Remembering Together: Phase 2 Artist Call for Creative and Cultural Industries Graduates of UHI Perth
Re-imagining the Cairn (Memorial Concept)
The Cairn is a Scottish symbol of “respect & integrity” often found in rural spaces and most commonly at the top of corbetts and munros – representing an uphill battle.
Within the context of remembering together ‘the cairn’ is a metaphor of human experience, a layering of emotions and memories, both individual and collective that come together to symbolise the act of creating balance with each individual element or layer signifying a human story be that of thankfulness, sorrow, remembrance, recovery or celebration. Therefore, the physical form that each ‘memorial cairn’ takes can be reinterpreted by the artist/designer in conversation with the location and the community.
There will be 5 separate locations across Perth and Kinross, including Perth City Centre, Kinross, Crieff, Blairgowrie, Pitlochry or Aberfeldy. Each location will be allocated a different artist, a graduate of UHI Perth, who will each work with the local community to ensure that the outcome is representative of their landscape, traditions, memories and hopes. The materials used will have a connection to the location and it will be a co-curated development that will continue to belong to the local community long after this project concludes. It is hoped that each will have an element of interaction that allows for the memorial to evolve beyond the life of the project.
We are aiming to launch each of the 5 memorials in April/ May 2024, around the same time as the Perth Museum opening, which will allow this project to be part of a larger cultural engagement project for the region.
About the Artist/Designer/Practitioner
The artist or designer will be a graduate of the Creative and Cultural Industries department within UHI Perth.
The artist will have experience of working in co-design/co-creation approaches with diverse communities. The process will need to give space to all kinds of experience, from those with connection to people who lost lives to Covid, those who lost their lives to other illnesses during the pandemic and all those who experienced change, loss and isolation in other ways. It will also acknowledge the ways in which citizens supported each other. Participants may include vulnerable groups, and the appointed artist will be expected to observe relevant safeguarding and data protection policies, supported by the partners and Greenspace Scotland.
The commissioned artist/designer may choose to engage students from the Creative and Cultural department within UHI Perth in the co-design of participatory workshops with communities leading to the development of the memorial artwork. Part of the process will explore what could be defined as a cairn for each location and how it will galvanise each communities’ experience surrounding Covid. Some communities may want a place they can gather; other communities may want to co-create an
physical artefact; a performance or film; a publication or a series of events. The key focus of phase 2 is the get each locality involved in the co-creation of an artwork that reflects their individual and collective journey. Most important is that the process is relevant to communities; embraces the wide range of experiences people have had; welcomes people to co-design and allows those involved to express honestly what this time has meant for them.
Artist/Designer/Practitioner Criteria
The Remembering Together Perth and Kinross Working Group is looking for Expressions of Interest from artists / designers, specifically UHI Perth graduates, who are living, working, or studying in Perth & Kinross.
This phase 2 Commission will focus on developing and realisation of an artistic concept that will involve communities from each location on different levels. It is anticipated that artists/ designer will arrive at a co-designed/co-created artwork for a local community memorial that builds up on the relationships and findings from Phase 1.
Artists/designer/creative practitioner will be required to:
Develop, produce, and install an artwork that responds to the Re-imagining the Cairn concept.
Devise a series of engagement activities and facilitate these, working with specific groups to allow a community sense of ownership and belonging in relation to that community memorial artwork.
Provide feedback information and evidence of the co-creation process and how it follows on from phase 1.
Participate in the commissioned documentary for the project through film interviews and footage of the engagement, and the full creative process from conception through to installation.
Provide high quality image-based updates of the process and the engagement for use within publicity and monitoring of the project progress.
Share their co-creation journey on their social media and/or any other appropriate platforms.
Participate in the project’s monitoring and evaluation process led by the partners.
Participate in the community engagement program for the launch of the overall project.
Artists/designer/creative practitioners interested in submitting an expression of interest for the Stage 2 commission will be shortlisted using the following criteria:
Proven track record of working in the community with a variety of groups spanning children, young people and adults and identify how they would ensure community participants are supported to collaborate throughout the process.
Demonstrates an understanding of the brief.
Evidences a strong artistic practice and experience of creative community engagement and co-design/co-creation approaches.
Exhibits innovative thinking, inclusive and sensitive approaches for participatory engagement with a diverse range of participants and/or a deeper understanding and knowledge of working with specific hard-to-reach communities.
Demonstrates flexibility to adapt to the needs of participating communities. This may include evening or weekend work.
Experience of working with and developing relationships with communities in Perth and Kinross.
Time management and organisational skills.
Ability to provide written evaluation, reflection, feedback.
Applicants must be registered as self-employed and be a member of the PVG scheme.
Resources
£18,000 is available for each selected artist during Phase 2. This covers artists fee, materials, community engagement activities, production and installation costs and irrecoverable VAT.
NB. Artists/creative practitioners with access requirements will be supported to apply for Access to Work (AfW). There is also a limited budget which can be applied for to address access barriers, with a focus on removing barriers for participating communities and artists who have requirements that do not quality for AfW.
How to Apply/Submit an expression of interest
To apply for this opportunity please send an expression of interest to Christiana.margiotti.perth@uhi.ac.uk by Tuesday 3rd October.
Your Expression of Interest should include:
A CV and/or Statement of Practice - if applying as a creative team, provide information for each individual with their role and how they would contribute to the commission.
A written proposal (max 2 sides of A4) or a video/voice recording (max 5 minutes) on how you would approach the development (with the local community), production and install of the project. Please include any visual to aid your proposal and a budget breakdown.
Details of any locality preferences within Perth and Kinross and the reasons for that.
Information about any relevant past commissions or projects that you think demonstrate how your practice fits this brief. Please provide images and links for more information.
The contact details of two referees for each of the artists/designers/creative practitioners applying. This should include the name, job title and relationship to the applicant as well as a telephone number and email address.
UHI Perth and Greenspace Scotland recognise the unique skills of artists, designers and creative practitioners working in communities and actively encourage proposals from creative practitioners with intersectional lived experiences of illness, isolation, rurality, income inequality or social exclusion of any kind. We welcome proposals from designers and creative practitioners with disabilities or long-term health conditions, designers of the Global Ethnic Majority, LGBTQ+ artists and/or refugee/migrant designers/creative practitioners.