Call for artists: Accelerator 26-27

Accelerator is our flagship new work and artist development programme, returning this year for its fourth iteration. With more financial support and a residential, we’ve designed this round to support not only your idea, but you as an artist too.

Previous Accelerator projects include Jade Franks’ Eat the rich (but maybe not me mates x) and Ryan Calais Cameron’s For Black boys who have considered suicide when the hue gets too heavy. We’ve also worked with artists working in a wide range of performance practices, from interactive and immersive work to spoken word and cabaret.

This time we are looking for three artists with an idea in response to our prompt, created by the Boundless Advisory Group

This can be something that has been sitting in the back of your mind or scribbled in a notebook, or something entirely new. We want a kernel of an idea, something with lots of questions and unknowns.

Over 12 months, you’ll be supported through a bursary, a creative residency and mentoring from Boundless and a range of industry professionals. You’ll have the opportunity to work with other young people to develop your idea, and to share your work with audiences at Southbank Centre and New Diorama Theatre.

Accelerator 26-27 is made possible thanks to the generous support of the Idlewild Trust and Cockayne Grants for the Arts, along with Arts Council England.

The Prompt

Rage, Revolution, Grief, Love

Tilt your head skyward, let the rain fall on your skin, run with the tears down your cheeks. Can you hear that? A rumbling. Rainfall. Footfall. Beating drums. Laughter. Do you feel it? A hand held in yours. A warm embrace. Dance. A cup of tea placed between your palms.

What seeps through when it’s given the space?

What is alive in you?

How long do we have?

Does everything have to mean something?

Who could we help by helping you?

For strangers and friends alike, for it will take all people, so let no one be left behind, what we can build will stand with nature, against torrents of oppression. We will feed, strengthen and warm. We want the impossible so that our reality can be closer to our dreams.

Heart-led. Something you want to shout or feel like you have to whisper. These thoughts and feelings becoming things. Opening the cracks to reveal more.

We want you to consider your dreams as edges and cracks, seeping through the concrete, determined and soft, reaching towards love at the end of the world.

Consider your dreams as a question, not to be answered, but felt. Can you taste it?

Share your questions with us.

Hurling winds, bubbling waters, blazing sun are the warning of the elders. Warning I and you to stay awake for tonight.

There has been whispers of a storm, it may be revolutionary.

Remember to remember,

The things we can’t see,

Rage, Revolution, Grief,

And love at the end of the world.

Shot by Sarah Verghese Jordan

What you get

• A bursary of £3000 to support the development of your idea, plus £500 at the end towards its next steps.
• £1,125 in additional fees for workshops, sharings and residency attendance
• Decelerate: a three-day creative residency focused on developing artistic, co-creation and socially engaged practice, in September 2026
• Creative, dramaturgical, producing, fundraising and marketing support
• Mentoring from the Boundless Team and Partners – supporting with any and all things that relate to being an artist today.
• Opportunities to collaborate with other young people aged 15-25 to develop your idea
• Opportunities for networking and for Boundless to support you in building new relationships within the sector
• A public scratch sharing at Southbank Centre’s Clore Ballroom
• A culminating sharing at New Diorama Theatre with an artist panel and invited industry guests
• Fundraising and mentoring support for this project and afterwards

What we’re looking for

Someone who:

• Is aged 18-25
• Works with performance, theatre or live art
• Wants to learn and develop practice with other artists
• Wants to think about their art practice in a broader sense as well as their creative project
• Wants to try stuff out, even if they might make mistakes
• Is energised by our prompt/their idea
• Is excited to work with communities/young people in their artistic process
• Is interested in developing a long term relationship with Boundless and the artist cohort they will be a part of

Additionally

• We are particularly interested in applications from artists with a connection to Croydon/ South London
• We are particularly interested in hearing from artists who have been historically and contemporarily underrepresented in the industry, including but not limited to Global Majority, migrant, trans and disabled folk
• We are particularly interested in applications from artists whose work often struggles to find a home elsewhere

Next steps

Read our Info Pack, which also contains some FAQs.

The application form will open on Thursday 28 May at midday.

It asks you to respond with your idea. You can either write up to 1000 words, or record a video/audio response for up to 5 minutes.

This should address:

• A bit about you and the art you make
• The idea you want to work on with this funding, including:
  • What’s the big blue-sky dream?
  • What’s the knotty thorny question?
  • Why does it feel like the thing you want to work on right now?
  • How does it respond to the prompt?
• How will this opportunity support your growth as an artist?
  • Think about Boundless and the other artists in Accelerator, as well as what this money and time/space will offer you at this moment in your creative journey.

The application form will close on Sunday 14th June at 8pm.

We will be hosting a Q&A via Zoom on Tuesday 26 May, 1pm. This is a great opportunity to find out more about Accelerator and to ask any burning questions you have. Sign up for that here.