Onassis AiR Open Call 2026/27

Onassis AiR, the Artistic Research, Residency & Fellowship Program of the Onassis Foundation, announces its Open Call for 2026-27.

After six successful years supporting nearly 250 Fellows from around the world, Οnassis AiR has become a container of cross-disciplinary exchange among local and international art practitioners and researchers.

Process, research, and experimentation are at the core of the residency program, which welcomes artists from a wide range of fields. During the residency, participants are invited to delve deeper into their practice without the pressure of presenting a final work.
Serving as a point of access to the ecosystem of Onassis Culture, Onassis AiR offers participants the opportunity to explore future production, co-production, or presentation possibilities and receive support for the international trajectory of their work.

Through connection with the curatorial team of Onassis Stegi and a tailored mentoring scheme, Onassis AiR Fellows can develop their research or projects under the guidance of experienced art professionals, while expanding their knowledge and networks in their respective fields.

Situated in the European south and the eastern Mediterranean, Onassis AiR creates space for dialogue, idea-sharing, and engagement with current issues, recognizing the necessity of addressing the tensions and challenges that arise both within its immediate context and across an ever-shifting global landscape.

For the 2026/27 Open Call, Onassis AiR offers thirty (30) new opportunities across all fields including (but not limited to): Visual Arts, Theater, Dance, Sound, Art & Advanced Technologies, Filmmaking, Applied Arts, Curatorial, and Writing practices, as well as their hybrid iterations. It invites applications for a 10-week residency that takes place in Athens, Greece, between September 2026 and July 2027.

For the 2026/27 season, the program:

• Introduces a new opportunity to conduct research and develop a project in collaboration with the Cavafy Archive.
• Continues its focus on crafts and material-based practices. With the expansion of the program at Onassis Ready, the aim is to further enrich the Onassis AiR community with practitioners working in the broader field of applied arts (including fashion, sculpture, and design), strengthening the coexistence of artists within an environment of ongoing exploration.
• Continues to provide technical and production support for performing arts and digital productions through dedicated Technical Residencies, aimed at professionals eager to develop their skills in the above fields.
• In collaboration with Onassis ONX, Onassis AiR Fellows will have the opportunity to work and receive additional curatorial, development and technical support in the new studio of the platform within Onassis Ready.
• Remains committed to supporting artists in thoughtful and responsible ways. Acknowledging the increasingly precarious working conditions for art professionals in Greece and internationally, as well as the rising cost of living in Athens, the residency has been adapted to offer stronger financial support through an enhanced artist fee and production budget.

All selected participants will receive an artist’s fee, a research/production budget, housing, travel to/from Athens, a collective budget for group site-visits, opportunities to engage with the art scene of Athens through networking events, and access to mentoring and audiovisual equipment.

Community-building is integral to the program: all Onassis AiR Fellows take part in a range of collective activities, including a peer-to-peer feedback workshop, curated visits, research exchanges, and community meetings. Additionally, the program participants are involved in the Onassis AiR Open Days; a series of public events that focus not on presenting a “final” work, but on the creative process that leads to it.

The working language of the program is English.

Submission deadline: 03.03.26. All applications must be submitted no later than 12:00 pm Eastern European Time (UTC +2).