Leeds Creative Labs in partnership with Yorkshire Sculpture Park - artists

Leeds Creative Labs is a funded opportunity for artists and creative professionals to collaborate with researchers from the University of Leeds. Find out who is eligible, what the opportunity offers, timelines for activities and making your application. 

Open to: Artists and creatives from around Yorkshire – this opportunity is for individuals only, not groups of artists.

When: March – July 2025 

Funding available: £1,250 

Leeds Creative Labs is a funded opportunity for artists and creative professionals to collaborate with researchers from the University of Leeds. The programme is an initiative developed and led by the Cultural Institute at the University of Leeds since 2012.  

The project has previously paired hip-hop dancers with economists, ballet choreographers with biochemical engineers, and visual artists with astrophysicists.  

This year we are partnering with Yorkshire Sculpture Park to deliver Creative Labs 2026.  

How it works 

Following a round of applications by artists and academics, a process of matchmaking is made by a panel made up of academics, artists, former participants of the programme, and the Cultural Institute team. Selection is based not only on the applicants’ professional and creative interests but also on their shared sense of curiosity and ambition to explore ideas without limits. 

Once pairings are made, Leeds Creative Labs will host a collaborative introductory workshop at Yorkshire Sculpture Park.  

Pairings will have between 25 March – 2 July 2026 to work together for the equivalent of 3 working days, with times and dates arranged by each pair to suit their own circumstances. 

Pairings will then be invited to speak at a sharing event held at the University of Leeds on Thursday 2 July 2026 to share their experiences at the end of the programme. 

Programme timeline 

Applicants must confirm they are available on these dates before applying.

• Midnight, 15 February 2026 – Closing date for applications 
• Monday 1 March 2026 – Partners selected and collaborations announced  
• Wednesday 25 March 2026 9.30am – 2pm – Workshop at Yorkshire Sculpture Park  
• Weds 25 March – Tuesday 30 June 2026 – Collaboration period 
• Thursday 2 July 2026, 10am –1pm – Share event at University of Leeds  

Programme theme 

We will support up to 6 artists to collaborate with 6 academics to explore themes of connection:

Human connection – exploring the ways people form relationships, create communities, and build networks of care, bringing together perspectives, how different practices and disciplines help us understand and strengthen the bonds that connect us. 

Connection to place – exploring how landscapes, environments and the buildings we inhabit shape our lives and identities. From the spaces of everyday life to cultural landmarks, how place is integral to our sense of self and the ways we experience the world 

Connection across time – exploring how histories, memories and archives shape the present and influence the future.  

Technological connection – examining the digital networks, data flows and emerging technologies that shape how we communicate, learn and create. Considering both the opportunities and the challenges of living in an increasingly connected world 

Connection outside of human relationships – exploring our relationships with animals, ecosystems and the material world. Thinking about ideas of kinship, care for the planet and what genuine sustainability might mean in practice. 

Why you should apply 

If I had designed the perfect professional development opportunity for myself at this stage of my practice, I couldn’t have done better than Leeds Creative Labs.

Previous participants of Leeds Creative Labs have shown that sharing ideas and experiences between creatives and academics opens new ways of thinking. It can inform and add new dimensions to creative processes by taking the opportunity to step out of usual ways of working and sharing ideas with a collaborative partner. 

While there is no expectation of final output, the Leeds Creative Labs programme has incubated an astonishing diversity of concepts and outputs – from the development of new teaching practices, innovative research methodologies, and large research grant capture to the creation of new artistic works and digital products and platforms.  

Read about previous projects.   

Eligibility 

We invite applications from artists across all disciplines, as well as makers and creative professionals within the arts and culture sector, with examples of working on multiple creative projects.  

Successful applicants who applied in the most recent Creative Labs will not be eligible to apply again until the year after.  

On average we recieve over 60 artist applications and have space for 6. We appreciate this is a competitive programme, and will be offering application support sessions to help you make a strong application.  

What does participation involve? 

Artists selected to participate in this edition of the Leeds Creative Labs programme must make the following commitments to the programme: 

• You permit any work created as part of the Leeds Creative Lab programme to be accessible in the public domain. 
• You must be able to participate in the launch event on Wednesday 25 March 9.30am – 2.30pm and a sharing event on Thursday 2nd July 10 – 2pm, 2025.  
• You must commit to a minimum of three days between 29 March and 2nd July to work with an academic partner at mutually convenient times. 
• You will participate in the evaluation of the programme which includes completion of an evaluation questionnaire at the end of the programme and permission for photography and filming during key events. 

If you have any questions or need to complete your application another way, please email culturalinstitute@leeds.ac.uk for questions.  

If you are an academic from University of Leeds and wish to apply, visit the Creative Labs guidance for academics page.

Application questions

1. Can you describe your creative practice? (This might include how you work, what interests you, and how your practice has evolved.) 
2. Leeds Creative Labs values experimentation, shared enquiry, and not knowing in advance what will emerge. When you’re working on a project without a fixed outcome, how do you usually begin and move forward? (You might want to talk about your process, how you make decisions, how you respond to uncertainty, or how working with others influences this).  
3. The theme of this year's Creative Labs iteration is Connection. This might include (but is not limited to) connections between people, places, histories, ecologies, materials, or ideas. What forms of connection are you currently interested in exploring, or curious about? 
4. What attracted you to the Leeds Creative Labs programme and why are you interested in collaborating with an academic as part of this process? 
5. Please provide one or two examples of previous collaborative projects. What did you learn from these experiences, and how did they influence how you collaborate now? 
6. What does ‘equal collaboration’ mean to you in practice? 
7. When working with someone new, what helps you collaborate well, and what do you sometimes find challenging? 

Please provide any links to your work that you would like to share (eg, website, online portfolio, Instagram, or other social media accounts). Include URLs or handles where we can view your work. 

Please apply by completing the form: Artist Application: Leeds Creative Labs X Yorkshire Sculpture Park.

About Yorkshire Sculpture Park 

Yorkshire Sculpture Park is an open-air art museum displaying sculptures across 500 acres of parkland. It showcases modern and contemporary artwork by world-famous artists, alongside changing exhibitions in indoor gallery spaces. It opened in 1977 and is the UK’s first and Europe’s largest sculpture park. The park offers a peaceful mix of culture and nature, making art feel part of the landscape. 

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