Redfern’s Cottage Museum of Uttoxeter Life are inviting Visual Arts/ Craft artists to send Expressions of Interest for their project Rebuilding Uttoxeter – Its Museum and Its People.
They are looking to commission an Artist in Residence at the Staffordshire museum to document and describe the process of change for Redfern’s Cottage, to create new work and deliver workshops with community groups to enable them to generate mixed media artworks to form a temporary exhibition at the museum and at the Burton Brewhouse Arts Centre. As part of a larger project to re-develop the museum they would like to develop an artist’s interpretation of this process of change.
The artist in residence will work with users of two local mental health charities, as well the wider community, to create a mixed media touring exhibition that reflects the journey of the physical rebuild of the cottage, the documented mental health journey of the previous inhabitant of the cottage, Francis Redfern and the participants journey of recovery.
Timescale: April 2016 – May 2017. Artist Commission total fee is £10,000 includes all research, commission & workshops. It also includes all materials & expenses.
Aims of the Artist in Residence Project
- To create an artwork that reflects the themes outlined in the introduction and that will be accessioned into the collection. It will be included the final exhibition at Redfern’s Cottage.
- To devise and deliver 10 workshops with a minimum of 10 users from our two core groups: the mental health charities – Art and Soul Friendship Group and Changes – so these participants can create artwork to go towards a touring exhibition starting in 2017.
- The design a touring exhibition, with artwork created by the core group participants. These works can be individual or made as a team, this will be determined by the artist and the participants. Text panels and an interactive element for the audience are also required. The touring exhibition venues are; The Brewhouse Arts Centre in Burton, Uttoxeter Town Hall, both mental health charity venues and possibly Uttoxeter Library. The final exhibition will be at Redfern’s Cottage, The Museum of Uttoxeter Life.
- To organize and deliver 3 community art based events, which will feed into the development of the project and the commissioned artwork.
- To deliver a session at each touring exhibition venue for the visitor to meet the artist and participants.
- To create a blog about the project so that the community will see the development.
Objectives of the Artist in Residence Project
- To engage the core participants in a high quality arts activity and for this to assist in their journey of improving their wellbeing.
- To encourage our local community to take part in a project where creative interventions will be capable of informing the development of the new commissioned art work and consider their own wellbeing.
- To produce innovative, high quality, new and exciting art works which is accessible for all the community at various settings.
- To ensure that all participants will gain a sense of pride in and ownership of their local heritage and museum and work with the museum in the future.
Experience and Skills Required
- Experience of producing high quality contemporary art work.
- Experience of working with people who have mental health issues and may have other disabilities including of a physical kind.
- Participatory arts experience and knowledge of current arts and health issues.
- Experience of working to a deadline and a set budget.
- Ability to develop different working approaches to respond and meet the needs of participants, managers of the mental health organisations and managers of Redfern’s Cottage.
- Ability to be able to adapt working approaches to respond to different and sometimes sensitive working environment.
Practical Considerations
- The artist must give full consideration to health and safety issues when creating work with those who have mental health issues and other members of the community.
- That some of the workshops may happen at the museum and at the various partner organisations establishments.
- The exhibition will be toured amongst various venues and therefore, the artworks will need to be robust enough to withstand travel and being hung, taken down and re hung and to be flexible enough to fit into various settings. If required,
- The artist will be responsible for the upkeep of the exhibition whilst on tour.
- The exhibition will need to be accessible to wheelchair users and those will special needs and must appeal to those with various learning abilities as well as being accessible for the general community.
- The artist will need to create a ‘how to display the exhibition’ document so it can be displayed at other venues once the project is finished after March 2017.
Expressions of Interest
Timescale: April 2016 – May 2017
Artist Fee: Artist Commission total fee is £10,000 includes all research, commission & workshops. It also includes all materials & expenses.
Expressions of Interest: Please send 6-8 high quality JPEG images of your work, Artist CV and a detailed proposal outlining your relevant experience and how you would approach this project, including creative ideas for the core group workshops and the community events. Artists must have a current DBS check and Public Liability Insurance
If you are interested in this project and would like to discuss in more detail. Please contact Ruth Buttery for more information.
Email: ruthbuttery1@gmail.com Telephone: 01889 567176
Deadline for Expression of Interest is 29th March 2016
