRICA + SUSSEX CONTEMPORARY. RESONANCE.
UK ARTIST OPEN-CALL
FABRICA and Sussex Contemporary have partnered to launch this judge selected Open-call exhibition, bringing together UK artists at any stage of their career for a unique opportunity to exhibit at FABRICA.
FABRICA
Nestled within Brighton’s historic lanes, Fabrica is a space where everyone can take part in the arts.
Fabrica’s exhibition programme has played a significant role in strengthening the UK arts ecology by presenting ambitious contemporary work outside of major metropolitan centres, widening access to high-quality visual culture and creating meaningful points of connection for diverse audiences.
Through commissioning and showcasing emerging and mid-career artists, it has supported professional development and contributed to the wider cultural pipeline, while also acting as a vital space for curatorial experimentation, public engagement and dialogue.
Its impact over the last 30 years extends beyond visitor numbers through partnerships, critical visibility and sustained community presence—demonstrating how independent exhibition-making can shape cultural participation, place-based identity and the long-term resilience of the contemporary arts sector.
RESONANCE
Sussex Contemporary is proud to partner with Fabrica to launch Resonance, a UK-wide artist open call celebrating the legacy of its exhibition programme and developing its future as a platform for ambitious contemporary practice.
Resonance invites artists to respond to the echoes of place, memory, community, and change—exploring what lingers, what returns, and what continues to shape us over time.
Building on Fabrica’s history of presenting bold and thought-provoking work, this opportunity supports artists working across disciplines to create new connections with audiences and contribute to the evolving cultural life of Sussex and beyond.
Below you can see a very small number of the amazing exhibitions Fabrica has enabled over the last 30 years.
Meet the judges
Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva is an internationally recognised artist working across sculpture, installation, print and architectural interventions. Interested in the areas of life that people find it hard to talk about – death, disease, and religion, her work always uses difficult materials to ask the difficult questions that take us beyond the immediate encounter. Central to her practice is a response to the particularities of place, its history, locale, environment and communities. Elpida has produced artworks for urban and rural sites, interior and exterior spaces, and made work at a monumental, and miniature, scale. She was commissioned by the Vatican for the Pavilion of the Holy See, at the 56th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia with her work Haruspex (2015) and represented the country of her birth, Macedonia, at the 55th Biennale di Venezia, in 2013.
I've produced two exhibitions for Fabrica – Re/sort (2002) and Fragility (2015), so I know the space intimately. And I’m really looking forward to seeing how other artists respond to it and the theme of Resonance, which fits so well to the building.
Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva
Louise Bristow
Louise is a painter and printmaker inspired by design and visual culture, particularly the urban landscape. A large part of what drives her interest in this is how its design and form communicates the values of the society that made it. Louise begins the process of making a painting by producing a constructed arrangement, reminiscent of a stage set, that utilises different collaged elements, such as photographs, three-dimensional models and found images from books and magazines. Once this element is completed, Louise then uses it as the starting point for the painting. Eastern Europe and the Communist experience holds a particular fascination for her as she grew up during the end of the cold war, and the conflict between East and West was part of her ‘psychic landscape’.
This is Fabrica’s first Open Call exhibition and as a trustee I am excited about supporting Fabrica in this new venture. More personally as an artist, I’m looking forward to seeing the different ways in which people respond to the theme; I’m always amazed by the diversity and originality of artists’ visions.
Liz is a Co-director at Fabrica, which she helped found as an artist 30 years ago.
Over this timeframe she has been instrumental in building Fabrica’s reputation as a commissioner and producer of new work for Fabrica’s unique space and audiences.
I’ve worked with hundreds of artists in Fabrica’s space since 1996 and I’m always amazed at how differently artists respond to the building and the ideas that they associate with it. I’m really excited about how this new partnership with Sussex Contemporary, is giving so many artists who are new to Fabrica the chance to exhibit here.
Liz Whitehead
Currently Director and CEO of Towner Eastbourne, Joe Hill has led the gallery for the past eight years, overseeing a period of exceptional growth and recognition. During his tenure, Towner was awarded Art Fund Museum of the Year in 2020, hosted the Turner Prize in 2023, and secured funding for a major new arts, environment and heritage centre at Black Robin Farm in the South Downs National Park.
In April, Hill will move from East Sussex to Wakefield, West Yorkshire, to take up leadership of Yorkshire Sculpture Park, which will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2027.
Under Hill’s leadership, Towner has grown its audiences to more than 200,000 visitors annually, while expanding its role as a centre for creative arts across the region and placing artists and communities at the heart of its programme.
We are delighted that Joe will bring his experience and perspective to the Resonance Open Call, supporting the selection of artists for this year’s programme.
Joe Hill
Sarah Bond is Curator (Global Medicine) at the Science Museum, where she led on the Exploring Medicine and Faith, Hope and Fear galleries (2019) and is currently co-developing a new contemporary science gallery. She has previously worked for the Royal College of Nursing and Wellcome Collection. Sarah is particularly interested in affective, sensory dimensions of material culture in relation to individual and collective memory and identity.
Sarah Bond
RESONANCE 2026 PRIZES
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FABRICA + SUSSEX CONTEMPORARY AWARD FOR THE WINDOW GALLERY 2026
As part of the open call for Resonance we will be awarding one artist the opportunity to show a photographic image in Fabrica’s picture window between May and September 2026, after the exhibition in the main hall has finished.
Fabrica is partnering with Sussex Contemporary for this award to present excellent photographic work by a UK-based artist.
The thematic brief for this opportunity is the same as the exhibition but the context is different, with the window facing directly out onto Duke Street, one of Brighton’s busiest pedestrianised quarters, located between The Lanes and Churchill Square, which are two very popular shopping destinations. The main city centre pubs and clubs are also nearby so the street is normally busy into the evening and throughout the night.
When submitting your images its worth knowing the practical factors that will influence the panellists decision: work in a square format fits well with the shape of the window; images that are predominantly light or bright: the window has a light filter on it which does not favour images that are predominantly dark or black and white. Imagery that is sexually explicit and/or explicitly violent is generally unsuitable for this exhibition platform.
The image would be exhibited between May – September 2026, though may be occasionally removed for short periods around Fabrica’s venue hire commitments.
Information about the selected artist and the image will be featured on Fabrica’s website and via other promotional materials produced by Fabrica. The selected artist will also be invited to produce an Instagram Take Over during this period for which a fee of £100 will be paid to the artist.
One artist and one image will be selected.
This opportunity is only open to artists currently residing in the UK.
Deadline
Submissions must be received by Fabrica no later than 11am on Tuesday 17 June 2025. The selected artist will be notified on 1 July 2025.
To applyPlease submit applications via this form.
Applications must contain:
Up to 3 Low-res images
Title and contextual information concerning the image (doc or pdf)
Biography/CV (doc or pdf)
A link to the applicants’ website/instagram where a range of work can be seen.
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THE BUSINESS OF ART PRIZE
The winning artist will receive 6 x one to one mentoring sessions with our creative director Jo Myles. As well as access to our annual programme of talks and workshops THE BUSINESS OF ART.
Gallery image credits from, starting from top left:
2015 - Fragility, Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva
2016 - Ewen Spencer, Kick Over the Statues - Photographer Tom Thistlethwaite
2016 - Michelangelo Pistoletto, The Third Paradise: The Labryrinth and the Well
2021 - The Forked Forest Path, Olafur Eliasson
2009 - Blood Relations, Anish Kapoor
2018 - Life Model II, David Shrigley
2018 - Getting There, Jo Lathwood
2022 - Mohamad Hafez - Journeys from an Absent Present to a Lost Past (1)
2002 - Mah Rana - Jewellery is Life - Photograher Philip Carr
2022 - Watts & Dad - My Crazy Family Crazy Golf - Photographer Phoebe Wingrove
Frequently Asked Questions
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Resonance will be held at Fabrica’s Brighton home, a unique and much-loved cultural space in the heart of the city. With its striking architecture and long history of presenting ambitious contemporary exhibitions, Fabrica provides the perfect setting to celebrate its exhibition legacy while launching a bold new chapter for artists and audiences.
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Can anyone enter the RESONANCE open call?
This open call is open to both amateur and professional artists, provided they have a link to the UK. To be eligible, you must meet at least one of the following criteria:
You were born in the UK, or
You were educated or trained in the UK, or
You currently live or work in the UK, or
You can demonstrate another clear UK connection
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Sussex Contemporary began with one major regional exhibition in 2022. Now, as we enter our fourth year in 2025, we deliver an annual programme of four major exhibitions alongside workshops and talks through our dynamic learning programme, THE BUSINESS OF ART. We work with artists, creatives, and collectors from across the UK to create ambitious exhibitions that raise the profile of both our programme and the artists who take part. Looking ahead to 2026, we’ll be delivering major partnership projects as we embark on the next chapter of Sussex Contemporary.
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Yes — entry is £20 per submission. This helps us cover some of the costs involved in staging a major exhibition and remains lower than many comparable open calls (where £20–£30 is common). Please note that paying the entry fee does not guarantee selection, as submissions are judged on artistic merit.
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Yes — all artworks in the exhibitions will be available to buy, and some artists may offer limited edition prints. Sold work will remain on display until the exhibition closes, and we’ll mark it clearly with a red dot.
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We welcome submissions across all media, including (but not limited to):
drawing
sculpture
printmaking
jewellery
photography
ceramics
mixed media
illustration
We also have space for larger installations, audio, video and other contemporary formats.
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This project with Fabrica is a shared revenue project which means that any monies left after the total exhibition costs are paid the amound of money left is shared between Fabrica and Sussex Contemporary.
Some of our selected open calls cost £15, so why is this one £20?
This exhibition requires a total build of the exhibition space, Fabrica does not have exhibition ready space se we bring in our team of art technicians to build the gallery space so it is ready for us to hang onto.
We actively keep our open calls as affordable as possible. Our £15 open calls are for spaces that already have inbuilt high standard gallery space we can hang onto.
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View the Terms & Conditions for Resonance HERE
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We use our own platform to manage submissions. It’s simple to use and will guide you through providing details of your artwork and uploading an image for the selectors to review.
Purchase your entries on this page, and then we will send you an email within 48 working hours with a link to a closed artist page where you will find information about how best to submit your work, along with link/s taking you to our simple and easy-to-use submission form/s.
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The maximum file size is 1MB. We recommend photographing your work in good lighting with your artwork as the dominant part of the image. There’s no need to include frames, plinths, or lots of background — let your work be the star of the show.
Please note; once your image is uploaded to the submission platform then the form will only show you a preview of the image you have uploaded but when we download your image on our side we see it in full, as intended.
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No, once the form is submitted then the information cannot be changed. The form we use saves partial responses so you can change answers right up until you press submit but once the form has been submitted the form is locked and you cannot see, review or amend your answers. description
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We recruit a panel of independent selectors who are well respected in the art world. The organisers do not influence the choice. Work is selected on artistic merit alone, and submissions are assessed anonymously wherever possible. Selectors look at the quality of the work and how it responds to the brief/theme.
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Artists can submit up to three artworks. You can enter fewer if you prefer, and more than one submission may be selected.
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If your diptych is sold as one artwork, it counts as one submission. If the parts can be bought separately, each piece must be entered as its own submission. Please note that if entered separately, there is no guarantee both parts would be selected.
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No additional exhibition fee is charged if your work is selected. If your artwork sells, Sussex Contemporary takes a 30% commission.
Artists are responsible for:
delivering and collecting their work
ensuring work is gallery-ready (e.g., framed where appropriate and correctly strung)
KEY DATES & INFORMATION
SUBMISSIONS OPEN:
19th January 2026
SUBMISSIONS CLOSE:
15th March 2026 23:59
ARTIST DROP OFF DAY:
30th March 2026 10 am-4 pm
ARTIST COLLECTION DAY:
19th April 2026 4pm-6pm
20th April 2026 10am-4pm
EXHIBITION SELECTION ANNOUNCED:
21st March 2026
PREVIEW EVENING:
3rd April 2026
OPENS TO PUBLIC:
4th April 2026
CLOSES TO PUBLIC:
19th April 2026
DATES TO BE ANNOUNCED…
Join us for a live ‘Conversations of Creativity’ podcast recording, and be there for an exciting episode with a superstar art guest.
Business of Art workshop: Preparing to sell your art in person
Art Panel discussion, an evening of discussion around the impact of community focussed arts spaces with a high profile panel from the creative sector