El Musel Port – LABoral Art Production Grant 2026 Open Call

The El Musel Port – LABoral Art Production Grant is designed to support an artistic project that will be developed during a residency at LABoral Centre of Art and Industrial Creation. The proposed project must foster a dialogue with the port, the sea, and/or the oceans, exploring these themes from artistic, technological, environmental, or social perspectives.

This residency will culminate in a public presentation of the produced artwork at the Exhibition Hall of the Old Rula, managed by the Port Authority of Gijón, scheduled for the summer months of 2026.

Grant Guidelines

Eligibility

This call is open to individual visual artists or artist collectives residing in Spain, without any age restrictions. Applicants who have a current contractual or employment relationship with LABoral Centre of Art and Industrial Creation or the Port Authority of Gijón at the time of application are not eligible.

Application and Documentation

Applications must be submitted through the online form available on the LABoral website. The required documentation includes:

A completed application form.
An updated CV or artistic biography (PDF, maximum 1 page).
An artistic portfolio showcasing previous works (PDF, maximum 10 pages, 5 MB).
A detailed project proposal to be developed during the residency, including a conceptual description, objectives, methodology, and technical requirements (maximum 10 pages, 5 MB; sketches or visual references for the project will be highly valued).
An estimated work timeline.

Key Dates (2026)

Application Submission: From March 2 to March 27, until 11:00 AM (CET).
Results Communication: Last week of April.
Residency / Production Period: Approximately between mid-June and mid-July.
Exhibition Period: From July 23 to August 30.

Grant Award and Resources

The selected individual or collective will receive a gross amount of 6,000 euros. This fund covers both fees and the production costs of the artistic project during the residency period and is subject to current tax regulations. Travel and accommodation expenses associated with the residency will be covered by the organizing entities, as per agreed conditions.

Selected artists will also have access to the following resources, depending on project needs and facility availability:

Dedicated workspace at LABoral.
Curatorial and production support from the LABoral team.
Access to the centre's technical resources (audiovisual equipment, fabLAB, sound lab, media library), coordinated with the technical team and adhering to LABoral's internal regulations and operating hours.

Project Selection

The selection will be made by a jury comprising representatives from LABoral Centre of Art, the Port Authority of Gijón, and an external expert. Projects will be evaluated based on the following criteria:

Artistic and cultural merit of the proposal.
Quality, coherence, and conceptual soundness of the project.
Degree of innovation and originality.
Technical feasibility and suitability for available resources.
Relevance of the proposal to the context of the port, the sea, and the coastline, as well as LABoral's core focus on art, science, technology, and society.

The jury's decision will be final and unappealable.

Commitments of Selected Artists

The selected artist or collective commits to:

Develop the project in accordance with the submitted proposal and the agreed-upon schedule with LABoral.
Make appropriate use of the assigned workspace during the residency period.
Participate in regular progress meetings with the LABoral team.
Engage in public activities, meetings, or presentations related to the work process, if mutually agreed upon.
Participate in the final exhibition stemming from the grant, to be held at the Exhibition Hall of the Old Rula of the Port Authority of Gijón.

LABoral and the Port Authority of Gijón must be acknowledged as collaborating entities in all public communications and materials related to the project. The selected artist or collective will be required to sign an agreement with LABoral outlining the residency conditions, work schedule, and aspects pertaining to public communication and dissemination. LABoral reserves the right to document the project's process and results for archival, research, cultural communication, and dissemination purposes, always ensuring proper attribution of authorship.