2025 Open Call
PROGRAMS AT A GLANCE
Sprout 🌱 Our funded artist residency program for local and interstate artists of Asian diasporas
Starter Pack 🧸 Our new fee-based mentorship and micro residency program
Liminal x Hyphenated Projects Writing Fellowship ✨ Asian Australian writing residency
TIMELINE
Application opens: Friday 1 November
Application closes: Friday 29 November at midnight AEST
Notifications: Friday 13 December
Starter Pack period: January - April 2025
APPLICATIONS
Before you apply, please read our FAQs and have the following ready:
For Sprout and Starter Pack:
- a 1-page CV
- About your practice (100 words)
- Why are you applying to this residency (200 words)
- (For Starter Pack) Please identify reasons of your chosen mentor and a skill/theme you are hoping to focus on (100 words)
- Link(s) to your website, social media
- Support Material: Up to 5 images or video links in a single PDF
For Liminal x Hyphenated Projects Writing Fellowship:
- Short synopsis (500 words)
- Writing example (up to 10 pages)
- Link(s) to your website, writing example, social media
Sprout 🌱
About Sprout
Sprout is what we have been known for—the original Hyphenated Projects artist residency with a new name. A non-outcome-driven artist residency (up to four weeks) for connection, development, experimentation or rest, you are invited to use this residency time however you like. In the past we have supported artists who wanted to connect with people and nature at our location, artists who needed some time for creative recovery, artists who worked with a domestic environment or artists who would use the house as a context for their practice/conceptual inquiry.
Open to the public for the first time, in 2025 we welcome emerging and mid-career artists of Asian diaspora to apply.
Everything you need to know about Sprout:
Artists will receive $2,500 stipend for the residency;
Access to Hyphenated House in Sunshine West, Melbourne for up to four weeks;
Mentorship for the period of residency (optional);
One local artist and one interstate artist will be selected by Hyphenated Projects team;
For interstate artists only, we will cover 1x return flights to Melbourne from your nearest capital city, and ground transport from Melbourne airport;
For regional Victorian artists, we will cover costs for your ground transportation to and from your home;
No outcome is expected from this residency, however we are happy to support you towards an open studio/gathering if desired;
We are accepting applications from visual artists only (self-identified / if you apply we will read it).
We welcome artists who work across different visual mediums to apply, however please understand it is within a domestic space (not built for certain mediums). If you’re unsure after reading our FAQ, please get in touch.
Liminal x Hyphenated Projects Writing Fellowship ✨
In its third edition, Liminal and Hyphenated Projects is the only writing residency offered specifically to Asian Australian writers on this continent. We welcome applications from writers of all genres.
Previous winners include nonfiction writer Jinghua Qian (2020) and poet Shastra Deo (2024).
Everything you need to know about Liminal x Hyphenated Projects Writing Fellowship:
Writers will receive $1,500 stipend for the residency;
Access to Hyphenated House in Sunshine West, Melbourne for up to two weeks;
Mentorship sessions via Liminal (optional);
One Asian Australian writer will be selected for the fellowship by Liminal and Hyphenated Projects team;
No outcome is expected from this residency, however we are happy to support you towards a workshop, gathering or reading if desired;
Publication opportunity with Liminal (optional).
For submissions and more information, please visit here.
Starter Pack 🧸
About Starter Pack
Starter Pack is our new, fee-based program for artists and curators to develop a project or a skill with a mentor outside of an institutional framework.
Starter Pack is designed to connect highly-skilled, mid-career practitioners to offer their knowledge to emerging artists and curators in a friendly and personalised setting.
As the costs for arts education increase, while artist employment within institutions remains precarious, we would like to facilitate this space for reciprocal learning, adjacent to other formal and informal training and development programs in our local arts ecology.
The first Starter Pack will take place between January - April 2025, with Leyla Stevens (artist), Lara Chamas (artist), Nikki Lam (artist-curator) and Bianca Winataputri (curator).
Everything you need to know about Starter Pack:
Includes a one-week micro residency at Hyphenated House in Sunshine West (this can happen outside of the Starter Pack period);
Participate in four 1-on-1 mentorship sessions online or in-person, depending on your location;
Participate in two facilitated online sessions with Hyphenated Projects and other participants for discussions and/or project feedback;
Have the option to work towards an outcome with Hyphenated Projects;
Each mentor may select up to four mentees, depending on their capacity.
This program is particularly useful for emerging artists or curators who seek to engage with a mentor but not sure where to start. It is also recommended to mid-career artists and curators who would like to upskill, or get specific advice from our mentors over a fixed period of time.
Examples of what might be included in the mentorship:
Professional insights and knowledge for research, conception, production and delivery of project;
Assistance and review for grant applications, project proposal, project copy;
Guidance around preparation for a project activity such as an exhibition, artist residency, further studies etc.;
Medium-specific advice and skill share such as video editing, digital project, ceramics, spatial practice, writing, casting etc.;
General guidance on artistic and conceptual process, material, project planning etc.
In-depth learning of a shared theme or skill from your mentor.
How much does it cost?
We operate on a self-identified, 3-tier pay scale.
Tier 1: $2,000 (Pay-it-forward)
Tier 2: $1,650 (Supporter)
Tier 3: $1,300 (Kickstarter)
For fund transparency, instalment options and rationale, please see our FAQs.
Starter Pack Mentors
Leyla Stevens
Artist
‘I’m interested in image-based storytelling as a method to recuperate submerged histories within established canons. My approach to filmmaking is deeply collaborative and underscored by a reflective and responsive engagement with place and communities. I use methods of archival research, documentary techniques and performance practices. I can offer mentorship around research driven practices, collaborative and interdisciplinary projects and filmmaking processes.’
Current Interests:
Archives, counter-histories, place-based methodologies, Balinese and Indonesian art histories, transcultural and diasporic narratives, filmmaking, image based practices.
Find out more about Leyla Stevens’ work here
Nikki Lam
Artist-curator
‘I’m interested in working with practitioners who have hybrid practices working in the fields and edges of contemporary art, film, design, research, text and performance. My strongest skills are in filmmaking and devising conceptual methodologies, working with discursive mediums, collaborative and interdisciplinary practice, and Asian diaspora discourse. I am particularly interested in themes around time, memory, migration, mythologies, crisis and speculative fiction right now.’
Current Interests:
Time and text-based practice, cinema and moving images, Hong Kong diaspora, Asian diaspora discourses in the West, solidarity and equity-driven practice, queer and feminist methodologies, digital, performance, art publishing, interdisciplinary practice, multilingual practice, anti-capitalist and relational methodologies, collectivism.
Find out more about Nikki Lam’s work here
Lara Chamas
Artist
‘My knowledge and experience lay in material-based practice/process and medium exploration. Medium matters a great deal to me and often is enriching to my work conceptually. I work with objects, materials, and topics that carry cultural, spiritual and or emotional meaning, including food. Anti-colonial methodologies and theory, family and lineage are central to a lot of my practice. I would be keen to discuss these and adjacent themes, particularly with SWANA region and or Islamic backgrounds.’
Current interests:
Sculpture, installation, material practice, casting, mould-making, process and labour, diaspora, family and lineage, storytelling and narrative theory, tacit knowledge and touch, inherited trauma, Islam, food and cooking, documentary, anti-capitalist, anti-colonial, mutual aid, resistance, body as political vessel, disability politics, anti-institution.
Lara Chamas is a Lebanese artist, based in Naarm (Melbourne), fleeing from civil war, her parents migrated to Australia, where she was born. Her practice investigates topics of postcolonial and migrant narratives within the context of her cultural identity. Using narrative and experience documentation, storytelling, transgenerational trauma and memory and tacit knowledge; her research intends to explore links and meeting points between narrative theory, cultural practice, current political and societal tensions, and the body as a political vessel.
Bianca Winataputri
Curator
‘I am interested to connect with creatives who have (or are working towards) research-based and community focused practices. I have a strong art historical and curatorial background, working closely with artists, art collectives, curators, writers, and community members particularly in Southeast Asia and Australia. I also have experience with and knowledge of different audiences and publics across the Asian and Australian region. I am looking for mentees who are curious, innovative, and keen to work with international collaborators and communities.’
Current interests:
Curatorial research and writing, Art publishing, Public programming, Community/audience-engagement in the arts, Asian diaspora discourses in Australia and internationally, Transnational artistic, historical, and cultural connections
Bianca Winataputri is an independent curator, writer, art historian, and podcast host based in Indonesia and Australia. She has a Ph.D. in Art History and Theory at Monash Art, Design and Architecture (MADA) and her research focuses on contemporary Southeast Asian art and exhibitions. Bianca was previously Public Programs coordinator at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA) and Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art at the National Gallery of Australia. Bianca is currently developing an international research and exchange project Seaweed Stories that connects seaweed creative practices, art making, innovation, and modes of thinking across Asia and Australia.