At a time when the humanities continue to shape conversations around culture, creativity and global exchange, the University’s Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences is expanding opportunities for artists, scholars and cultural practitioners to engage internationally through the Power Institute's Cité Internationale des Arts Fellowship in Paris. The prestigious program offers the opportunity to live and work in the heart of a global creative centre.
The fellowship is one of Australia’s longest-standing international arts programs. Established in 1967, it has supported more than 140 artists, writers and curators over nearly six decades, many at pivotal moments in their careers.
Professor Mark Ledbury, Director of the Power Institute, said the fellowship offers a rare opportunity for sustained creative and scholarly focus.
“Paris offers an unmatched concentration of cultural resources. The fellowship gives practitioners the time and space to deepen their work and engage meaningfully with a diverse and vibrant international art community.”
The Power Institute offers two types of Paris fellowships. The first is for visual artists, and provides them with three months at a living and working studio at Paris’s Cité Internationale des Arts. Here, Fellows are immersed in a dynamic cultural environment, living and working alongside an international community of artists, with access to galleries, archives, libraries and a rich program of intellectual exchange.
Jessica di Costa during her Cité Internationale des Arts Fellowship in 2025. Photo: Jessica di Costa.
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LinkWhat makes the fellowship so valuable is the combination of intellectual freedom, international exchange and concentrated time for creative development.
Professor Mark Ledbury
Director, the Power Institute
The second Fellowship, offered for the first time in 2026, provides a similar opportunity for researchers to pursue their projects in Paris.
As part of a broader uplift of the fellowship program, two additional fellowships for scholars, curators and writers will be introduced in 2027. Named in honour of renowned art historian Virginia Spate, the fellowships will support recipients to undertake research projects drawing on Paris’s internationally significant archives, libraries and collections.
This program is open to Australian researchers to realise projects that may form part of a broader scholarly, curatorial or writing project.
Selection for both Fellowships is highly competitive, with a strong emphasis on not only artistic and intellectual merit, but also the potential impact of the fellowship on the applicant’s career.
Past Fellows have gone on to shape national and international conversations across the visual arts, curatorial practice and art history such as prominent artists Ken Unsworth, Julie Rrap (current SCA Director), Debra Phillips and Gabrielle Hirst, and scholar/curators like Ann Stephen (now Senior Curator at the Chau Chak Wing Museum), Tony Bond and John Clark. Many have contributed to major exhibitions, collections and academic scholarship, reflecting the calibre of the program and its enduring impact.
Recent recipients include filmmaker and visual artist Jessica di Costa, whose work spans experimental film, installation and moving image practice.
Reflecting on her fellowship experience, di Costa described her time in Paris as “one of the most enriching and creatively influential experiences” of her career to date, noting that immersion in the city’s artistic communities and cultural history had a direct impact on her practice.
Professor Ledbury said the breadth and calibre of past Fellows reflects the enduring reputation of the fellowship within Australia’s arts sector.
“What makes the fellowship so valuable is the combination of intellectual freedom, international exchange and concentrated time for creative development. Again and again, we see Fellows return with new ideas, new collaborations and breakthrough work that has been profoundly shaped by the experience.”
Jessica di Costa's Paris studio during her 2025 fellowship. Photo credit: Jessica di Costa.
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LinkApplications for the upcoming fellowship round are now open.
Hero image: Site du Marais. Photo: Maurine Tric.