Black music across the Americas: creative fellowship opportunity at the British Library

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.

The deadline for applications is the 2nd of June 2025 at 10:00.