Call for Applications “Art for the Ocean” Residency
To encourage exploration and sharing, each of the schooner’s missions creates a meeting and exchange between sailors, scientists and artists. Via our expeditions, the Tara Ocean Foundation not only helps build scientific knowledge. The boat also supports creative endeavors by welcoming artists-in-residence aboard.
Over the past twenty years, expedition after expedition, the Tara Ocean Foundation has continuously pushed the boundaries of our knowledge of the largest and most important ecosystem on our planet: the Ocean.
Alongside scientific research, the expeditions of the schooner Tara have welcomed more than fifty artists on board since 2003. Photographers, illustrators, multimedia artists, sculptors—all have contributed to shaping a new vision of the Ocean.
Art for the Ocean – A Renewed Commitment to Artistic Creation
On the eve of its next mission, the Foundation is officially naming its artist residency program: Art for the Ocean. Behind this name lies a clear ambition: to bring together artists committed to protecting the Ocean and to promote their work to the general public.
Following the co-production of La Grande Expédition—the first major retrospective exhibition of the onboard residencies, which welcomed nearly 35,000 visitors at Centquatre-Paris in 2024—and participation in the Biennale des Arts et de l’Océan in Nice, held alongside the United Nations Ocean Conference in June 2025, the Foundation is more convinced than ever of the essential role of artistic creation in raising public awareness of ocean-related challenges.
The Tara Coral 2026–2027 Residency Call
For the schooner’s next expedition, entitled Tara Coral, artists will once again join sailors and scientists for an extraordinary human adventure.
On board the Tara schooner, a mission will take place from May 2026 through the end of 2027, aiming to unlock the secrets of the Coral Triangle—located between Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines. By collecting samples at around ten different sites, researchers will analyze the factors that allow certain corals to resist bleaching caused by climate change.
Are you a professional artist engaged in a research-based project connected to the Ocean?
You have until November 2, 2025 at 11:59 PM to submit your application.