Artist Calls and Opportunities
Sometimes curated sometimes open call for artist residencies and showings.
Interested in renting space? Go to the booking page.
[freeform] Artists 2027
Applications open for Round 1 (Jan-Apr)
Applications for the newly re-vamped [freeform] program are now available. [freeform] Artists 2027 is a program for artists offering a four-month period of subsidized studio access that concludes in a forum of the participating artists to share their work. There will be two rounds offered in 2027: Round 1 from January to April, Round 2 from June to September.
Who is eligible:
Local Seattle-region working artists
Artists who work in the medium(s) of performance, dance, theater, sound, sculpture, installation, literary arts, interdisciplinary arts, etc.
Artists who describe their work as complex, multi-disciplinary, or otherwise less-than-straightforward
From January 2027 to April 2027, [freeform] Artists in Round 1 will receive a total of 32 hours of 80% subsidized studio access to The Shed at 8 hours per month. The total cost to the artist is $75. Up to four artists will be accepted into each round this year. At the end of April, all artists will present, informally or formally, what they’ve been working on to their peers in the program. A container for feedback can be created or simple witnessing, as desired by each artist.
Dates the artist must be available:
Up to eight hours each month between January and April.
Sat. April 24th - 6:30p-8:30p - Round 1 Forum
Deadline: December 16th, 2026 - 11:30p
Notification: December 27th, 2026
[freeform] has existed as a residency program since 2025, originally offering 5-day residencies each month to artists on a first-come, first-serve basis. Previous [freeform] artists have included The Bonnies, Daezhane Day, Kristin Tollefson, the Verboom Collective, Samantha Fabrikant, Hannah March, Aubra Heller and Evelyn Morrison, and Kyra McPherson. Artists who have received residencies at The Shed have gone on to show their work at the Risk/Reward Festival, The Vestibule, Tacoma Art Museum, Velocity’s NextFest, Walk Don’t Run, Seattle International Dance Festival, and more.
Open Slab
Proposals now accepted
Open Slab is leaving beta-mode and fully launching in 2027 by now accepting proposals from performance artists with complex practices who wish to contextualize their work and processes. Through a series of residencies that result in a showing presented by The Shed, the artist will work closely with curator C. Asa Call to devise a showing that offers multi-aspectual ways of experiencing the artist’s ideas, themes, and practices over time.
The Shed hopes to fill a need within the performing arts scene of Seattle to provide audiences with the means to view an artist beyond a single work, and gain deeper insight to an artist’s body of work by engaging in a small “slab” of thematically, chronologically, or otherwise curated work.
This program has no set deadlines; and timelines for residency and presentation will be established with the selected artist.
Proposals are accepted on an ongoing basis and should include the following:
an artist statement that discusses how your work engages complex or interdisciplinary processes
a proposal of what you would be interested in presenting for Open Slab
links to 3-5 work samples in the medium most suitable to giving the curator a sense of your work
Submit your proposal to C. Asa Call.
Who is eligible:
Local Seattle-region working artists
Artists who work in the medium(s) of performance—performance art, dance, theater, sound, with a special emphasis on interdisciplinary arts and artists working in multiple mediums
Sotto Voce
Proposals opening soon for Co-production with The Shed
Sotto Voce is a new program launching in 2027 to co-produce works by local artists with complex practices. The Italian phrase translates to “in a whisper” and is meant to highlight and bring opportunities for unsung or undersung artistic voices of Seattle, regardless of where you are in your career.
Look for applications to be released late 2026/early 2027.
Curatorial Viewpoint
Statement from C. Asa Call, Owner and Curator
I acknowledge that a process of selecting artists to receive opportunities also involves selecting from a certain viewpoint. Here is the kind of work that draws me in as a curator, and here are the kinds of artists I hope to support and encourage in their artmaking.
Work that involves complex practices
Work that is difficult for others to categorize, seems unwieldy or dense with information
Work that is robustly experimental
Artists who identify as women, BIPOC, or LGBTQ+ and any other people who experience oppression and being othered based on their identity