Upė Foundation is a London-based platform that draws currents between global and Baltic art communities through curatorial support, research and commissioning, amplifying adventurous ideas, underexplored perspectives and long-term exchanges across geographies.
London, 3 December 2025 — After months of preparation and eager anticipation, we are delighted to launch Upė Foundation, a new London-based organisation dedicated to creating platforms for dialogue and exchange between the Baltic region and art communities internationally. Our work begins with a series of Curatorial Fellowships, developed in partnership with major institutions – the Southbank Centre’s Hayward Gallery, Tallinn Art Hall and Camden Art Centre – to support the next generation of curators across the UK and the Baltic countries.
Next week, on 10 December, we will open the first calls for applications for the inaugural round of Upė Curatorial Fellowship Programme at the Hayward Gallery, London, and Tallinn Art Hall, Tallinn. This programme will offer early-career curators the opportunity to take up an 18-month curatorial role within a partner institution, working full-time as part of its team while developing their own practice. Each round will consist of two fellowships – one at a leading Baltic institution and one at a major international institution – reflecting our commitment to horizontal, two-way exchange. Fellows will be embedded in exhibition-making, public programming and research, receiving institutional support and mentorship. The programme provides the conditions to develop their skills, experience and professional networks. It offers Baltic curators a framework to bring their knowledge of Baltic art into international contexts and, in turn, supports UK curators to work within Baltic institutions and open new perspectives within the region’s art scenes.
In Spring 2026, Upė will partner with Camden Art Centre to launch an open call for emerging Baltic curators to apply for a Curatorial Fellowship at their institution. Throughout 2026, the programme will expand to include further partners, with the aim that future cohorts will move in multiple directions, between the Baltic region and the UK, and later across broader geographies, from neighbouring regions to less-explored connections. The foundation takes its name from the Lithuanian and Latvian word for 'river' – upė: a reference to movement, exchange and the flow of ideas across different contexts. This sense of flow underpins the fellowship model: a channel for curators to move between institutions, practices and ways of working, carrying gained insight forward.
Upė launches at a moment when global conversations in culture are becoming more decentralised, and new relationships between places are transforming how art is experienced and discussed. We believe that in this increasingly plural (others would say, multipolar) field, the ability to articulate one’s own context, and to enter dialogue on equal footing, becomes both an opportunity and a responsibility. With faith that this moment, while uncertain, holds possibilities for self-determination, transregional collaboration and solidarity, we step into it offering structures for exchange rooted in shared, exploratory work, research and long-term relationships. Upė will look for ways in which ideas can move more freely beyond inherited cultural hierarchies and centres of gravity.
We begin Upė's journey with faith that new relationships, ideas and forms in art emerge through shared experiences, movement and dialogue across different contexts. London, a city closely tied to Baltic artists, students and wider diasporas, and to both of us, felt like a natural starting point for continual conversation. The Curatorial Fellowship Programme, inaugurating Upė, is our first step in building these bridges, hoping that those who move through them will carry the river's flow in many unanticipated, unruly directions.
We are truly grateful for all the support we have received so far and could not be more thrilled for what lies ahead and where this river will take all of us.
— Adomas Narkevičius, Justas Janauskas (co-founders, Upė Foundation)
Martyna Ratnik is a Lithuanian cultural worker based between London and Vilnius. With a focus on moving image creation, curation and criticism, her practice searches for ways history can be embodied and transgressed. In addition to working as part of the London Short Film Festival’s curatorial team, Martyna has been developing her independent praxis. Among others, her artistic and curatorial projects have been previously presented at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), the Independent Vilnius Cinematheque “Meno Avilys”, Lithuania’s National Gallery of Art, European Media Art Festival, BFI London Film Festival, as well as LUX Moving Image. Martyna is the winner of Lithuania’s 2025 Visual Art Criticism Awards, and has been invited as a jury member the year after. She has recently graduated from RCA’s City Design course with a Master’s Thesis on open form institutional design, and is also an alumni of Rupert’s Alternative Education Programme.
As Upė Foundation Curatorial Fellow at Camden Art Centre, Martyna Ratnik joins the exhibitions team, bringing her specialist knowledge and research into the institution's curatorial work while contributing to exhibition-making, events and research. The Fellowship provides an environment for professional development, learning and first-hand experience within one of the UK's leading spaces for contemporary visual art.
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Diāna Mikāne is a curator and artist from Riga, Latvia. Through situated research and collaboration, her practice engages with parafiction as a mode of expression and the politics of space, often in relation to post-socialist conditions in the Baltic region and beyond. Recent work includes exhibitions and artistic projects such as High Beams in Timing Architecture at Part Time Gallery, Riga (2026), Forever Days in Invisible Labour at the National Gallery of Art, Vilnius (2026); Wish Upon a Shooting Star at Living Room, Athens (2024); I hope this email finds you well at InTheCloset, Vilnius (2024); Trembling Ground at VARES Architecture Residency, Valga (2024); as well as contributions to exhibition production at Nida Art Colony of the Vilnius Academy of Arts (2023–24). Mikāne holds an MA from the Art Academy of Latvia and received the ACADEMIA Award, which supported her curatorial fellowship at PUBLICS, Helsinki (2024–25).
In her role as Upė Foundation Curatorial Fellow at the Southbank Centre's Hayward Gallery, Diāna Mikāne undertakes research on artists from the Baltic region and beyond, supporting the development and delivery of major international exhibitions and programmes. The Fellowship is designed to broaden her skill set across the institution, from public engagement to the practical training involved in operations such as producing interpretation materials.
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Andrew Cummings is an art historian and curator from Wakefield, UK. Andrew studied for a PhD in Global Contemporary Art History at The Courtauld Institute of Art and Tate, and until 2025 was Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Decolonising Arts Institute, University of the Arts London. Previous exhibitions, programmes, and events include Dark Factory (MMCA Korea), A History of Future Contagion (Spike Island/The Courtauld) and Museum x Machine x Me (Tate). An alumnus of the Gwangju Biennale International Curators' Course, Andrew’s writing has been published by Tate Papers, Pilot Press, ArtReview, and the Burlington Contemporary.
Andrew Cummings joins Tallinn Art Hall at a pivotal moment in its history, as the institution's landmark site undergoes renovation ahead of reopening in November 2026. He will be responsible for curating the programme of a new black-box space within the historic building, developing exhibitions, screenings, performances, and other public formats in dialogue with Tallinn Art Hall’s wider programme. He will shape the programme in collaboration with the director and curatorial team, while working closely with artists and receiving production support from the institution’s in-house staff.
Upė Foundation is a London-based platform that draws currents between global and Baltic (Lithuanian, Latvian, Estonian) art communities, setting new artistic, curatorial and research possibilities in motion. Upė focuses on horizontal, long-term exchange through a range of partnerships, fellowships and initiatives, amplifying new ideas, risk-taking work and underexplored perspectives. Upė is drawn to a field that is living, cross-disciplinary and imaginative, open to encounters between practices, contexts and communities.
Founding Patron
Justas Janauskas
Founding Director
Adomas Narkevičius
General enquiries
info@upefoundation.org
Press
isabel@sam-talbot.com
London, 3 December 2025 — After months of preparation and eager anticipation, we are delighted to launch Upė Foundation, a new London-based organisation dedicated to creating platforms for dialogue and exchange between the Baltic region and art communities internationally. Our work begins with a series of Curatorial Fellowships, developed in partnership with major institutions – the Southbank Centre’s Hayward Gallery, Tallinn Art Hall and Camden Art Centre – to support the next generation of curators across the UK and the Baltic countries.
Next week, on 10 December, we will open the first calls for applications for the inaugural round of Upė Curatorial Fellowship Programme at the Hayward Gallery, London, and Tallinn Art Hall, Tallinn. This programme will offer early-career curators the opportunity to take up an 18-month curatorial role within a partner institution, working full-time as part of its team while developing their own practice. Each round will consist of two fellowships – one at a leading Baltic institution and one at a major international institution – reflecting our commitment to horizontal, two-way exchange. Fellows will be embedded in exhibition-making, public programming and research, receiving institutional support and mentorship. The programme provides the conditions to develop their skills, experience and professional networks. It offers Baltic curators a framework to bring their knowledge of Baltic art into international contexts and, in turn, supports UK curators to work within Baltic institutions and open new perspectives within the region’s art scenes.
In Spring 2026, Upė will partner with Camden Art Centre to launch an open call for emerging Baltic curators to apply for a Curatorial Fellowship at their institution. Throughout 2026, the programme will expand to include further partners, with the aim that future cohorts will move in multiple directions, between the Baltic region and the UK, and later across broader geographies, from neighbouring regions to less-explored connections. The foundation takes its name from the Lithuanian and Latvian word for 'river' – upė: a reference to movement, exchange and the flow of ideas across different contexts. This sense of flow underpins the fellowship model: a channel for curators to move between institutions, practices and ways of working, carrying gained insight forward.
Upė launches at a moment when global conversations in culture are becoming more decentralised, and new relationships between places are transforming how art is experienced and discussed. We believe that in this increasingly plural (others would say, multipolar) field, the ability to articulate one’s own context, and to enter dialogue on equal footing, becomes both an opportunity and a responsibility. With faith that this moment, while uncertain, holds possibilities for self-determination, transregional collaboration and solidarity, we step into it offering structures for exchange rooted in shared, exploratory work, research and long-term relationships. Upė will look for ways in which ideas can move more freely beyond inherited cultural hierarchies and centres of gravity.
We begin Upė's journey with faith that new relationships, ideas and forms in art emerge through shared experiences, movement and dialogue across different contexts. London, a city closely tied to Baltic artists, students and wider diasporas, and to both of us, felt like a natural starting point for continual conversation. The Curatorial Fellowship Programme, inaugurating Upė, is our first step in building these bridges, hoping that those who move through them will carry the river's flow in many unanticipated, unruly directions.
We are truly grateful for all the support we have received so far and could not be more thrilled for what lies ahead and where this river will take all of us.
— Adomas Narkevičius, Justas Janauskas (co-founders, Upė Foundation)