Creative Central

Artists Brief

Conjunction 2010: Residency

Artists Brief for the Artists in Residence

This Commission will be advertised nationally on free listings, such as Art Jobs, re-title, and art based websites as well as local newsletters, and mailing lists.

The Commission will be advertisted from the following date asap and will be close by 31stMarch

And the Selected candidate/s will be expected to take up the residence from 19th – 28th April and to participate in an artists talk on the 28th April. The Artist is also expected to engage with the general public as well as students from Staffordshire University.
The Residencey will be based at AirSpace Gallery, Stoke on Trent. You will have access to some tools and local shops for further material and help from gallery staff if you need. You will also have the opportunity to get refreshments from the near by restuarants, if needed. The Location of the studio is located in Stoke on Trent, city centre this will give you a large working environment and access to the conjunction organisers if you need to.

All candidates will be given equal opportunity to apply for the position

Project Background

Conjunction 2010 is a Contemporary Arts Biennial in Stoke-on-Trent. This year’s festival will be based on the thematic response to Escape. To date the Conjunction team has completed Conjunction 08, which attracted over £80,000 and gained over 14,000 in audience figures for a six week event. The Biennial has previously attracted artists like Alex Frost, Jonathan Callan, Gayle Chong Kwan, the biennial also commission over 30 other artists, such as Littlewhitehead, Michael Coombs and Rich White. The Conjunction team also got press through BBC Midlands Today and Radio 5 live. This year the Conjunction team wishes to invite an artist to under go a residency within an empty shop to produce a pieces of work relating to this years theme. The key partners in Conjunction are Staffordshire University, The Potteries Museum and Art Gallery, Wren Park, and AirSpace Gallery.

Artists Brief

Artist/s will be expected to produce work based on the residency guidance below, we have also included the thematic for this years biennial which can be used as an additional reference, and which should give an overview for the ideas that the biennial event is proposing:

Residency Guidance
The plan for the residency is for the artist/s to explore through creative means the organisational structures and strategies, both within the Conjunction Biennial and the regional regeneration environment. The process of working should endeavour to examine the way in which the biennial is supportive, contrasting, or developing the regenerative strategies developed by regional regeneration bodies, and the local authority. The work produced should represent a creative interpretation of the processes and avenues which the biennial already engages with and the way in which it can develop new ways of thinking. It will therefore influence the organisational development of the biennial to encourage production and consumption of contemporary art in the North Staffordshire region.

Extract of 2010 Biennial theme: “The Arts, in its broadest sense, has often been produced in relationship to escapism. Often movie making and fiction is offered as a way of escaping the everyday, and particularly during bad times. It is often a dichotomy that this escapism also prevents us from dealing with the issues that need to be addressed (that, in a sense, have created the conditions for the need to escape). Escapism in such forms allows us to not only escape from our thoughts and concerns but also to remove ourselves geographically from our immediate environment or location. Art has engaged with these notions, either in an equivalent way – in terms of images or environments that allow us to transport ourselves, or as subject matter – to question and enquire, often referring to other disciplines, such as film and fiction writing, to expose concerns about the topic. There are some fundamental components to our ability to engage or disengage with the here and now, quietness, space, place, loudness, cultural systems, behaviour and confinement. Artists often use, or deal with, the way in which our lives seem to have a constant music soundtrack, whether that be in a shopping centre or on a bus, we often have these compositions imposed onto us. At other times we provide, or compose, our own soundtrack through our thoughts or through a selection of engagement with the ‘natural’ sounds in our streets and other environments.
This year’s Conjunction theme is asking artists to challenge spaces and their perceptions by exploring ideas that evolve around the following.

• Empty Spaces
• Romanticism
• Sound and the Gallery Space
• Stillness and Action
• Blurring the boundaries of Subject and Material “

Conjunction 2010 will run from 16th of October

Role of the Artist

Artists will be expected to create works based on the residencey guidance; the artwork can take any form but must be contemporary in its nature. The residency will be based on an open studio model; the artist is encouraged to allow members of the public access to engage with the work in progress. The role of the residence is to act as a lead-in to the main Biennial in 2010 and is therefore seen as a testbed project to engage with the public, and will offer insights into what the future festival can provide.

The Artist/s will also be asked to give a presentation of their work to the local community and University groups on the 28th April.

If you need support or advice before you submit a proposal regarding sites, venues, or any other aspect of the project please contact the Conjunction team on 01782 261221 or email airspaceinfo@btinternet.com.

Commission

A budget of £1500 to cover all costs.

This will be the contracted fee, and must be invoiced for before payment is provided.

Proposals
Artists should create proposals that detail

• The project idea – your vision, what you expect to create, the process that will be used to achieve this and who will be involved (artists/ participants) and how it response to the theme.
• How you intend to make use of the space and how your work can develop over a period of time
• An indicative budget- what proportion of the budget is to be spent on artists’ fees and how much on other expenses.
• Images; provide a maximum of 5 images representative of your work or ideas. These should be JPEG format no greater than 2MB or Good quality colour prints for paper applications.
• DVD’s – artists submitting films/vidoes should save their film in a PAL format or as MPEG, the film should be no more than 10 minutes long
• Applicants must complete the attached application form.
• Artists must supply a statement that represents the work they are thinking of submitting (no more than 50 words, this statement will also be used in press releases)

Note: Please do not include original artworks as we are unable to return proposals.

Application Form

About You
Name
Postal Address
Contact Number
Country
Email Address
Language

Included Examples of Work
Please duplicate for each piece supplied
Title of Work
Medium
Size of Work
Website

Title of Work
Medium
Size of Work
Website

Title of Work
Medium
Size of Work
Website

Title of Work
Medium
Size of Work
Website

Title of Work
Medium
Size of Work
Website

Please send you application to (info@airspacegallery.org) or

Conjunction
c/o AirSpace Gallery
4 Broad Street
Hanley
Stoke on Trent
ST1 4HL