ONES TO WATCH IS BACK! Are you a Yorkshire-born or Yorkshire-based artist at the start of your creative career? Apply now for Ones to Watch 2027 - our annual exhibition for emerging artists. FREE TO APPLY.

We are looking for artists, makers, designers and creatives working in all media: painting, sculpture, jewellery, ceramics, film, sound, text, glass, metal, performance, wood, furniture, and more, to be part of our annual student showcase exhibition.

Sunny Bank Mills is an independent art gallery based in the 3,000ft cloth warehouse of a former textile mill. 

For the past 13 years, Ones to Watch has supported more than 450 emerging artists based in or from Yorkshire in all creative disciplines, giving them the opportunity to exhibit in a gallery setting in a professionally curated exhibition. 

Many have sold work during the show, gone on to exhibit professionally elsewhere and maintained relationships with the Gallery, featuring in subsequent exhibitions or selling work through our Gallery Shop.

The exhibition will take place between the 9th January - 28th March 2027.

APPLICATION DEADLINE: Midnight on Sunday 25th October 2026.

This year's artists will be selected by external judges -  Domino Panton-Oakley (Programme and Gallery Manager at South Square Centre), Holly Grange (Independent Curator currently working with the Hepworth) and Sarah Roberts (Artist,  Writer & Hyde Park Art Club Curator).

Studio residencies and prizes are awarded by both judges and exhibition visitors.  

Reasons to apply: 

• The opportunity to exhibit in a professional, established independent gallery with extensive social media & website coverage and thousands of visitors annually.
• The opportunity to meet and network with other artists from across the region.
• Support on how to present, price and sell your work commercially. 
• Support on how to make your work accessible.
• The opportunity to run workshops for the first time and meet new audiences for your work.
• The opportunity to perform during an evening event in the Gallery.

To be eligible for this opportunity, you must be;

• Yorkshire-born or currently Yorkshire-based. 
• An emerging artist with very limited experience exhibiting your work OR an artist coming back to your practice following a break.
• Able to deliver or arrange delivery of your work to Sunny Bank Mills Gallery to be exhibited between 9th January & 28th March 2027. 

When applying for this opportunity, we would really appreciate it if you could fill out our equal opportunities survey.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/B3M6MZT

DROP-IN: 

We are offering an online drop-in for people to ask questions and meet our team on Wednesday 14th October at 5:00 pm.

Please contact us through the contact curator tab for a direct link.

Tips to strengthen your application:

• Attach clean, high-quality photos of the work you plan to exhibit and add names and dimensions (if applicable) to the image descriptions if the option is there. 
• Ensure any video or website links are still active and include passwords if the link is private.
• Clearly describe the work you are submitting, as well as discuss your practice in general.
• If your work involves tech (including speakers, screens or media players) - please let us know if you are able to provide this, as we have limited access to these facilities and may need to limit the number of multimedia applications as a result.
• If your work is digital or photographic, please think about how your work would be presented or printed, as you will only have 4-5 weeks to arrange this. We would recommend reaching out to local printers for quotes as soon as possible. Unfortunately, we are unable to assist artists with printing costs.
• Use bullet points whilst writing your application if this is something you find useful.