CVAN EM AGM 2026: Reflection, Dialogue and Collective Action
Taking place at a pivotal moment for the visual arts sector, the 2026 CVAN EM AGM provided an important opportunity to consider the wider context shaping our work.
20 Apr 2026
Contemporary Visual Arts Network East Midlands
CVAN EM celebrates and supports visual arts and culture in the region, fostering an inclusive long-term future for the sector, emphasising equity and access for all arts workers.
Latest Activity
Updates, features, and insights from the visual arts community.
CVAN EM is looking for new Steering Group Members
CVAN EM is seeking new members to join our Steering Group at an exciting moment of growth, investment and regional development. Open to Artists and Arts Workers based in the East Midlands.
07 Apr 2026
Better Together #16: Questions to Ask When Working With Others with Beverley Bennett
Questions to Ask When Working With Others is a gathering where artists / arts workers can meet to share their experience/s of challenges related to their practice. Conversations to be centred around, but not exclusive to fractures, expectations and breakdown when working with others. This gathering with be held by artist-filmmaker Beverley Bennett and consist of a series of sharing activities to take place during the session centred around the theme.
07 Apr 2026
Events & Exhibitions
Discover exhibitions, workshops, talks, performances events and creative activity across the region.
9am - 5pm weekdays, 10am - 5pm weekends
A Decade of Exhibitions
In 2016, Attenborough Arts Centre opened its new purpose-built galleries, creating a new home for contemporary art in Leicester. To mark this special milestone, we are looking back on both the programme, and also the memories and experiences of all those who have engaged with the range of artists and art we have presented and produced. This exhibition will look back at highlights from the past 10 years while inviting you to share your own stories and reflections.
10 Mar 2026 - 03 May 2026
Attenborough Arts Centre, Lancaster Road, Leicester, LE1 7HA
12pm - 5pm on weekdays & 12pm - 4pm on weekends
Material Worlds: Contemporary Artists and Textiles
An ambitious group exhibition exploring how artists are using textiles in surprising and radical ways. Illuminating the diverse roles textiles play in contemporary artistic practice, the exhibition brings together artists who take the intimate and domestic quality of textiles and transform them into theatrical, bold, unsettling and humorous artworks that inspire, challenge and offer new ways of thinking.
10 Mar 2026 - 03 May 2026
Attenborough Arts Centre, Lancaster Road, Leicester, LE1 7HA
10am - 4pm, Thursday - Tuesday
Eduardo Paolozzi: General Dynamic F.U.N
A new Hayward Gallery Touring exhibition of screen-prints by Eduardo Paolozzi, open at the Usher Gallery as part of a national tour. Paolozzi's General Dynamic F.U.N is a series of fifty screenprints and photolithographs created between 1965 and 1970. Here Paolozzi employs the technologies of mass-reproduction and gorges on its idols – the household names of consumer advertising, high fashion and Hollywood. Image: Paolozzi Eduardo, Totems and Taboos of the Nine-to-Five Day © 2026 The Paolozzi Foundation, Licensed by DACS.
14 Mar 2026 - 07 Jun 2026
Usher Gallery, Lindum Rd, Lincoln LN2 1NN
Jobs & Opportunities
Funding opportunties, residencies, creative roles, commissions, open calls, and professional or creative development.
Judges Prize - £1000. Public Choice Award - £500 Urgent
Doddington Young Sculptor Exhibition 2026 - Call for Submissions
Doddington Hall quality images of your work, a detailed plan of proposed work, or photographs of similar work; titles; mediums; approximate dimensions HxWxDcm; prices (if applicable); a maximum 400-word statement about the work. Include any relevant social media/website links. Key dates: Deadline - 3rd May Install - 29th June – 3rd July Exhibition open - 8th July - 6th Sept
Deadline: 03 May 2026
£250 per day for a minimum of 15 days’ work until April 2027, a total of £3,750.Urgent
Freelance Project Manager: The City Classroom Leicester’s Local Cultural Education Partnership
Attenborough Arts Centre is working with partners in 2026-27 to refresh The City Classroom as Leicester s Local Cultural Education Partnership. The City Classroom s Vision is to ensure that every child and young person in Leicester thrives through rich cultural experiences. Our Mission is to raise the quality, reach and coordination of cultural opportunities across Leicester for school-age children both in school and out of school, in an effective place-based partnership for the city. We are seeking to work with a Freelance Project Manager to help us re-establish The City Classroom as Leicester s Local Cultural Education Partnership. The Project Manager will be hosted by Attenborough Arts Centre s Learning and Communities team and will report to our Learning and Communities Manager. The Freelance Project Manager will ensure the smooth and timely delivery of our Action Plan for 2026-27. This will include managing surveys and consultative processes, establishing new processes and procedures, managing administration for meetings, and organising a number of different events and initiatives. Fee and availability We would like to work with the Freelance Project Manager from 2026 to spring 2027. The fee for the Freelance Project Manager will be 250 per day for a minimum of 15 days work until April 2027, a total of 3,750. The Freelance Project Manager will be engaged on a self-employed basis. Application To apply, please send us: Your CV including the contact details for 2 referees A short covering letter (max 1 side of A4), outlining how you meet the expectations of this role and the shortlisting criteria. Please send applications to Marianne.pape@leicester.ac.uk Marianne Scahill-Pape, Learning and Communities Manager, Attenborough Arts Centre Deadline for applications: Midday, Tuesday 5 May 2026 Interviews will be taking place on Monday 18 and Tuesday 19 May For more information on the role and how to apply, download The City Classroom Coordinator Job Specifications by clicking here.
Deadline: 05 May 2026
500 euro - Entry Fees €34 for 1–3 artworks €5 for each additional artwork (up to 8 artworks total)
PRISMA ART PRIZE — ROME — 19th EDITION Open call for painters, illustrators, printmakers and all traditional 2d artists
Prisma Art Prize is an international platform dedicated to painting and two-dimensional works. We welcome artists worldwide and celebrate the many directions painting can take today—traditional or experimental, intimate or bold—always with a focus on strong visual research. Annual Awards & Opportunities Cash prizes: €2000 per year (distributed across the four quarterly calls) Exhibition: group exhibition at Contemporary Cluster, Rome (Late 2026) Solo shows: Isorrophia Gallery Prize + Pallavicini–Dettori Prize Artist residencies: Dar Meso (Tunis), Casacon (Sirolo, Italy), Osservatoriomaree Residency Prize
Deadline: 10 May 2026
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