Upe Foundation launches in London
Upė Foundation, a new London-based organisation, has been launched this week with the core aim of providing new platforms for dialogue and exchange between the Baltic region and contemporary art communities internationally. Upė begins its work with a series of Curatorial Fellowships with major institutions – Southbank Centre's Hayward Gallery, Tallinn Art Hall and Camden Art Centre – to support the next generation of curators across the UK and the Baltic countries.
Upė Curatorial Fellowships will offer early-career curators the chance to take up an 18-month curatorial role within a partner institution, working full-time as part of its team while developing their own practice. Each round will consist of two fellowships: one at a leading Baltic institution and one at a major international institution, reflecting Upė’s commitment to horizontal, two-way exchange. Fellows will be embedded in exhibition-making, public programming and research, receiving institutional support and mentorship. The programme provides the conditions to develop their skills, experience and professional networks. It offers Baltic curators a framework to bring their knowledge of Baltic art into international contexts and, in turn, supports UK curators to work within Baltic institutions and open new perspectives within the region’s art scenes.
The inaugural 18-month Curatorial Fellowship Programme is an exchange between London and Tallinn. The first two open calls – one for a role at Tallinn Art Hall for UK-based curators and the other for a placement at Hayward Gallery for curators from Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia – will open on 10 December, 2025. In Spring 2026, Upė will partner with Camden Art Centre to launch an open call for emerging Baltic curators to apply for a Curatorial Fellowship which will take place at the institution. Throughout 2026, the Programme will expand to include further partners, with the aim that future cohorts will move in multiple directions: between the Baltic region and the UK, later travelling across geographies, from neighbouring regions to less-explored connections.
The foundation takes its name from the Lithuanian and Latvian word for ‘river’ – upė; a reference to movement, exchange and the flow of ideas across different contexts. This sense of flow underpins the fellowship model, a channel for curators to move between institutions, practices and ways of working, and to carry gained insights forward.
Upė Foundation launches at a moment when global conversations in culture are becoming more decentralised, and new relationships between places are transforming how art is experienced and discussed. In this increasingly plural field, the ability to articulate one’s own context, and to enter dialogue on equal footing, becomes both an opportunity and a responsibility. Upė steps into this moment, offering structures for exchange rooted in shared, exploratory work, research and long-term relationships, interested in ways for ideas to move more freely outside of inherited cultural hierarchies and centres of gravity.
Upė Foundation was founded by Justas Janauskas and Adomas Narkevičius in the belief that new connections in contemporary art emerge through shared experiences, movement and dialogue across different contexts. London, a city closely tied to Baltic artists, students and broader diasporas, and a home to both co-founders, is a natural starting point for a reciprocal conversation between the region and significant institutions abroad. The inaugural Fellowship Programme marks the first step in building these connections.
Justas Janauskas, Founding Patron of Upė Foundation, said: ‘Since the 1990s, the Baltic region has seen an exceptional number of artists and cultural practitioners whose work has gained major international recognition. This sits alongside Baltic art institutions entering new phases of growth and transformation. We believe it is important to support the people who will write this next chapter, the curators, researchers and artists whose insight and relationships determine which ideas circulate and how. Today, opportunities for people to meet, work together and build long-term understanding feel more important than ever. Upė is our way of enabling those encounters, encouraging young professionals to form new connections across borders, and to contribute to conversations that move in exciting, unpredictable directions.’
Adomas Narkevičius, Founding Director of Upė Foundation, said: ‘Our vision for Upė is a channel where ideas, people and research can move in multiple directions – across different geographies and methodologies, between institutional and non-institutional settings. The Fellowship Programme is the first step in forming a network of early-career curators who will learn within their roles and from one another, and who can move freely across contexts, experiment with new approaches and return with insights that enrich the places they will choose to work in. Over time, we see Upė as a driver of research, exchange and long-term dialogue between the Baltic region and a broader, shifting map of contemporary art through ideas and human relationships that go beyond preconceived identities or old notions of centres and peripheries.’
Ralph Rugoff, Director of Hayward Gallery, said: ‘We are delighted to be partnering with the Upė Foundation on an initiative designed to facilitate cultural dialogue between the Baltic region and the UK, and to provide young curators from the Baltic region with the opportunity to work with the Hayward curatorial team on a broad range of projects. We see this as an undertaking with great potential for learning on both sides and eagerly anticipate the unfolding developments and a continued collaboration with Upė.’
Paul Aguraiuja, Director of Tallinn Art Hall: ‘As Tallinn Art Hall is starting a new magnificent chapter in its 90-year history with the newly renovated house, I am confident that the collaboration with Upė Foundation will give us and the jointly selected young curator an amazing opportunity to explore and push the limits of redefining and reinventing an established art institution. We are sincerely honoured and thankful to be the first partners of Upė Foundation in this promising and needed programme.’
Martin Clark, Director of Camden Art Centre, said: ‘For more than sixty years, Camden Art Centre has championed the most important and vital emerging artistic practices, both in the UK and internationally. This collaboration with Upė Foundation offers an incredible opportunity to continue this work, building on the energy and innovation of the Baltic region's dynamic contemporary art scene, as well supporting our own mission to nurture emerging curatorial and artistic talent from all over the world.’
