Can you believe it’s been nearly three years since we launched our brilliant Zine, The Department for Wonder and Play? Now that we’ve got two volumes and two launch events under our collective belt, it feels like a good time to do it all over again!

So, I’m really pleased to announce the callout for DWP volume three. This year, the theme we’re asking artists to respond to is Shadows in the Light

We’re living in strange, uncertain, and sometimes frightening times, so we picked a theme that we hope will give you a chance to reflect on that if you want to — or not, if you don’t! We’ve thought a lot about shadows recently and we think they’re pretty interesting, certainly not always bad. What do they conjure up in your imagination and how does darkness connect with light?

What’s The Opportunity?
This is a an opportunity to make a new piece of creative work in response to our theme, Shadows in the Light.

From your applications, we’ll commission 18 to be the creators of this year’s Zine.

Each commissioned artist will:

• Get a £400 bursary to cover their time and materials
and then
• Contribute an artwork to feature in the Zine and a short profile that describes their creative work and who they are. This will be shared on the Touretteshero website alongside the artwork – you can find previous DWP artist profiles here.

There’ll be a chance to meet with the Touretteshero team, take part in a workshop and the launch of the Zine.

Who Can Apply?
If you’re a young creative aged 14 to 26, who lives in the UK and who identifies as disabled then the Department of Wonder and Play is for you. When we say disabled, we mean anyone who experiences disabling barriers in the world, and this includes deaf, disabled, neurodivergent and chronically ill people and those with mental health conditions.

We want to know about how you’ll bring your imagination to life to create something great for the Zine – this could be photos, painting, poetry, plays, pottery, puzzles – you name it. All the finished pieces will be brought together in one place by our brilliant designer and Zine maker Zoe Thompson.

Applications are now open and you can apply online here. You can also download an easy read and plain text version of the form here. If you applied in the past but weren’t selected, please feel free to apply again. We won’t consider applications from artists we’ve already commissioned – this is to make sure we share the opportunity with as many people as possible.

The form will ask some questions about you (or the person you’re applying for if you’re helping someone else). You’ll also be asked about your idea – this doesn’t need to be a detailed proposal but should give us a flavour of what you want to create. There’s also a chance to share links to examples of your previous work, but if you don’t have any that’s totally fine. We’ll use the answers in the ‘about your idea’ section to select our 18 artists. Please don’t submit any artwork at this stage – only selected artists will be asked to make new work for the Zine.

What’s the Deadline?
Applications close on Sunday 1st March 2026. If you’re under 16, you’ll need an adult to support your application and complete the form on your behalf.

Our fantastic Solidarity Coordinator Katie is currently off recovering from an operation, but the rest of our small team will be around to answer your questions, read applications and support the selected artists. If there’s anything you want to know straight away, please email producer@touretteshero.com

When do I start?
If you’re successful, we’ll contact you by Monday 6th April 2026 to let you know. You’ll then have 8 weeks to produce your work, over that time we’ll work with you to develop your artwork. The final submission date for everything you create will be Friday 29th May 2026.

When it’s all done, we’ll have a launch event to come together in person and online to celebrate what we’ve achieved.

Putting this Zine together and finding beautiful and unexpected links between the work that our young artists create is a highlight of the year for our whole team. So, if the Department for Wonder and play sounds like a department you’d actually like to join, please apply now — we can’t wait to find out more about your ideas.