Creative People and Places Partners are inviting artists and creatives to participate in a new and unique professional development opportunity.
Super Slow Way, Creative Scene, Heart of Glass and LeftCoast are delighted to announce the launch of a new and unique professional development opportunity: The Faculty of Social Arts Practice. This pilot programme has been developed for artists and creatives living and working in and around Pennine Lancashire, North Kirklees, West Yorkshire, Blackpool and Wyre and St.Helens. Working together and from our base locations across the North of England, the partnership is delighted to be collaborating with project facilitators In Situ and Chrissie Tiller on this ambitious initiative.
The four partner projects are supported through Arts Council England’s Creative People and Places programme, a £37 million action research fund focusing on art, people and place.
Super Slow Way Director Laurie Peake said: “Super Slow Way, alongside the other three Creative People and Places programmes in the North West, is creating a space between artists, people and place where exciting and unexpected things can happen. This space demands new skills and strategies that few schools teach.
“The Faculty of Social Arts Practice represents an innovative experimental platform to explore and play with the demands and opportunities of social practice, taking advantage of the presence of its leading exponents visiting and working in our communities over the coming year.”
WHO IS THIS FOR?
We are looking for 20 curious, forward-looking, open-minded artists, practitioners, curators or producers, who are currently not in full-time education or employment, to take part in a unique learning and sharing opportunity and be part of developing and realising The Northern Faculty of Social Arts Practice. There are no limitations on age, educational background, previous training or ways in which you are currently engaged in creative practice but we imagine you may be at a stage where you are excited by the thought of shifting direction or unpicking your practice and your thinking, and sharing it with others.
You may be working directly in the visual or performing arts or in an allied role. You may be an engineer, youth worker, production manager, or architect who finds yourself increasingly working in this context. What we are looking for is a group of people with a passion for socially engaged art and the commitment and appetite to learn and to work with a group of peers to explore some of the exciting questions around interdisciplinary collaborative art and social practice.
WHAT WILL IT INVOLVE?
This six-month pilot programme will revisit the notion of the formal learning environment and invite those joining us on the journey to be central to laying the foundations of a radical new framework for all those wishing to engage with creative practice, sharing knowledge and experiences and reflecting on ideas and actions with others working in this field.
The Faculty will take the form of four weekend residentials and a one-day de-brief/sharing event throughout the pilot period, with input from artists working with the four partner Creative People and Places programmes (Super Slow Way, Creative Scene, Heart of Glass, and LeftCoast) and the possibility of other one-day events across the region. The periods between the residentials will be supported by online, distance learning tutorials, seminars, discussions and assignments, to be responded to in any medium or appropriate method. This might include making a piece of work, planning a session, using audio or visual media, performance, information collecting, or undertaking any form of writing. Participants will have on-going support in developing these skills from The Faculty team and artist mentors working across the region.
We will provide access to an exciting library of thought and practice and the possibility to engage with different thinkers and thought through online and live events. At the end of the pilot we hope you will feel your critical thinking, as well as your practice, has been strengthened and deepened.
WHAT WILL IT COST?
In the spirit of shared exploration and learning we will be waiving any fees involved in this pilot and the Creative People and Places programmes will be covering all accommodation, food and travel for the residentials. In return we will be asking that selected participants are fully committed to being active members of The Faculty; including attending all four residentials, the de-brief and completing the appropriate assignments.
