Hands-on Residency is a six-week online programme dedicated to support contemporary artists and designers by fostering deep critical reflection and cultural exchange. By leveraging the diversity of participants’ geographies and backgrounds, the residency creates an environment of collaborative thinking and translocal dialogue that supports practitioners in further developing their work and connects them to an international ecosystem of creative stakeholders.

Throughout the residency, participants engage directly with a range of invited thinkers, including art historians, writers, curators, and intellectuals, creating opportunities for sustained reflection on their practice. The programme prioritises collective exchange, critical discussion, and interdisciplinary approaches, allowing artists and designers to situate their work within broader cultural, political, and historical contexts. Through these encounters, participants are encouraged to expand their conceptual frameworks, experiment with new ideas, and articulate their practice with clarity and intention.

Each edition of the residency is centered around a specific thematic focus, which guides the development of a final group exhibition held in London at the end of the programme. The show aims to contextualise the projects produced during the residency through a curatorial lens and present them within a cohesive narrative that facilitates public dialogue, understanding, and appreciation.