421 Announces Recipients of Artistic Research Grant for 2025-26

We are pleased to announce the selected recipients for the 2025-26 edition of the Artististic Research Grant.

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Congratulations to Amanny Ahmad, Gouled Ahmed, Ayham Allouch, Sawsan and Bahar Al Bahar and Batha Collective. These selected recipients will receive financial resources to support their research-based project.

 

The grant is open to local and regional early-to-mid-career creative practitioners. It supports practice-based research investigating contemporary social issues through interdisciplinary methodologies and active engagement with the researcher’s community. Disciplines include, but are not limited to, visual art and curations, design and technology, literary arts, culinary arts, music, theater and performance.

 

The aim of the grant is to promote exploration, experimentation, and more accessible dissemination of knowledge within the arts community. With the provision of financial support, the grantees have the opportunity to focus on their research process and are encouraged to push their boundaries to experiment with new research methods. The grantees’ projects will culminate into a series of published research books with the hope of fostering public critical dialogue around the research topics. 

 

About the Artists

 

  • Amanny Ahmad is a Palestinian-American artist, cook, fellaha, writer, and folk herbalist whose artistic practice explores the relationships between humans, land, and non-human entities.
  • Ayham Allouch is a multidisciplinary artist. Working with sound and visual elements to explore themes of memory, displacement, and political narratives through research-driven performances and installations.
  • Batha Collective is an artistic group composed of Bentley Brown, Tahir Zene, and Amparo Baquerizas. Their work spans research, filmmaking, and editorial design.
  • Gouled Ahmed is an Addis Ababa-based Somali visual artist, costume designer, and director. His multidisciplinary practice focuses on photography, film, and performance.
  • Sawsan Al Bahar and Bahar Al Bahar are a sibling duo. They are both architects, artists and researchers whose artistic practice is centred on the analogue-digital, and the material, formal, and conceptual crossovers in between.