Lowry’s Scratch Nights X Homegrown

We’re pleased to announce our next call-out for live art and contemporary performance artists with a home-based creative practice to share new work as part of our next Scratch Nights X Homegrown event, taking place on Thu 18 Jun 2026 online on Zoom.

This event is part of the wider programme for forthcoming contemporary exhibition Curtain Up! taking place from 18 April-21 June 2026.

This edition of Scratch Nights will be curated in collaboration with artist Corinne and Lowry Contemporary Curator, Zoe Watson.

Scratch Nights X Homegrown

Our Scratch Nights offer an evening dedicated to the development of brand-new work. A chance for artists to put early ideas in front of a live, supportive audience to see what sticks; it’s about now rather than never, it’s about the spit without the polish. Testing early ideas that may one day turn into fully formed pieces.

These informal nights bring new work to audiences and create a supportive platform for artists to experiment, take risks, test ideas, and share new work with peers and wider public.

This edition of Scratch Nights takes its name from our recent online symposium, Homegrown which brought together artists, producers and organisations to explore the possibilities and challenges of making and sharing work for artists who have a home-based and situated creative practice.

We’re now inviting disabled and non-disabled live art and contemporary performance artists, collectives or companies with a home-based^ creative practice to submit proposals to share work-in-progress pieces online via Zoom on Thursday 18 June 2026.

^By home-based we mean artists who face barriers leaving homes to perform live in person or artists working from home or near to home due to care responsibilities or other barriers that mean they cannot venture further than the surrounding areas of home.

*By situated we mean artists either working from home or near to home due to care responsibilities or other barriers that mean they cannot venture further than the surrounding areas of home.

For this opportunity, lead artists should have a home-based creative practice and can work collaboratively with others based elsewhere either online or in person.

This is an open callout for artists based anywhere in the UK, and we strongly encourage artists based in Greater Manchester and the North to apply.

Selected artists will receive:

• A fee of £1000 to develop and present your idea  
• Opportunities to share work online as it develops with the Scratch Night team  
• Artist Development and Access Producer support from Lowry Staff 
• An online mentoring session in advance of the event with Corinne and a creative technologist / technician 
• A recording of the Scratch Night performance on Zoom  
• Anonymous feedback from audiences in response to the questions you want answered about your work 
• If required, extra financial support will be made available as a contribution towards access costs, access or creative support worker and any costs associated with wellbeing and safe working in relation to the activity you wish to undertake. We can discuss what you need if you are selected.

Scratch Night Guidelines

• The work must be a new idea or piece in development (not having been shown anywhere else) up to 20 minutes. 
• For this opportunity, the lead artist should have a home-based creative practice and can work collaboratively with others based elsewhere either online or in person.
• Whilst proposals can contain elements of film, we are looking for live work that can be performed remotely.  
• We are not looking for work that is solely film or music based. 
• This opportunity is for artists at any stage of their career. 

Key Dates

Deadline for applications: Thu 02 Apr 2026, 5pm 
All artists will be notified by: Thu 16 Apr 2026 
Scratch Nights date: Thur 18 Jun 2026, Online Zoom 

Lowry is committed to encouraging diversity and intersectionality in the arts and we actively encourage proposals from artists from under-represented communities, including people who experience racism, identify as working class, have disabilities, are from the LGBTQ+ community, are care experienced or are discriminated against.  
 
We encourage you to apply for this opportunity no matter what your age, caring responsibilities, disability, gender, gender identity, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief and sexual orientation.  
 
If you have any queries, please get in touch with Grace Ng at artistdevelopment@thelowry.com. We can answer queries about the application process and Scratch Nights programme but cannot read draft applications in advance.

How to apply

To apply and submit your Proposal online click here.

Click here to download the Application Form and Equal Opportunities Monitoring in a Word document. This can be used to draft answers to the questions before applying online, or for audio or video applications. 
 
Click here to download the contents of this page, Application Form, and Equal Opportunities Monitoring Form in Large Print Word format. 
 
Click to download the contents of this page, Application Form, and Equal Opportunities Monitoring Form in Easy Read Word format

Image credit: Paul Lumsden