TàNDEM (en) | RARO ONSITE PROJECTS

CAST

Support and Professionalization Program for Emerging Artists

100 % funded

Training Program: Wednesdays from 6:30 pm to 9 pm. From 11 February to 1 July.
Open call from 9 December 2025 to 11 January 2026.

Acceptance notifications from 19 January 2026 onwards.

Application Form

What is it?

TàNDEM is a comprehensive support and professionalization program for emerging artists (fully funded). Its goal is to create spaces for debate, questioning, and reflection around artistic practice. The intention is to generate a dialogic space in a collective context among participants, accompanying tutors, and sector professionals, where artistic thinking can be challenged, transformed, and guided to broaden perspectives on their own practice and its relationship with the cultural ecosystem.

TàNDEM is presented as a weekly training program lasting five months (20 sessions of two and a half hours). It is led by two main tutors who will support participants with tools for their development and projection within the professional art sector. In addition, invited experts will provide masterclasses to introduce the group to their areas of expertise. Throughout the program, topics such as production capsules, funding, mapping of the art circuit, communication, legality, and mediation applied to the development of each participant’s project are addressed.

Why?

TàNDEM was born out of the desire to support emerging artists in the transition between their training and professionalization phase, aiming to address the structural gaps of formal education and the precarious dynamics of the sector. It arises from the conviction that artistic practice cannot be developed in isolation: it needs community, dialogue, critical thinking, and tools to sustain over time.

This program seeks to weave networks among emerging artists, cultural agents, and institutions to build working contexts that facilitate collective growth, learning through questioning and rethinking the artist's position in the present. TàNDEM not only aims to train professional profiles in artistic production but also to accompany situated trajectories and foster sensitive processes of meaningful learning.

Understanding artistic training as a continuous experience, TàNDEM offers a space for meeting, shared growth, listening, and critical development. Supporting the artist in professionalizing their practice is also a way to promote a more conscious, caring, and sustainable art sector.

How?

TàNDEM training program consists of twelve two-hour sessions held weekly, on Wednesdays from 6:30 pm to 9 pm, between 11 February and 1 July.

Sessions combine theoretical modules with practical resources through case-based learning and work focused on participants’ own artistic practices. They are based on conceptual frameworks introducing the main areas of the artistic profession, sharing tools and resources to deepen expansive development. External professionals are invited to contribute direct experience, generate critical thinking, and guide the group. Collaborative learning is encouraged through complementary exercises and the option of participating in Casa R.A.R.O.’s community dynamics. Each participant develops their own project with tutors’ support, integrating the content learned during TàNDEM, with access to a shared production workshop and the possibility to participate in a collective exhibition at the program’s conclusion.

In addition to the training program, TàNDEM offers:

Access to a shared studio space with other TàNDEM participants at Casa R.A.R.O.

Option to exhibit in the monthly Open Studios at Casa R.A.R.O., presenting the artistic projects developed during the TàNDEM program.

Option to participate in the Group Critiques, Bookclubs, and other activities carried out within the framework of the R.A.R.O. Barcelona artist residencies.

Two individual project-mentoring sessions led by the TàNDEM tutors.

Possibility of individual meetings and feedback with professional artists aligned with each participant’s project.

Option to take part in the collective exhibition once the program has concluded, in exhibition spaces collaborating with the RARO On-Site Projects gallery.

Curatorial support in the development of the collective exhibition, through group work sessions held outside the regular program.

Possibility of accessing a production budget for the development of the exhibition.

Who is it for?

TàNDEM is designed for emerging or professionalizing individual artists seeking tools to expand their practice. The target audience includes those with formal visual arts training and those without formal education but interested in developing a professional artistic career.

TàNDEM addresses visual artists of any age who consider themselves in an emerging stage of their trajectory and wish to deepen their sector knowledge. Visual arts disciplines include drawing, painting, sculpture, installation, textile art, sound art, video art, performance, and new media, among others.

Personal and collective engagement is key to shared learning and community creation. Therefore, to validate participation and program completion, a minimum attendance of 80 % at in-person sessions in Barcelona is required. Sessions will not be broadcast online, making residency in Catalonia during TàNDEM mandatory. The program’s teaching language is Spanish.

Who leads it?

Felipe García Salazar (Director and Co-founder of R.A.R.O. Barcelona) is a visual artist and cultural manager, graduate of the School of Visual Arts, New York, with a Master's in Artistic Production and Research from the University of Barcelona. With over 15 years of professional experience, Felipe has worked on academic, artistic, and cultural projects in Bogotá, Buenos Aires, New York, and, most recently, Barcelona. As an artist, he has participated in residencies and exhibitions worldwide, including Hungary, Germany, and China. He currently divides his time between research and production in contemporary art, managing the R.A.R.O. Barcelona program, and planning cultural projects locally.

Auri Alós is an art historian specialized in live arts and new media, as well as an artistic researcher and cultural educator. Recently, she has been active as a curator and performer on Catalonia's emerging cultural scene through various projects blending scenic and exhibition dimensions, developing relational artistic practices and experimental methodologies for community art. She has supported over one hundred young artistic projects in her role as cultural program manager at Palau Alòs and collaborated with Centre d’Arts Santa Mònica, Xarxaprod, A Cobert, EAVP, and EINA. She currently develops education and mediation programs for Antic Teatre, Xarxaprod, and the Panoràmic Festival.

How to apply?

The call to take part in the first edition of TàNDEM is open from 15 December 2025 to 11 January 2026, until 11:59 pm.

Communication with the selected participants will start from 19 January. In the following weeks, the results of the grant and the list of accepted participants will be made public.

For any other questions or doubts related to TàNDEM, you can send an email to hola@esrarobarcelona.com with the subject line: TàNDEM.

Application Form