Artist in Residence – Bloomsbury

2026 is the year in which we mark 200 years since UCL’s establishment as the first University in London. The ambition of the bicentenary is to celebrate and reinforce UCL’s founding values, to highlight the excellence and impact of UCL’s groundbreaking work, and to present an ambitious and inspiring portrait of our future. As well as reflecting on our past, we will use the bicentenary year to frame the future, to position ourselves as a forward-facing university and to convey the type of organisation we will become during our third century.

We are planning an entire year of bicentennial activity, with planned exhibitions, new publications and an incredibly rich programme of engagement for both our internal and external community, including new extended learning offers for our students. A programme for UCL200 Public Art will be a key output for the bicentennial year and the UCL200 celebrations offer us a unique opportunity to invite artists to work with our diverse community from academic staff, students, professional service teams at the university and our vitally important local neighbours. The intention is to re-visit our history and consider our future in the run up to and through the celebration year with a view to creating artworks that reflect the legacy of the University for the next 200 years.

Through the UCL200 Public Art programme we will appoint an artist to deliver a permanent Legacy artwork for one of UCL’s campuses signposting the vision for the future whilst three artists in residence will explore, celebrate, and challenge the culture of the institution at this important moment in its history. These artists will be appointed with three key areas of focus: UCL’s Student Community in partnership with UCL’s Students’ Union, UCL’s East campus and UCL’s historic Bloomsbury campus.

• Artist fee: £12,000

• Artwork production budget: £3,000