Writing North East: Our Place
Artist Brief
Deadline for proposals midday 29th June.
Date
This project will be run over 6 weeks at 1 day per week (10am-3pm on Tuesdays) on 11th and 18th 25th September; 2nd, 9th and 16th October 2012. This project includes a visit to the British Library (on the 25th sept) as one of the week’s sessions/ activities.(The cost of this visit does not need to be included in your proposal).
Background
Newcastle Libraries, in partnership with the British Library and supported by the Paul Hamlyn foundation, are delivering a youth engagement project which aims to inspire creativity in young people aged 16-24. The purpose of the project is to demonstrate that heritage collections and archival materials – specifically those related to notions of place – can be used as the foundation for original creative output.
Based around the British Library’s Writing Britain exhibition(http://www.bl.uk/writingbritain ), the Writing North-East: Our Placeinitiative will use the literature of the North East region as the impetus for generating new creative work which captures and celebrates the geography and culture of the locale. Young people will have the chance to work with local artist(s) to gain skills and produce new works of art.
Timetable
We are looking to shortlist, interview and engage an artist (s), which will be selected with participants who are 16-24 year old young people that are not currently in education, employment or training before the summer break begins (20th July) with a view to starting the project when the academic starts again in September. Proposals should be submitted by midday 29th June; we expect interviews to be held on the 10thJuly at Newcastle City Library.
Budget
Total budget to include artist fees, all materials, any external room hire (away from the Library) and all other expenses incurred should be no more than £4,500.
Artist Requirements
The role of the artist within this project is to work with a max 20 and a min 10 young people to creatively interpret creative writing that has either started life or evokes the North East. This initial material will be chosen alongside library staff and workshop participants with reference to the themes of the British Library’s Writing Britian exhibition. Source material can range from but is not restricted to poetry, graphic novels and plays to TV and film scripts. Any creative interpretation is not limited to a creative writing response. We are interested in hearing how you would bridge creative writing into your own art form in a participatory manner.
It is a requirement that Artists have public liability insurance and enhanced CRB clearance prior to engagement on this project.
Artists will be required to deliver the sessions either at Newcastle City Library or a place of their choosing.
Project Aims
Starting with the notion that libraries are spaces where ideas are kept and created, the aim is to demonstrate that heritage collections and archival material can be used as inspiration for creative outputs.
To increase opportunities for young people to personally and professionally develop by stimulating interest in the arts and culture, signposting pathways for further development.
The production of new work by the participants which will be exhibited alongside collection items
To enable the young people to gain specific creative skills and enhance ‘soft skills’ – communication, confidence, self-esteem, team work.
To engage the participants in the Arts Award scheme.
Facilities
It is anticipated that the sessions would happen at City Library which is a fantastic modern building in the heart of the city centre which is an ideal venue for a wide variety of cultural and educational activities. Specific rooms have been pre-booked for use during the project, each of which has ample space for the group size and can be arranged in whichever way the artist requires. The library has toilet facilities including disabled access on every public floor, a 100 seater cafe on level 2 and a crèche offering a range of services for all ages on level 2.
If an artist wishes to use their own studio / workshop or allocate a part of the budget for external and more suitable space hire then this would be considered.
Proposals
Proposals should include:
Outline of why you are interested in this project
Examples of previous participatory work with images
An indication of your costs including a budget breakdown
Minimum 2 references
A project outline including your art form(s).
Additional Information
6 themes of Writing North East:
1: Legend and the Land (Northumbrian myths and legends)
Example quotation: ‘Columba, Columbanus, as the soil shifts its vest, / Aidan and Cuthbert put on daylight, / wires of sharp western metal entangled in its soft / web, many shuttles as midges darting’ (Briggflatts, Basil Bunting).
2: Close the Coalhouse Door (literature of mining and the coalfields)
Example quotation: The stars are twinkling in the sky, / as to the pit I go; / I think not of the sheen on high, / but of the gloom below’ (Joseph Skipsey)
3: Water Memory (The River Tyne, its history, industry and modern image)
Example quotation: ‘The Tyne, the Tyne, the coaly Tyne, the Queen of all the rivers’ (local idiom).
4: Urban Cityscapes (Newcastle / Sunderland)
Example quotation: ‘The sun / reminding us of such decay /an eaten mozzarella pizza / puked up last night / in the Bigg Market’ (‘Their Hearts Should Be Telling Them’, Barry MacSweeney).
5: Wild Places (rural Northumbrian landscapes)
Example quotation: ‘ From Luguvallium in the west to Segedunum in the east, the Wall ran, leaping along with the jagged countours of the land; a great gash of stone-work, still raw with newness…’ (Eagle of the Ninth, Rosemary Sutcliff).
6: The Raging Sea (The North East and Northumbrian coastline)
Example quotation: ‘Where, boiling through the rocks, they roar / On Dunstanborough’s caverned shore; / Thy tower, proud Bamborough, marked they there, / King Ida’s castle, huge and square, /From its tall rock look grimly down, / And on the swelling ocean frown; / Then from the coast they bore away, / And reached the Holy Island’s bay’. (‘The Holy Island’, Sir Walter Scott).
Further details about the project, book lists and access to relevant literary materials can be provided on request. The quotations listed above are simply examples to give a flavour of the key themes, and are not intended to be limiting or prescriptive.
Deadline for proposals:
Please send proposals to:
Via email: deborah.brown@newcastle.gov.uk or post to:
Writing North East
Arts Development Team
Room 23
Westgate Community College
West Road
Fenham
NE4 9LU By Midday 29th June 2012