OffBeat Art Club is a group exhibition and open call celebrating the weird and wonderful artwork which might not always find a home in exhibitions. It brings together artists who are working in craft, print, painting, ephemera and object-based work about the vernacular and the slightly off-centre. The exhibition coincides with London Craft Week and is part of OffBeat’s wider Folk Film Festival. It’s taking place in collaboration with Staffordshire St.

The exhibition sits within OffBeat’s wider interest in how offbeat culture keeps surfacing in contemporary visual practice, not as nostalgia, but as something open to everyone.

This exhibition is curated in collaboration with Wilfrid Wood.

Important Information

Submission fee

£8 to submit one work
£15 to submit two works
£20 to submit three works

If the submission fee is a barrier for you, please get in touch.

What we’re looking for

We are inviting submissions from artists and makers working in:

• Craft-led or materially focused practices
• Print, drawing, painting and mixed media
• Film stills, archival material and image-based work
• Small sculptural objects or wall-based works
• Work that connects to folk culture, place, ritual, labour or the handmade

We are particularly interested in work that feels thoughtful rather than polished, and in practices that sit slightly outside dominant commercial or institutional aesthetics.

We want to use the OffBeat Art Club as a chance to platform under-represented artists making work in any medium.

Context: OffBeat Folk Film and beyond

OffBeat is best known for OffBeat Folk Film Club and the OffBeat Folk Film Festival, which look at archival and contemporary folk film, documentary and moving image.

We are interested in an expanded definition of ‘folk’, a culture which is, literally “OffBeat” - weird, wonderful and the surprising.

We hope to use film to show an inclusive, positive and hopeful vision of what it is to be British today.

The OffBeat Art Club extends this into a physical exhibition format, creating space for static and object-based work that shares the same concerns around place, tradition and contemporary vernacular culture. 

Although we are interested in what it is to be British, Britain and Britishness do not need to be key themes within the work. In fact, the artists don’t even need to be British at all.

This exhibition is part of an ongoing expansion of OffBeat into exhibitions, publishing and artist-led projects beyond film.

What this opportunity offers

• A curated group exhibition at Staffordshire St, Peckham
• Promotion via OffBeat and Staffordshire St channels
  • Promotion will take place via Instagram, mailing lists and websites.
  • OffBeat currently has c.63,000 Instagram followers and a monthly reach of over a million people.
  • Staffordshire St has c.8,500 Instagram followers and an established local and London-wide audience.
  • Both organisations actively promote events in the run up and during the exhibition period.
• The opportunity to sell work during the exhibition
  • 50% commission is split between the organisers and the gallery
• The opportunity to take part in a London Craft Week market stall selling smaller pieces and ephemera.
  • London Craft Week is an established annual programme across London, attracting around 100,000 visitors across the week, with events hosted by galleries, institutions and independent spaces. There are no stall fees for participating artists. Stall costs are covered by the organisers. 

About Staffordshire St

Staffordshire St is an independent, not-for-profit project space in Peckham, South East London. Championing emerging and under-represented artists, Staffordshire St produces exhibitions, collaborative projects and live events alongside a learning programme of talks, screenings and workshops. They also provide affordable studios for artists, makers and designers.

Delivering the work

If your work is selected, we will ask you to deliver it to Staffordshire St. 2D works must be provided framed and ready to hang. 3D works must be ready for display, including installation directions and fixings.

Sales

Artists receive 50% of the sale price on any work sold as part of the exhibition.

London Craft Week market

The exhibition coincides with London Craft Week and includes a weekend market at Staffordshire St. Selected artists will be able to sell work directly as part of this event.

London Craft Week is an established annual programme across London, attracting around 100,000 visitors across the week, with events hosted by galleries, institutions and independent spaces.

The submission fees help us cover the practical costs of putting on the exhibition, including installation, invigilation, documentation and promotion. All fees go directly back into making the show possible.

Dates

• Submission deadline: 15 February 2026
• Artists notified: April 2026
• Exhibition dates: 8th May - 17th May 2026
• London Craft Week market weekend: 16th - 17th May 2026
  
  

After submitting your first artwork, you will then be directed to make a payment. Select the amount for the number of submissions you would like to make.

If this is more than one, you will then be able to make further submissions by submitting additional forms up to the number of artworks you have paid for.