Call for Artist or Collective for Exhibition Commission
Deadline: 24/03/2025
City: Halifax | Region: West Yorkshire | Country: United Kingdom | Lauren Iredale
Paid opportunity
Are you a curator, artist or collective looking for the resources to stage an exhibition of new or revisited work? Thanks to funding gratefully received from Calderdale Council's Multi Year Culture fund, we’re thrilled to announce a new commission opportunity to co-create an exhibition in late 2025 in our spacious and inspiring gallery.
We’re looking for a curator, artist or collective who are looking to stage an exhibition of visual art and creatively transform our spacious gallery in Halifax. Exhibition subjects can be on any topic but we’re especially keen to receive proposals around our key programming themes of:
1. Health and wellbeing
2. Environment and ecological practices
3. Socially-engaged practices
4. The creative process
We are particularly interested in supporting and facilitating exhibitions that meet one or more of the following priorities:
1. Demonstrate innovation: We are looking for artists with innovative and fresh perspectives on this subject. This could involve the use of new processes, unconventional materials or concepts that challenge and inspire.
2. Engage the local and visitor community: We are looking for projects that will involve and resonate with our local community and artists whose creative practices encourage interaction and participation in visual arts practice and appreciation.
3. Embrace multidisciplinary approaches and collaborations: We would love to support proposals that involve collaboration between the artist and members of the Everybody Arts community. This could include workshops, community art projects, or installations that evolve over time with input from the public.
4. Promote inclusivity: We want to support projects and practices that are inclusive and accessible to diverse audiences.
5. Address social or environmental issues: We’d like to support proposals that use art to raise awareness, provoke thought and contribute to positive change and dialogue about social or environmental issues relevant to our community.
6. Utilise sustainable materials: We would love to see proposals that prioritise sustainability and artists who incorporate eco-friendly materials or focus on themes related to environmental consciousness.
Our commitments
1. A budget of £5000 including VAT (if applicable) to cover all aspects of planning, designing, and delivering the exhibition, inclusive of all artist fees, technical support, materials and expenses required to deliver the exhibition.
2. An additional budget of £2,400 will be available for the planning and delivery of public engagement activities to be delivered during the exhibition period inclusive of all artist fees, technical support, materials and expenses. This fee is optional and further detail will be provided at the contracting stage.
3. Collaborate and support the planning and delivery of the exhibition including coordination, marketing, budget management and concept development.
4. Providing administrative support for the arrangement of the exhibition and access to the space from 9 am to 5 pm Tuesday-Friday (with some availability for times outside of this period by prior arrangement).
5. Supporting the curator/artist/collective to access and use the space appropriately and inline with our health and safety policies.
6. Ensuring that there is always a member of the Everybody Arts staff or volunteer team in the gallery when the space is open to the public.
7. Promoting the exhibition through our social media and other marketing channels.
The curator/artist/collective will commit to:
1. Managing the planning, design and delivery of the exhibition including being responsible for setting your own working schedules and workload in order to meet key delivery milestones and deadlines.
2. Liaising and co-creating with Everybody Arts team members to support coordination, marketing, budget management and concept development of the exhibition.
3. Supporting or taking responsibility for the planning and delivery of public engagement activities to be delivered during the exhibition- to be discussed at contracting stage.
4. Being the main contact and taking responsibility for liaising with any external contractors (artists, technicians) involved in the exhibition planning, design and delivery.
5. Ensuring that the gallery is returned in the same state that it was when the exhibition began.
6. Supporting the opening of the gallery to the public during the gallery’s usual opening hours (Wednesday-Saturday, 1-4 pm).
7. Taking part in evaluation activities as required.
8. Providing materials to assist with the promotion of the exhibition.
About The Everybody Gallery
The Everybody Gallery is an accessible space with level access on the first floor of Everybody Arts’ grade II listed former textile mill at Shaw Lane, Halifax HX3 9ET. We host a range of free to view year-round exhibitions, and showcase a variety of artists and residencies and engagement activities. The main gallery space spans 326 square metres, with additional kitchen, AV presentation and toilet facilities.
Key Dates
1. Applications open: Monday, 17th February 2025
2. Deadline for proposals: 9 am on Monday, 24th March 2025
3. Interviews: W/C 7th April 2025
4. Initial artist meetings: April/May 2025
5. Artists curating/producing exhibition: during May- September 2025
6. Exhibition install: during September 2025
7. Exhibition opens: during September/October 2025
8. Exhibition closes: during December 2025/January 2026
9. Exhibition deinstall: during December 2025/January 2026
Who can apply
We are welcoming applications from any artist or collectives working in the field of visual arts, who are looking for a space to showcase their practice and engage with new audiences. Selected artist/collectives requirements:
1. Arts qualification to BA minimum and/or 3 years experience working as a professional artist
2. Public liability and professional indemnity Insurance
3. If you plan to work with vulnerable adults or children during your residency, you will need a full clear DBS and to share this with Everybody Arts along with your safeguarding policy.
4. A risk assessment covering any materials and processes which may be undertaken during the residency.
5. An equality and diversity monitoring form
Selection Process
Applications will be reviewed by our selection committee, which includes an Everybody Arts board member, director and gallery manager. We will select and invite up to three curators, artists or collectives to attend an interview to discuss their ideas. Those selected will be paid £250 per curator, artist or collective to prepare for and attend an interview. Artists will be selected using the following criteria:
1. Previous experience and portfolio
2. How well does the proposal meet the brief including programming priorities?
3. How well does the proposal meet the practicalities and requirements of our organisation and the gallery space?
Everybody Arts is an equal opportunity organisation and encourages artists from diverse backgrounds to apply.
We Value Your Effort and Interest
We appreciate the time and effort required to apply for this opportunity. Unfortunately, we are unable to provide individual feedback at the application stage. Thank you for your understanding.
How to apply
To apply, please submit the following by 9 am on Monday, 24th March 2025:
1. An introduction to yourself or your collective through a statement and bio or CV or website link
2. Images of relevant previous work (no larger than 4MB each) or a link to your website or online portfolio. Audio-visual links should not exceed 3 minutes in total.
3. A brief proposal for the exhibition (max 250 words and/or 4 sketches/ images)
We also welcome audio-visual submissions that total under 10 minutes. If you would like to submit an audio-visual submission, instead of filling in the submission form, please get in touch through the Contact Curator tab.
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