Black music across the Americas: creative fellowship opportunity

Blog series Americas and Oceania Collection

The British Library is one of the great centres for researching Black music in the UK. Following the Library’s groundbreaking 2024 exhibition Beyond the Bassline: 500 Years of Black British Music, the Eccles Institute is offering the opportunity for a creative practitioner to dive into the Library’s collections of Black music from the Americas, and create new work in any art form based on what they discover.

The Eccles Institute will appoint one artist or collective, working in any medium, whose practice is inspired by Black musical artists, forms, and genres from across the Americas (defined here as Canada, the United States, the Caribbean, and Central and South America) and who can create an original and compelling work through in-depth research in the Library’s recorded music collections. It could be new music or sound art, visual art, dance, theatre, creative writing, or a cross-disciplinary practice. Although the successful applicant will be supported by curators and subject specialists at the British Library, the fellowship will most suit an artist or collective who can work independently and for whom sustained research is already central to their practice.

Role and expectations of the creative fellow

The fellowship will be structured around an initial period of collections-focussed research and development based at the British Library from September 2026, followed by a period for the creative fellow to create a new body of work, learn new skills and develop a public engagement programme to share the outputs of the fellowship in collaboration with the Eccles Institute team.

Applicants should bear in mind that the British Library’s sound and vision archive operates differently from the Library’s main collection in that users can only access it by appointment and items will need to be requested between 8 to 10 weeks ahead of time. The appointed fellow will therefore need to browse the Sound and Moving Image (SAMI) catalogue throughout the summer to ensure items are available for listening at the start of the fellowship in September 2026.

There will be flexibility to accommodate other commitments that the creative fellow may have, working more intensively during some periods and less during others, but we are looking for a practitioner who will make this one of their key creative commitments during this year.

The appointed fellow will be expected to:

• Spend a time equivalent to 30 days carrying out collections research, joining meetings with British Library staff and colleagues, delivering talks or other forms of public engagement, and developing a new body of work
• Present their research and work in progress to British Library staff and the general public
• Keep a log of their research, visually document the various stages of their project and produce a minimum of 3 blog posts (or other forms of sharing their process online).

What will the creative fellow get?

• A stipend of £7,500. This fee will be all inclusive of any talk, workshop and public engagement carried out by the fellow and will need to cover the fellow’s living and travel costs. Funding will be disbursed in instalments corresponding to the completion of agreed project-specific benchmarks, so planning for good personal cash flow is essential.
• Introductions to British Library staff and collections, and support from the Eccles Institute curators.
• A production/public engagement budget of up to £3,000, to be agreed with the Eccles Institute team. This budget can be used for consumables and costs attached to public programmes and/or the creation of a new body of work. The British Library cannot offer working space or technical support to produce new work.

Application process and eligibility

We welcome applications from creative practitioners who meet the following criteria:

• Over 18 years old
• Based in the UK (we welcome applications from those based in or outside London in the UK, but please note that there is no separate budget for accommodation or travel)
• Evidence of sustained artistic work over several years (including track record of presenting or exhibiting work in public)
• Demonstrable interest in using collections research to inform their artistic practice
• Ability to work independently
• Genuine interest in sharing their creative process with library staff and the general public.

Applicants are required to complete this application form. The deadline for applications is the 2nd of June 2025 at 10:00.

Shortlisting will take place within a few weeks after the application closing date. Once a shortlist has been selected, unsuccessful candidates will be informed by email, and shortlisted candidates will be invited to interview on the 26 June 2025. Please note that we are unable to provide any feedback on unsuccessful applications (we will only be able to provide feedback to shortlisted applicants that are interviewed).

Interviews will include a short presentation and a series of interview questions. Please note that we cannot cover travel costs for the interviews.