County Durham digital art commission 2026: £20,000 for 'We Are Hope' community-led creative technology
A £20,000 commission for digital art made with County Durham communities
No More Nowt has launched 'We Are Hope — Digital Residency Commission', an artist commission with a total budget of £20,000 to explore community-powered responses to climate challenges through art and technology. The opportunity was announced on 9 October 2026, and proposals must be received by Monday 16 November 2026 at 5:00 pm UK local time. An individual artist, a collective or an organisation may apply. Digital artists and multidisciplinary creatives are explicitly invited, but this is not an award for a standalone art installation developed remotely without a real relationship to County Durham's people and places.
The commissioning brief is deliberately hopeful: it asks artists to move beyond catastrophic climate imagery and work with communities to imagine more resilient, desirable futures. The phrase 'socio-technical' describes a relationship between technologies, the structures around them and the people who use them. In practice, a proposal might combine interactive storytelling, environmental visualisation, participatory sculpture, browser-based creativity or physical and digital activity — but these are examples of possible approaches, not pre-selected formats or permission to deliver a purely commercial software product.
The full £20,000 has to cover delivery — it is not a personal prize
The £20,000 is the total commission value, including artist and collaborator fees, participation and contact sessions, planning, preparation, travel, materials, access requirements, VAT where applicable, community costs and an appropriate closing event or public outcome. It should not be advertised as a £20,000 personal stipend in addition to free transport, venue hire and production. Applicants must produce a credible budget that balances paid engagement time, production resources, delivery risks and contingency. No More Nowt will offer marketing, publicity and producing support where needed, but this does not eliminate the applicant's cost responsibilities.
The official brief says contact sessions should be delivered in line with the AUE rate of pay. Artists should therefore separate realistic professional fees from other costs rather than budgeting community workshops as unpaid labour. A project that spends almost the entire commission on a technically elaborate installation while leaving no funds for engagement, safeguarding, accessibility and public sharing would need substantial revision to match the brief.
Two communities, at least 24 days of participatory contact
A decisive requirement is working with at least two communities and relevant partners in County Durham. The brief expects a minimum of twenty-four days' worth of engagement or contact sessions with local people, described as approximately one day per week or two half-days. Sessions should involve participation and co-creation, not merely a consultant interviewing residents before working independently. Applicants should explain which communities may take part, how they will be approached and how participation influences the actual form and meaning of the artwork.
Engagement also brings practical obligations. The budget is expected to allow for community facilities and costs such as room hire, refreshments, food or energy contributions where appropriate. A meaningful project should consider how to reach people who may not otherwise attend cultural venues, particularly given No More Nowt's focus on underserved post-industrial or rural communities. An artist unfamiliar with County Durham should avoid inventing community partnerships and instead propose a realistic process for building them with local cultural hubs and the commissioning team.
Where must the project take place — and must the applicant live in Durham?
The delivery is place-based: the commission asks for a strong connection to County Durham, engagement with its communities and an outcome reflecting local realities, histories and hopes. No More Nowt says it welcomes artists at every career stage, including recent graduates, and is especially interested in applications from people with links to the county. The current description does not state a blanket requirement that every applicant already resides in County Durham. A national or international applicant should nevertheless confirm that they can satisfy the in-person engagement, travel, safeguarding and administrative requirements before assuming that eligibility extends without any practical restrictions.
Why County Durham's industrial and environmental history matters
The commission draws on the county's history as a coalfield and on communities' experience of collective responses to economic and environmental change. It invites proposals that connect ecological repair, resilient local futures and new kinds of shared action. A digital artwork could consider intergenerational memories, local spaces, environmental data or imaginative community archives, provided the relationships are reciprocal and the work offers participants a meaningful role. The brief does not ask applicants merely to illustrate a generic climate-change infographic or showcase the newest technology for its own sake.
No More Nowt describes itself as a Creative People and Places initiative working across County Durham, with longstanding engagement in communities where access to arts and culture can be limited. The project is part of its wider Actual Reality digital programme, which explores how creative technology can extend rather than replace physical human connections. Thinking about access to devices, data, mobility and local meeting places is therefore as relevant as choosing a particular interactive platform.
What kind of digital artwork or public result could emerge?
The organiser welcomes public, participatory and potentially open-source work alongside offline physical media, sculpture and community communication. An outcome might be a browser-accessible artwork, a public installation, an interactive story, a participatory sculpture, a shared exhibition or a launch event. The goal is a form that can be redistributed, encountered or used meaningfully by the communities themselves. There is no requirement in the public brief that every work must use AI, VR, blockchain or a specific programming language.
Applicants proposing AI-assisted or data-driven work should consider consent, ownership of material contributed by community members, the rights to images and voices, safe handling of local stories and the long-term usability of any digital outcome. A web experience that depends on paid accounts and unstable external services may not be as accessible as a lightweight, well-maintained public work. These are editorial production considerations arising from the community emphasis, not additional technical eligibility criteria imposed by the organiser.
A timeline contradiction in the published brief needs clarification
There is an important discrepancy in the official commission page. Its budget section says that twenty-four days of community contact should take place between September 2026 and March 2027, although the same page says the commission was launched only on 9 October 2026, applications close on 16 November and work begins in December 2026. These dates cannot all apply literally to a new award. Do not plan retrospectively delivered September sessions or assume an automatic extension. Ask No More Nowt to confirm the actual twenty-four-day engagement window and whether activity after March 2027 is expected.
The published headline timeline gives shortlisted interviews in the week beginning 23 November 2026, a commission start in December 2026 and final delivery of all outcomes by September 2027. The precise schedule for workshops and any closing event should be agreed with the commissioner. Proposed staffing and venue arrangements should therefore allow for a feasible sequence, with a clear plan for community consent and a reasonable amount of time to adapt the artistic output as people participate.
How to apply: a single PDF or a three-minute audio/video alternative
Applications are accepted by email to hello@nomorenowt.org. Use the subject line 'We Are Hope — Digital Residency Commission'. Submit either one PDF document or an audio/video file sent via WeTransfer with a maximum length of three minutes. The body of the proposal should set out the artistic idea and the approach to working closely with Durham communities; the brief sets a maximum of 1,000 words for the descriptive proposal. Applicants choosing the accessible audio/video route should confirm with the organiser how supplementary schedule and budget files should be supplied.
The instructions ask applicants to explain the artwork they might produce and why their approach is ambitious and innovative, give a short biography of up to 200 words for themselves and other proposed artists, and include a planned timeline of contact days, community visits, planning and evaluation. A budget is mandatory and must provide for contingency if delivery circumstances change. Articulating the link between the digital method and the community benefit is likely to matter more than attaching long, unrelated portfolios.
Insurance, DBS and equality monitoring
The formal application asks candidates to confirm public liability insurance cover up to £5 million and a current basic Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check. Because the work may involve community participants and young people, these are practical safety considerations as well as form requirements. Artists who do not yet have the listed documents should contact the commissioning team before applying rather than implying they hold valid insurance or background checks when they do not.
The organiser also asks for its Equal Opportunities Form to be completed using the link on the official commission page. It is separate from the artistic narrative, which means sending a compelling PDF while ignoring the other administrative requirements could still leave an application incomplete. A candidate should check that the video or PDF is accessible, that the email subject matches the commission title and that the message arrives before 5:00 pm on the closing date.
Applicants are asked to write in their own words, not submit AI-only text
No More Nowt has included a specific statement about AI. It values human-created proposals grounded in real experience and engagement with communities, and warns that applications relying solely on AI-generated material may not demonstrate the applicant's understanding of the commission. The organisation acknowledges that assistive technology may support accessibility, but an artist should make the idea, reflections on their practice and experience genuinely their own. This is not an announced universal ban on digital-art tools or artistic experimentation with AI in the resulting artwork.
How proposals will be judged
The selection process will consider the quality and ambition of the artistic response, experience with socially engaged work including young people and less-engaged audiences, feasibility of delivery and value for money. Only shortlisted applicants will be interviewed, with interviews anticipated in late November. A strong application should therefore show evidence of collaborative practice as well as a distinctive artistic idea, sound budgeting and the realistic ability to visit and work with County Durham communities. Acceptance of a proposal is not guaranteed by meeting the minimum requirements.
A useful preparation approach is to outline a small number of meaningful meetings with real or prospective community partners, define what participants can decide about the work, show how the digital and physical components connect and identify what will be publicly shared in 2027. Add realistic scheduling and contingency for travel, accessibility and any changing technical approach. The aim is not to write a generic grant proposal full of impressive jargon, but to demonstrate a responsible process of art-making with local people.
Submission deadline, contact and original programme documentation
The application deadline is Monday 16 November 2026 at 5:00 pm UK time. Questions about the contradictory engagement dates, access requirements, schedule or budget can be sent to hello@nomorenowt.org. The deadline is set to a specific clock time; saving a draft or sending a link after 5 pm is not the same as a valid submission. The commission began accepting interest on 9 October and expects the work to begin in December following the shortlisting and interview process.