Derek Jarman’s Prospect Cottage Opens Applications for Residencies

Artists, writers, filmmakers, academics and gardeners are being invited to spend time at Prospect Cottage, the former home of artist, filmmaker, and gay rights activist Derek Jarman, as applications open for the latest round of residencies for 2027–2028.

On the shingle beach of Dungeness on the Kent coast, Prospect Cottage occupies a landscape that has long fascinated visitors for its stark beauty. Surrounded by a garden Jarman cultivated from hardy plants, driftwood and found objects, the Victorian fisherman’s cottage sits in the shadow of a former nuclear power station, with the site becoming one of the artist’s most enduring works.

Jarman moved to Prospect Cottage in 1986 after receiving his HIV diagnosis. There, he created a space that would inspire some of his most celebrated projects, including The Garden (1990), filmed on site and starring Tilda Swinton. The cottage also became the setting for his influential writings, including Modern Nature (1991), in which he reflected on gardening, illness and creativity. 

“The word paradise is derived from ancient Persian ‘a green place’. Paradise haunts gardens, and some gardens are paradises,” Jarman wrote. “Mine is one of them.”

Organised by Creative Folkestone, the residency programme invites artists, writers, filmmakers, academics and gardeners to respond to Dungeness’s distinctive geography, ecology and queer histories. Successful applicants will receive stipends to live and work independently at the cottage during a two-week residency, using it as a site for research, reflection and creative development.

“[…] I was experiencing an extraordinarily generous gift of space—the mental space to think, the beautiful interior of Prospect Cottage, and the expansive shingle landscape where everything feels so free,” said political ecologist Kiera Chapman, a former resident of the programme.

The residencies form part of a wider effort to preserve and activate Prospect Cottage following a high-profile campaign to save the property. After the death of Keith Collins, Jarman’s companion and the cottage’s custodian, in 2018, the future of the house was thrown into uncertainty when it was put up for sale.

In response, Art Fund launched a fundraising campaign in 2020, spearheaded by Jarman’s friend and muse Swinton. Artists including Wolfgang Tillmans, Michael Craig-Martin, Isaac Julien and Tacita Dean donated limited-edition works to support the appeal, while David Hockney made a “substantial personal donation”. More than £3.5 million was raised in ten weeks through over 7,000 public donations, securing the cottage and garden for future generations.