The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, the Iyatsiba Lab of the Centre for Humanities Research at the University of the Western Cape, and Yale University have opened applications for The Cape Town Workshop 2027. The workshop is a fully funded 12-day research and practice-led programme of workshops, discussions, and encounters with historical archives and contemporary practice. It is hosted by the UK-SA Bilateral Chair in Culture and Technics.
The 2027 programme takes the theme Solidarities. It asks participants to take a long view, understanding alignment and action through locally rooted practice and broader histories of colonialism, apartheid, and local and global resistance. The programme includes conversations, workshops and visits with artists, grass-roots organisations, thinkers and scholars working in Cape Town and the surrounding regions, and engages material practices such as puppetry, beading and ceramics as ways into the social, historical and cosmological dimensions of making.
Participants will form a research cohort around the concerns of the year’s theme and will be supported to work together towards future projects. After the programme, participants may apply for a Collaborative Research Development Bursary, which includes opportunities to collaborate with Paul Mellon Centre staff in London.
Dates
5 to 16 July 2027. The programme is residential. Participants are expected to arrive in Cape Town on the Friday before the start of the programme and to leave South Africa the weekend after it concludes.
Cost
Fully funded. All travel and accommodation costs are covered.
Places
12 students.
Eligibility
Graduate students (MFA or PhD) in art or art history who are currently based in the United Kingdom, South Africa, or at Yale University, including PhD students in the Yale History of Art Department and MFA students in the Yale School of Art.
Convenors
Sria Chatterjee and Sarah Victoria Turner (Paul Mellon Centre), Nontsikelelo Mutiti and Edward Cooke (Yale University), and Premesh Lalu (University of the Western Cape).
How to apply
Applications opened on 2 November 2026 and close at midnight GMT on 1 December 2026. Complete the online application form here:
https://forms.cloud.microsoft/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=jchTQ9nO7kmhAN21vpFZOrFYZd-onuFIt7Q8gTto0e5UREQ4V0xZQjJVOURaUE5WRk1FNjE1SUhCVy4u
Contact
For questions or an alternative application format, contact Calum Bayne at the Paul Mellon Centre: [email protected]
Official announcements
Paul Mellon Centre: https://www.paul-mellon-centre.ac.uk/whats-on/forthcoming/open-call-the-cape-town-workshop
Centre for Humanities Research, UWC: https://www.chrflagship.uwc.ac.za/open-call-the-cape-town-workshop/