At a time when uncertainty has become everybody’s least-favourite house guest, support feels less like a luxury and more like basic survival kit. Mercifully, Alserkal Avenue appears to have noticed. Enter Blank Space, a new initiative designed to support UAE-based creative collectives with something both symbolic and actually useful: room to think, make, gather, and get on with it.

The premise is pleasingly straightforward. Selected collectives will be given temporary space, resources, and visibility to develop projects over four weeks. Think of it as part studio residency, part communal experiment, part reminder that creative people do occasionally need more than “exposure”.

Each collective will use the space to build a body of work or public programme that reaches beyond itself and supports a wider creative community. The result could take the form of an exhibition, display, screening, performance, or open studio. In other words: not just making things, but letting people in on the process too.

A few questions, answered before anybody asks them in the group chat:

The open call is for UAE-based collectives and collectives-to-be working across creative fields, including:

That covers a fairly generous spread, from textile designers and ceramicists to DJs, filmmakers, photographers, sculptors, and multidisciplinary practitioners who have wisely refused to be boxed in.

Interdisciplinary groups and cross-sector collaborations are also welcome, which is always nice to hear in a world still oddly obsessed with categories.

You can apply as an existing collective, or form one specifically for this. The point is to encourage collaboration among creatives, not to reward whoever already has the neatest shared bio.

Not exactly. You must apply as a collective, with a clearly defined group of practitioners and a shared proposal. Solo geniuses, devastating though they may be, will need company.

Keep it concise. The proposal should be a maximum of 10 slides and include:

It also needs a public-facing element, such as a showcase, screening, performance, or open studio. Quiet brilliance is lovely, but this isn't the time for total secrecy.

Selected collectives will receive:

Which is to say: the infrastructure to do the work, and perhaps even be seen doing it.

Nothing too dramatic. Proposals shouldn't require major structural changes. Light, temporary, and reversible setups are encouraged. So yes to clever interventions, no to behaving as though you are on a home renovation programme.

Yes, absolutely. Collectives are encouraged to activate the space through workshops, talks, performances, or open sessions, especially where these support a wider community and align with the proposal.

Applications can be submitted via email to [email protected], with the subject line: Blank Space Proposal [name of collective]

Deadline: 10 April

Because every good open call needs one final ingredient: a looming date.