Remote ecologies: art, climate and the Amazon at the British Library

Blog series Americas and Oceania Collections

In the modern era, artists and writers have understandably equated knowing the world, and being able to make art about the world, with travel. To encounter a place, to witness it firsthand, has been understood as both the most authentic and the most ethical way to represent it, and often as the only way of avoiding the replication of stereotypes about distant regions and communities.

In the age of climate catastrophe, however, this assumption sits uneasily with the environmental realities of our time. Air travel, which underpins much of the global art world, from research trips to residencies, international exhibitions, festivals and biennales, carries a significant ecological cost. Many artists concerned with the climate crisis are rethinking the structures of their practice, searching for ways to remain connected to the wider world while working more sustainably. This fellowship offers a UK based creative practitioner working with sound, visual arts, performance and/or moving image an opportunity to critically interrogate what it means to know and make art about the world in an age of climate breakdown in a sustainable, carbon zero way.

The Amazon offers a powerful site through which to consider this question. Frequently imagined as distant and remote, the Amazonia region in South America is home to the largest tropical rainforest and the largest river by volume in the world and plays a crucial role in global biodiversity, climate regulation and carbon storage. It sustains the livelihood of 40 million people and is home to an abundance of local knowledge and languages. Many artists seriously interested in climate catastrophe are inevitably drawn to vital planetary zones like Amazonia and the polar regions. There is a profound irony, however, in that to travel to and experience the Amazon is to contribute to its destruction, as greenhouse gas emissions create the global warming that is devastating the delicate balance of the water-cycle and ecosystem that define the region, along with deforestation.

The British Library holds extensive materials relating to the Amazon and its histories, including maps, travel accounts, scientific publications, botanical records, travelogues, government reports, photographs, sound recordings and contemporary research on climate and biodiversity. The selected fellow will work with the library’s collections and research resources to explore how the Amazon has been observed, measured, imagined and discussed over time, and how these narratives intersect with today’s climate emergency. By working entirely from the British Library’s collections and digital resources, the fellowship invites artists to experiment with new forms of research-led practice that rethink how artists might respond to the climate crisis while developing creative approaches that minimise travel and foreground the possibilities of libraries, museums and other knowledge institutions as sites of encounter with the wider world.

This fellowship will give an artist the opportunity to address these issues, with enhanced curatorial support to explore the British Library’s vast and varied collections that relate to Amazonia, alongside mentorship by Peruvian writer Joseph Zárate. Zárate is one of the winners of the 2025 Hay Eccles Writer’s Award and is currently writing the first account of the Amazon River, its communities, cities and history written by a Latin American with Amazonian indigenous roots. The fellow will also be encouraged to use digital technologies and techniques to connect with local communities and creative practitioners in South America, and to allow digitally mediated lived experiences and perspectives to inform their library-based research and work.

This fellowship will suit an artist working with visual, performance and/or moving image who is ready to challenge the ethical and creative horizons of their practice and ask the hard questions that climate breakdown demands of us all. If you are interested in using your work to investigate the position of the artist and the subject of art in the climate emergency, please consider applying.

Role and expectations of the Creative Fellow

The fellowship will be structured around an initial three-month induction and research period (between September and December 2026) primarily based at the British Library, followed by six months (between January and July 2027) 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.

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.
• Support and mentorship from writer Joseph Zárate, who will provide an introduction to relevant contacts, collections and resources about the Amazon.
• 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:

• Artist working with sound, visual arts, performance and/or moving image
• 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 2026 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 afternoons of the 7th and 8th of July 2026. 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.