Kinhouse Open Door: 2027 Exhibition & Residency Open Call

Our door is open. 🚪

We're excited to announce Open Door, our annual exhibition + residency call for 2027! We're looking for exhibition proposals from emerging and mid-career artists and curators ready to bring us solo shows, two- and three-person exhibitions, collectives, installations, and site-specific work.

Every selected exhibition comes with a fully funded residency week here in Fort Wayne, timed to your opening reception — because we believe artists deserve support, not just wall space.

We're especially drawn to work rooted in community, care, belonging, the domestic, parenting, craft, and lineage — but don't let that stop you from applying if your work lives elsewhere. Come on in. ✨

Kinhouse opens its door each year to emerging and mid-career artists and curators through Open Door, our annual call for solo, two-person, and three-person exhibitions. We welcome proposals for collaborations, artist collectives, installations, and site-specific work — as well as proposals from curators looking to organize a show in our space.

Selected exhibitions will be part of our 2027 programming year and come paired with a fully funded residency week for participating artists, timed to coincide with your opening reception. 

We're looking for proposals with a clear vision, a strong statement, and compelling visuals, and thoughtful attention to diversity and inclusion. While submissions don't need to fall within our curatorial scope, Open Door especially welcomes work that engages with themes of community, care, belonging, the domestic, parenting, craft, and lineage — the same values that shape everything we do at Kinhouse.

Selected exhibitions will be part of our 2027 programming year and come paired with a fully funded residency week for participating artists, timed to coincide with your opening reception. Consider it an invitation to step through the door and into the Kinhouse community — to slow down, make work, and be supported while you do it.

Selected artists/curators will receive:

• Communication and support leading up to the exhibition
• Installation support for the exhibition
• A fully funded 6-night residency at Kinhouse Residency in Fort Wayne (a 3-minute drive from our gallery)
• Promotion and marketing of your artwork and exhibition across our platforms
• Professional documentation of the exhibition (Kinhouse retains rights to use these images for promotional purposes)

We welcome submissions from artists of all genders and backgrounds. Work samples may be submitted as works-in-progress and do not need to be finished. 

Submission Fee: $34 for 1 show proposal

For the purposes of this process a “proposal” may include completed works, work in progress, or art ideas waiting to be developed. Fees are non-refundable. All art mediums are accepted for consideration. Video/screen based submissions may require extra support.

3-4 show proposals will be selected by Kinhouse Director Kaylan Buteyn for exhibition during the 2027 calendar year (see firm residency and exhibition dates below). Please review our exhibition page here to understand our curatorial scope and preferences. 

Call Ends: October 11th, 2026, 11:59pm ET
Artist’s Notified by: October 21st, 2026

Exhibition and residency dates will be determined at the time of proposal selection. Residencies are for 6 nights, check in Monday and check out Sunday. The exhibition reception will be on the Friday evening of the residency week (coordinating dates below). 

Artists will choose from 4 options:
March 1st - 7th, 2026 (exhibition opening March 5th)
May 31st - June 6th, 2026 (exhibition opening June 4th)
June 28th - July 4th, 2026 (exhibition opening July 2nd)
August 2nd - 8th, 2026 (exhibition opening August 6th)

The exhibition will be up in our gallery space for the duration of the month following the “First Friday” reception opening.

Installation and deinstallation support will be provided, however each proposal may have different needs. For proposals that require detailed artist oversight, the artist(s) should be available for installation and/or deinstallation in person at our exhibition space in Fort Wayne, IN. If the artist(s) cannot be present for deinstallation, Kinhouse staff will deinstall and arrange pick up. If the work needs to be shipped back to the artist(s), artists must provide shipping materials and pay for return shipping.

To get a better idea of our space: please view our instagram: @kinhouseart or check our FLOOR PLAN here.