Talent 25

Talent25 - Spotlighting Creativity and Multiplying Opportunity

In 2025 Somerset House celebrates its 25th birthday, marking our extraordinary transformation from civil service carpark to a thriving independent arts charity, becoming one of London’s best loved cultural spaces and home to the UK’s largest concentration of cultural innovators.

To mark this milestone, we’ve programmed a special year featuring genre-defying exhibitions, new commissions and events, bringing audiences closer to the range of cross-disciplinary work from our unrivalled resident creative community.   

A key component of Somerset House’s 25th anniversary is Talent25, providing a focused vehicle platforming talent and innovative gamechangers, with the aim of surfacing the extensive talent development work which is part of our core purpose.   

Talent25 underlines Somerset House’s ongoing commitment to inclusive talent development and highlights the extraordinary talents who are part of Somerset House’s future.   

Talent25 Aims:  

  1. Communicate the story of SH’s talent development work to the outside world in our 25th year, raising the profile of selected creatives as a vehicle to evidence our impact.   
  2. Demonstrate SH’s mission by continuing to invest in creative potential by supporting a creatives personal and professional growth.  

The Somerset House team will nominate creatives in line with agreed criteria. The final selection will be made by a panel including prominent Somerset House Ambassadors. If nominated, you will be notified and asked to submit a short proposal for how you wish to spend the research and development pot and personal growth pot. 

Talent25 will be announced in January 2025 followed by an unveiling of the talents in March 2025. We will commission an established photographer to capture a portrait of each of the talents, linking people to place and craft as the conceptual driver which translates visually through portraiture. The portraits will be presented at the birthday weekend in September 2025. 

Each creative will be offered £8000 investment including £3000 research and development fund and a £1000 personal growth fund (see full financial offer below): 

No Offer Details Cost
1 Stipend To take part in initiative - Attend meetings, events, interviews, photo shoot etc  £2,500
2 Research and Development Fund To support the development of their work; exploration, experimentation, partnerships etc  £3,000
3 Personal Growth Fund To support personal growth; Mentoring, Course Fees, Training & Development  £1,000
4 Showcase at 25th Birthday Weekend A moment for the creative to share their work in real time £1,500
    Per Creative £8,000

Eligibility and Assessment:

A range of creatives will be considered, from emerging talent who have unrealised potential and would significantly benefit from this initiative, to those who are at the cusp of a breaking into a more established status. Creatives will be considered against the following criteria:


Cultural Innovation: Creation and adoption of new ideas, practices, or products that significantly impact and transform the shared values, beliefs, behaviours.

Social Innovation: Development and implementation of new ideas, strategies, or solutions that address social needs.

Creativity and Innovation: Challenge conventional wisdom and explore novel approaches to new possibilities and solving complex problems

Collaboration: Open and flexible to collaboration, utilising multidisciplinary perspectives and approaches to create new ways of making work

Scalability and Replicability: Innovations may be scaled up or adapted to different contexts to maximise impact.

 

Timeline:

Monday 09 December 2024: Applications launched 

Monday 23 December 2024: Applications close 

Monday 06 January 2025: Nominees notified 

Monday 03 February 2025: Shortlisting 

March 2025: Talent25 recipients announced