Short Description
The Design Trust Fellowship at V&A East is a one-year programme awarding a creative practitioner funding to engage in research at V&A East Storehouse, fieldwork in Hong Kong, the Greater Bay Area and China where appropriate, and to produce a new creative work, which will be displayed at V&A East for a six-month season.
The inaugural V&A East Design Trust Fellowship will begin in Autumn 2025, culminating in a commissioned work on display in Autumn 2026 through Spring 2027.
Practitioners are asked to respond to the theme The Stories of Clothes, with a research focus relating to Hong Kong, the Greater Bay Area and China.
We are interested in projects rooted in object-based research which explore the meaning of clothes, questioning what our clothing reveals about us from the complex and intricate relationship we have with our own bodies to the ways in which their design, production and disposal shape our world.
Eligibility
Inspired by Saidiya Hartman’s methodology of approaching archives, we are interested in how ‘counter-narratives that recover the insurgent ground of human lives’ can be found though fieldwork within and beyond the museum.
Rooted in research, the final creative output could be in any media but practitioners are asked to consider the suitability of their project for a 6-month installation in a public building. Please note that the production costs for the output are included in the fee.
Submission Requirements
- a research plan and conceptual proposal for a new work to be displayed at V&A East (no more than 500 words and up to 5 images);
- a budget of how they would allocate $275,000 HKD;
- and a CV (no more than 500 words).
How to Apply
Please send your submissions to designtrustfellowship@vam.ac.uk.
Program Benefits & Awards
The successful candidate will receive $275,000 HKD to fund their time, travel expenses, accommodation and production costs of a new work to be installed at V&A East. Fellows can be based anywhere around the world, but we would expect at least 3 weeks of research to take place at V&A East Storehouse.
Entry Fee
None
Location
United Kingdom, Hong Kong
Timeline
- Application Deadline: 22 August 2025
Website Link: https://www.vam.ac.uk/blog/east/open-call-design-trust-fellowship-va-east
