Artist Residency with Civic Arts Centre and Theatre

24th November 2015

The Civic Arts Centre and Theatre in Oswaldtwistle is looking for an artist or group to join them in creating a vision for next year's carnival.

Working authentically in collaboration with communities is fundamental to the success of Super Slow Way. Supporting people and organisations to host artist residencies is key to our work.

Our residencies are not led by end products but ask artists to respond to the context in which they are working and to nurture a meaningful and collaborative creative process with their hosts and co-producers.

The Civic Arts Centre and Theatre is a community arts centre in Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire. It is a place for dance, drama, music, performance and creative arts with an emphasis on community involvement and wellbeing. The Civic put on plays, shows, performances, arts, crafts, workshops and activities which anyone in the community and surrounding area can get involved with.

Background

In 2014, the Civic Arts Centre and Theatre were part of the community team that reinstated the bi-annual Oswaldtwistle Carnival, which had not been held in the town for 16 years. The team was comprised of local organisations and individuals and fundraising began in June 2014. This event drew a crowd of over 5,000 people and some 25 organisations, including schools and community groups, were involved in the procession which passed through Oswaldtwistle, followed by a field event in Rhyddings Park. There were three music stages with 30 different performances, as well as a fairground, food stalls and field events. The Civic are planning to hold the event again in 2016 and would like to create an even bigger impact within the community and get even more people involved. The 2016 Carnival will be held on 19th June 2016.

For more information visit www.civicartscentre.co.uk

Artist Brief

We would like to invite a number of artists or an arts organisation to work in residency at The Civic to support the festival team, community groups and volunteers in developing the visual, artistic and creative elements of the 2016 Carnival.

The selected artist(s) will take inspiration from local people and work with a number of community groups, including groups of young people, possibly from local high schools and groups of older people, to develop authentic and innovative designs, ideas, themes and approaches for the 2016 Carnival. This might include, but not be restricted to, costume, dance, performance and other visual elements which will form part of the procession route and events following the procession on the field.

The artist(s) will work with participants to make these ideas a reality and in doing so, support local skills development in design, making and performance. We are open to applications from individual artists and/or a collective of artists or an arts organisation.

Budget

There is a maximum fee of £6,500 attached to this programme. There is an additional materials budget available and a small budget to support project volunteers in participating.

NB: The fee may be split across a number of artists in order to ensure we develop a broad range of ideas.