As part of a shared commitment to supporting artists across the UK, Liverpool Biennial 2021, a-n The Artists Information Company and Open Culture have joined forces to provide five support and research bursaries of £1500 each for artists over March – June 2021, within the 11th edition of Liverpool Biennial. The selected artists are Youngsook Choi & Taey IoheGrace Collins & William LangSophy KingDaksha Patel, and Rain Wu.

Delivered as part of the Liverpool Biennial public programme and in partnership with a-n during their 40th anniversary year, these bursaries invite artists to undertake a period of research in response to a new avenue of thinking. Reflecting the diversity of artist practices in The Stomach & The Port, applications were encouraged from artists working in all visual and sonic arts disciplines that reflected innovative and ambitious thinking.

The artists taking part in the bursary programme benefit from in-kind support from the Liverpool Biennial team, including the Programme, Marketing and Development departments, as well as a research trip to the festival. They have been invited to showcase their research and work in progress throughout the festival, either in person or digitally. These showcases take on a variety of different formats and provide further insight into the projects that the artists are developing.

The selected artists are each working with ideas that tie into the wider themes of The Stomach and the Port – developing projects around ideas such as symbiotic relationships with plants, the festival of Imbolc, wild swimming, LIDAR scanning natural spaces, and growing mycelium.