Open Call for Upe Foundation Curatorial Fellowships
At the Hayward Gallery and Tallinn Art Hall / Application deadline on Monday 12 January 2026
Upė Foundation launches the first Open Calls in its inaugural Curatorial Fellowship Programme, in partnership with the Southbank Centre’s Hayward Gallery, UK, and Tallinn Art Hall, Estonia.
Upė Foundation is a new London-based organisation with a core aim to provide 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 – Hayward Gallery and Tallinn Art Hall – to support the next generation of curators across the UK and the Baltic countries.
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 – launch today, on 10 December, 2025.
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. 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.
Upė Foundation Curatorial Fellowship, Tallinn Art Hall
Established in 1934, Tallinn Art Hall is the largest and oldest commissioner, producer and exhibitor of contemporary art in Estonia. The institution is currently completing a major renovation of its historic building, set to reopen in November 2026 with a new, flexible black-box space dedicated to presenting cross-disciplinary artistic work.
The Upė Foundation Curatorial Fellow will have the opportunity to curate the inaugural programme for this new space, developing and delivering a proposal across moving image, performance, sound and object-based practices. While the programme will be connected to Tallinn Art Hall’s main exhibitions, known for addressing pressing social and political questions and presenting both Estonian and international artists, the Fellow will also have scope to initiate independent projects. The incoming curator will be supported by three in-house project managers and mentored by Tallinn Art Hall’s curatorial team.
Upė Foundation Curatorial Fellowship, Hayward Gallery
The Southbank Centre’s Hayward Gallery is a world-renowned contemporary art gallery. As part of the largest arts centre in the UK, the Hayward Gallery has been at the centre of London’s cultural life since it was established in 1968, and remains committed to creating a place where people can come together to experience bold, unusual, entertaining and eye-opening work.
The Gallery’s diverse exhibition programme features influential artists from across the world and major international group shows exploring pivotal themes and issues. Embedded across exhibitions and public programming, the Upė Foundation Curatorial Fellowship offers the selected curator full-time work and structured professional development within the curatorial team, while also recognising the value of Baltic research networks, perspectives and artistic contexts. The Fellow will be responsible for conducting research on artists from the Baltic region and beyond, assisting with all the logistics of bringing major international shows to life. The role is designed to expand the Fellow's skill set, from public engagement to practical training in operations such as developing interpretation materials.
Each fellowship will be full time and take place between April 2026–April 2027, with the possibility to extend by a further 6 months upon mutual agreement.
Application deadline: 12:00 GMT on Monday 12 January 2026.
Further information on how to submit an application for the Upė Foundation Fellowship at Hayward Gallery and the Upė Foundation Fellowship at Tallinn Art Hall is available on the Foundation’s website here.
Selection process:
Applications will be reviewed together by Upė Foundation and the respective partnering institutions. Following an initial assessment, a short-list will be invited to a first-round interview with Upė and the partner organisation (Tallinn Art Hall or Hayward Gallery, respectively). A final interview round with a small number of candidates will take place in person.
The selection panel includes representatives from Upė Foundation and the partner institution, and all decisions are made by consensus, with agreement required from the full panel at each stage.
About Upė Foundation
Upė Foundation is a London-based platform that draws currents between global and Baltic (Lithuanian, Latvian, Estonian) art communities, setting new artistic, curatorial and research possibilities in motion. Upė focuses on horizontal, long-term exchange through a range of partnerships, fellowships and initiatives, amplifying new ideas, risk-taking work and underexplored perspectives. Upė is drawn to a field that is living, cross-disciplinary and imaginative, open to encounters between practices, contexts and communities.
