SHELTER
THE SUSSEX 2026
As the world around us shifts ecologically, socially, and personally, the questions of where we find shelter and how we shape our habitats have never felt more urgent or more universal.
For THE SUSSEX 2026, artists are invited to explore these powerful themes, exploring the meanings of home, protection, and belonging in ways that are as broad and imaginative as the words themselves.
KEY INFORMATION
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Entries cost £15 each with a maximum of 3 submissions per artist/creative.
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The opportunity is open to any artist who is connected to Sussex through residence, birthplace, education, or work.
This inclusive approach aims to celebrate the region’s diverse and vibrant creative community, welcoming artists from all disciplines and backgrounds who share a meaningful link to Sussex.
By doing so, it encourages the exchange of ideas and artistic expression that reflect the area’s unique cultural identity and heritage, while also fostering a sense of belonging and pride among those who contribute to its creative landscape.
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Please read the Terms & Conditions of Odyssey. By purchasing your entry and submitting via our submission platform, you are required to accept these READ HERE
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Submissions open: 10th November 2025
Submission close: 14th September 2026
Artists notified of results: w/c 28th September 2026
Artwork drop-off day: 2nd November 2026
Preview evening: 7th November 2026
Exhibition open: 7th November 2026
Exhibition closes: 29th November 2026
Artwork collection day: 29th November 4pm - 6pm or 30th November 9am - 12pm
THE SUSSEX 2026
THE SUSSEX 2026 invites artists to explore the powerful theme of SHELTER.
What does this word mean in a world of shifting landscapes—personal, social, and environmental?
Shelter is more than protection; habitat is more than a place.
This exhibition calls for creative responses to the spaces we build, seek, and share—whether lasting or fleeting, visible or hidden.
Artists are encouraged to interpret these ideas broadly, making visible the architectures of care, belonging, and imagination that shape our lives.
Shelter is more than a roof or a refuge. It is the soft boundary between vulnerability and safety, the threshold where the outside world recedes and the inner world takes shape. For some, shelter is a memory carried across borders; for others, it is the fragile promise of a new beginning. Shelter might be found in the dappled light of a woodland, the curve of a coastline, or the warmth of a shared studio.
Shelter is layered with meaning. It is the wild and the cultivated, the accidental and the intentional. It is the ecosystem of relationships—human, animal, architectural, ecological—that sustains us. In an age of environmental precarity and shifting social landscapes, habitat becomes both a question and a call. How do we care for the spaces and communities that give us life? How do we adapt, rebuild, and imagine new shelters for the future?
HOW DO I ENTER?
You purchase your entry/ies here on our website.
You can purchase a single entry, two entries, or three entries.
After you have paid for your entry/ies at our checkout, you will be sent an order confirmation e-mail and then a separate e-mail with the link and password to our artists’ pag,e where you will find all the information about how best to price your work, take photos, and other helpful information as well as a link to submit your entry.
Click the link to submit your work, and you will be taken to our submission platform, where the form takes you through the process of submitting your artwork.
You will be sent a confirmation e-mail once you have submitted.
We have a panel of judges who will review every entry. We make sure the judges only see the image, your title, size, and medium. We call this blind judging: the judges only learn the artist's name after the final round of judging, and the hang is confirmed.
Once the hang is selected, we let all artists know whether their works are successful.
Please note that we only detail successful works; unsuccessful submissions will receive a simpler email without artwork details.
Due to the high volume of entries, we do not offer feedback on any submissions.
THE SUSSEX 2026 PRIZES
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Artelium Artefact Prize
The 3rd year of this superb prize with previous winners being Rosie Mortimer (2024), and Katharine Rabson Stark (2025). The winning artist will be commissioned to make a work for Artelium’s growing collection of Artefact artworks and create wine labels for the relevant Artefact wines. Along with these is a solo exhibition, hosted at their Streat vineyard in September 2027, which is supported by the art manager at Artelium.
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SEAWHITE OF BRIGHTON PRIZE
Seawhite’s have been a supporter of Jo since she founded the company back in 2021. The SEAWHITE prize is held in memory of SHAUN TOBIN seawhite’s previous CEO who sadly passed away in 2023.
The winning artist will receive £1000 worth of Seawhite vouchers, a solo exhibition at thier Partridge Green showroom and the opportunity to create commisioned artwork for a product within thier extensive range of art materials.
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THE BUSINESS OF ART PRIZE
The winning artist will receive 12 x one to one mentoring sessions with our creative director Jo Myles. As well as access to our annual programme of talks and workshops THE BUSINESS OF ART.
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THE TOWNIE FOX PRIZE
The Townie Fox prize is a funded solo exhibition at thier stylish Hove bistro during Artists Open Houses May 2027 with a supporting private view to accompany the winning artists exhibition.
