Muir Trust Residency

The Muir Trust was founded in 1997 by local artist Jane Muir, in memory of her husband, Alastair. It provides an endowment for a short residency programme to support established artists in the field of visual and applied arts as Artist in Residence at Discover Bucks Museum on a biennial basis.

2026 Residency:

Applications are now invited from established, UK-based non-digital media artists.

In 2026, Discover Bucks Museum will present a major exhibition exploring three Saxon burial sites, revealing extraordinary stories of Buckinghamshire’s past. The residency will run alongside this exhibition, offering the selected artist the chance to respond creatively to the themes, objects and time-period on show. It will also be an opportunity to share your artistic process with visitors, allowing them to see and experience the full artistic process.

The residency will be based in Aylesbury for 20 days between 27 April and 31 May 2026. The artworks will then be exhibited in a solo selling show at the museum from 6 June to 12 July 2026.
The artist will have a dedicated workspace in the museum and the residency will include open studio sessions, a workshop for adults and a public talk.
An award of £3,500 will be paid, plus an allowance for expenses.
Deadline for applications is noon on Friday 9 January 2026.
Shortlisted applicants will be invited for interview on Monday 9 February 2026.

Download further information and an application form here:

Information Document

Application Form

Any queries please contact [email protected]

Highlights of past residencies 1998 – 2024:

Medieval Room by Christopher Barrett, oil on canvas, 1994 © the artist

For the residency, Revealing Interiors, Christopher chose to take the medieval wall paintings of the county for his inspiration, including the Tudor House at the museum.

Unbound workbook by Dale Devereux Barker, printed card, 1999 © the artist

Dale worked alongside the exhibition, Picasso to Hockney, Great Prints of the Century for his printmaking residency and took inspiration from Museum objects and local history.

Glade, Boddington Hill by Peter Clayton, watercolour, 2000 © the artist

Peter’s residency coincided with a major exhibition of Victorian watercolours, The Callows’ Chilterns. Peter spent time in the Chiltern hills painting his own watercolours, as well as working in the Museum.

Black & white raku fired form by Tim Andrews, porcelain and T-material, 2002 © the artist

During his residency, Tim produced a range of sculptural pieces inspired by a varied selection of objects from the Museum collections and fired in his raku kiln in the garden.

Lord Carrington by Eileen Hogan, watercolour, 2005 © the artist

Inspired by a major exhibition on Buckinghamshire in the Civil War, Eileen created a portrait of Lord Carrington and explored the relationship between oral history and portraiture.

Ring by Michael Carberry, silver, 2007 © the artist

Michael’s individual and thought-provoking response to museum objects was matched by a series of highly successful jewellery workshops.

The Modern Jury by Ros Asquith, mixed media, 2009 © the artist

Inspired by the exhibition Scenes of Victorian Life and Aylesbury town itself Ros created a modern and humorous reflection of the issues and concerns of contemporary life.

Lichen by Mandy Bonnell, pencil on paper, 2011 © the artist

Mandy was inspired by the Museum’s natural history collection of lichens to create a series of twenty small concertina books, each inspired by a different lichen specimen.

For her residency, Naomi was inspired by the visitors and staff at the museum to create free machine embroidered portraits of everyday life.

Inspired by the Nature Detectives exhibition and Bucks wildlife in the local countryside, Lorraine created ceramic bird sculptures. Her simple yet strong forms came alive through intricate patterns and textures.

Inspired by the social history and art objects relating to themes of ‘Liberty’, James created a unique installation that brought together Liberty fabrics, motifs from Bucks lace and local history.

Katie was inspired by items in the archaeology stores to create new artefacts derived from the negative shapes created by the original items within their packaging. She used a variety of media to create various installations.

Claire created five one-off large relief prints inspired by the museum and its collections. The printing plates were made from recycled packaging and were then re-used to create short stop-motion animation films to accompany her exhibition.

Cara’s main aims of this five-week residency were to make portraits of the people in Aylesbury and to experiment with different drawing materials and processes. She described it as a fascinating project, not only as an opportunity to explore the area of portraiture but also a chance to interact with a large cross section of the public.