The Brief:
Taking themes from our current exhibition as a springboard for creativity, we want to commission an artist or group of artists from the Midlands territory to deliver our next Gallery Late on Saturday 4 November for a fee of £1,000 inclusive of VAT.
You might be makers, DJs, performers, a speaker, poet, workshop facilitator or a blend of all these things together. We welcome submissions from professional and non-professional practitioners.
Note: we are principally looking for performance-based submissions rather than visual artworks, where possible. Digital art (projection, for example) would be welcomed.
Above all else, we value innovation, ambition and creativity. So please don’t hold back!
Background:
Our first Gallery Late featured a talk from Jeremy Deller and a performance of his infamous Acid Brass project with Fairey Brass Band. Our second Gallery Late was delivered by Japanese psych-rock band BO NINGEN who performed in different rooms of Katrina Palmer’s immersive exhibition What’s Already Going On.
We are keen to localise and democratise our Gallery Late programme moving forward, offering a paid opportunity to creatives in our local region which anyone can apply for.
Exhibition Curator’s Notes (Thomas Ellmer)
Phantom Sculpture takes as its starting point the writing of influential social theorist, philosopher and former student of the University of Warwick, Mark Fisher:
“… the 21st century is oppressed by a crushing sense of finitude and exhaustion. It doesn’t feel like the future. Or, alternatively, it doesn’t feel as if the 21st century has started yet. We remain trapped in the 20th century.” Mark Fisher: Ghosts Of My Life - Writings on Depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures (Zero Books, 2013)
Britain has been home to some of the world’s most renowned sculptors – from Anthony Caro to Richard Deacon and Mona Hatoum. Our relationship to modern and contemporary sculpture has largely been asserted through generational developments.
This exhibition brings together some of the most important sculptors of the last 100 years to identify commonalities and correlations between artists and their works, and to seek traces, ghosts and phantoms of one artist’s practice in another.
With Fisher’s quote in mind, Phantom Sculpture proposes that history is under constant reappraisal, none more so than by working artists today. The artists included in the exhibition mine their own histories to consider the world in which we live, whilst at the same time looking back to significant artists from the past to better understand their impact on the present.
Combining significant works by major artists from the past and present, with contributions from emerging artists, Phantom Sculpture features works by Barbara Hepworth, Anthony Caro, Richard Deacon, Mona Hatoum, Sarah Lucasand Rachel Whiteread, as well as Rebecca Ackroyd, Jonathan Baldock, and 2023 Turner Prize nominee Jesse Darling.
Other artists on show include Turner Prize 2022 winner Veronica Ryanand Max Mara Art Prize for Women 2022-2024 winner Dominique White,plus Joseph Buckley, Phoebe Collings-James, Redd Ekks, Kira Freije, Philip Lai, Jala Wahid, Nicole Wermers, Olivia Bax, Kim Limand William Turnbull.
For our Gallery Late, we are seeking ideas that respond to themes in the exhibition including gaps in history, feminism, gender studies, migration and issues of race, with the ambition to engage audience members more deeply with the artworks on display.
Essential Information
- If shortlisted, you will need to be free on Tuesday 26 September between 1 and 4pm for a follow up 20-minute discussion with our team. If this date/time cannot suit we will try to be flexible to ensure you can still participate.
- You will need to be free on Saturday 4th November for the event itself. Please factor in plenty of time for set-up during the day.
- You will need to be or be willing to register as Self-Employed, with a tax number.
- We advise that applicants are aged 16+.
- You will need to have or be willing to have Public Liability Insurance
Fee
There is a delivery fee of £1,000 inclusive of VAT in total for our Gallery Late event. This covers the artists’ research and preparation time, delivery of the event, and making/rehearsal time.
The budget must include the cost of any materials required to deliver the event as well as travel and accommodation where required.
On the day and leading up to the event, Warwick Arts Centre will provide event management, marketing, and technical support, as well as a PA system and special lighting to animate the area. We can also provide microphones, DI boxes, monitors, and a grand piano.
We cannot provide DJ decks or items of backline unfortunately (e.g. drumkit, keyboards, guitar amps, and more.)
How to apply
The deadline for submitting your Expression of Interest is Wednesday 20 September. If you would like an informal chat with our team, please contact our Programme Manager. We look forward to hearing from you!
To express your interest in this role, please get in contact and tell us the following:
- Why are you interested in working on the Gallery Lates programme?
- What themes you are interested in and working on, and can you provide a snapshot of the kind of work or concept you might bring to the event?
- Some examples of your work (in any format, preferably digital)
- Contact details, including your postal address.
We are happy to accept written or video/voice note applications. Please email them to our Programme Manager, writing Gallery Lates Expression of interest Application and your initials in the subject header.
If you prefer to use post, please send to:
Warwick Arts Centre (Stage Door)
University of Warwick,
Gibbet Hill Road,
Coventry,
CV4 7AL
Note: For postal applications, we cannot guarantee safe delivery of postal applications (please do not include items of value). Please write your name and Gallery Late EOI Application somewhere visible on the envelope.
Selection Process
As part of the selection process, we will invite a shortlist of applicants to have a short, 20-minute discussion with the Programming team, where we get to hear a bit more about your practice and you can ask us more about the programme and our ambitions.
We will be in touch to notify applicants of the outcome within 2 weeks of the above discussion.
Commitment to Equality, Diversity, Inclusion & Justice
“The power of the arts to delight, challenge, and inspire is the thing that will bridge gaps, heal division, and forge new connections between us.”
It’s a core part of our vision to ensure that we are open and accessible to everyone, this includes our audiences, artists and staff. We actively invite applications from those who are currently underrepresented in the arts and are happy to talk the application through with anyone who has access needs, has taken a different educational route or has identified any other barriers not here identified.
Coventry is a rich and diverse city; Warwick Arts Centre’s artists and programming should be representative of the people it serves.
The Team
Kate Walters, Programme Manager
Chris Mapp, Head of Music
Thomas Ellmer, Exhibitions Curator
