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Deadline to apply: January 5, 2026

Residency at BUDA with a premiere at NEXT festival: Three weeks in October/November 2026

Furthering our commitment to provide conditions for new works to emerge and meet their audiences, we are continuing our partnership with Kunstencentrum BUDA and NEXT Festival in Belgium to offer a three-week residency for a performing artist from the Arab world. Using BUDA’s facilities and artistic support, the artist would finalize a new production and premiere their work at NEXT Festival at the conclusion of the residency. The partners will provide the selected artist (working with a maximum of three collaborators, i.e. up to four individuals in total) with their travel, visa costs, and per diem, a contribution to their project’s production costs, and the presentation fee for the performance.

Kunstencentrum BUDA in Kortrijk is a space for performing arts, an art house cinema, and one of the largest workspaces for performing arts in Belgium. Founded in 2006, BUDA constructs an artistic context in which the artist’s desire to create and learn is central. It offers time and space, customized support (logistic, technical, feedback), a network of artistic and professional contacts, and the possibility of an informal presentation for a test audience. BUDA co-organizes NEXT Festival.

NEXT Festival is a yearly, international cross-border dance, theatre, and performance festival founded in 2008 featuring works by renowned and young artists in more than 20 locations in and around Lille-Kortrijk-Tournai-Valenciennes cities. It is co-organized by five French and Belgian artistic houses and 18 associated partners. It is a collaborative endeavour and a landmark event for cultural and international artistic professionals. It brings together disciplines, communities, and cultures, encourages and facilitates intercultural dialogue amongst programmers, artists, festival organizers, students, and the broad public.

Previous artists invited to be part of NEXT festival through this partnership are Amina Aboulghar, Bint Mbareh, Nermin Habib, Nadim Bahsoun, and Stephanie Kayal.

SPECIFIC ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

In addition to complying with the general eligibility criteria that you can read here, please note the following:

  • Applicants must have developed and presented previous works.
  • Applicants must be working on a new and original project.
  • Applicants must be working with contemporary forms of performance (classical theatre, community theatre, and classical western dance such as ballet and so forth are not eligible).
  • Unconventional projects dealing with experimental forms and/or concerned with progressive discourses are encouraged to apply.
  • Unsuccessful applicants to previous editions are eligible to re-apply.
  • Applicants must have advanced and be in the final development phase of their projects by September 2026 and have confirmed co-producers and/or a financing plan, as this residency only partially contributes to the production costs.
  • Proposals for concerts are not eligible for this call.

PROCESS

  • The applications will be assessed by Mophradat and the final selection will be made in collaboration with BUDA and NEXT.
  • Preselected applicants will be contacted for a conversation sometime in February 2026.
  • All applicants, whether selected or not, receive a response to their applications by March 1, 2026.
  • Only one application can be selected.
  • Due to a high volume of applications and the confidentiality of the selection process, Mophradat cannot provide individual feedback explaining the reason an application was not selected.
  • Upon selection, the resident will sign separate agreements with Mophradat, BUDA, and NEXT.
  • The partners will support the selected applicant through the necessary visa applications; and if the artists are unable to travel due to visa refusals, the project will be compensated.
  • The partner covers travel and visa costs as well as residency per diems, in addition to coproduction costs, and a presentation fee for the performance at NEXT Festival for an overall amount of 10,000 euros, all included.
  • A short-written report of the resident’s experience must be submitted to Mophradat within two weeks of the residency’s end.

APPLICATION

Please note that the application form online, can neither be saved nor revisited. It may only be filled out and submitted at once. To help you prepare for your application, you may check out the expected questions here.

If you are interested in being considered for this residency, please fill the form here and make sure you answer all parts of the questions. We want to get to know you through this application process and we don’t evaluate applications based on writing ability, so please be aware that we don’t want to read AI generated answers.

Any material sent by email will not be considered.