Particle physics and the arts are inextricably linked: both are ways to explore our existence – what it is to be human and our place in the universe. The two fields are natural creative partners for innovation, research and development in the 21st century.

Arts@CERN consists of three strands:

Collide@CERN Artists Residencies  - open calls for artists to win a fully funded residency of up to 3 months at CERN

Accelerate@CERN Artists Research - open calls for two artists from two different countries to win a research stay of up to 1 month at CERN

Visiting Artists - up to 12 emerging and established artists are selected for a self funded fully curated visit for up to two days

The arts programme comes under the auspices of CERN's Cultural Policy for Engaging with the Arts, Great Arts for Great Science  adopted by the laboratory in 2011.

As Julius von Bismarck, winner of the first Prix Ars Electronica Collide@CERN Digital Arts prize in 2011 and CERN’s first official artist-in-residence  says: "The root reason why I am an artist is the same as it would be for being a scientist: finding out what there is out in the world and how I can contribute to our understanding of it. I am interested in making science sense-able – through the body and its senses…"

Since Julius' residency in 2012, CERN has hosted many world class emerging and established artists from around the globe through Collide@CERN, Visiting Artists and Accelerate@CERN schemes. One of the keys to the creative collisions we make between the artists and the physicists is that we carefully curate all the visits for artists to boost their imagination.

See below for copies of the Cultural Policy Summary and Arts@CERN Press Pack.