Artists – Liverpool Biennial x SEVENSTORE Bursaries, closes 9 Apr

As part of a shared commitment to supporting local artists in Liverpool and Merseyside, Liverpool Biennial 2023 and SEVENSTORE are joining forces to offer three bursaries of £3,000 each for artists and creative practitioners between June – September 2023, within the 12th edition of Liverpool Biennial.

Liverpool Biennial x SEVENSTORE Bursaries are open to artists and creative practitioners who are specifically working with or interested in exploring practices of care – either thematically or through their approach, or both.

What we mean by ‘care’ can be very broad, and might include ideas around sustainability, accessibility, Queer and LBGTQ+ culture, BIPOC and race issues, fighting injustice, community or social practice and more.

They welcome applications from artists that meet the following criteria:

  • Living and working in Liverpool or wider Merseyside
  • Consider themselves emerging in their art career (e.g.? practicing between 1-3 years outside of any formal education)
  • There is no age limit, any age is welcome to apply
  • No formal education or qualifications are necessary
  • Any form of visual art medium is welcome to apply, including (but not limited to) sculpture, painting, printmaking, audio, film, live art, illustration or photography
  • Are able to demonstrate a clear rationale for why they’d benefit from the bursary

Unfortunately, they are not able to accept applications from:

  • Organisations or companies
  • Full-time students
  • Artists living outside of the UK
  • Artists within 24 months of completing an undergraduate course
  • Individuals who have received any Liverpool Biennial bursary since 2021

Artist collectives are welcome to apply, but please note that only one bursary will be allocated per successful application. They cannot accept multiple applications from the same collective or project.

How to apply:

  • Provide a short overview of your proposed bursary activity (up to 40 words)
  • Please provide an outline of your artistic practice (up to 100 words)
  • Provide a full description of your proposed bursary activity (up to 150 words)
  • Outline your budget (up to 100 words)
  • Why is the opportunity crucial to your professional development at this time? (up to 150 words)
  • Additional Links / Website / CV

Closing date for applications: Sunday 9th April 2023, midnight

Download the PDF job pack here for further information.

Free half-term Shadow Puppet workshops for ages 9-11

ArtsGroupie CIC have announced they will deliver a FREE half-term Shadow Puppet week of workshops for children aged 9-11.

The shadow puppet workshops are held 14-16 March, 11- 3pm and 17 March, 10- 12pm.

There is also a performance for parents/guardians, 12-1pm, in Liverpool City Centre with Powerfull Beyond All Measure, at C3 Liverpool, 79-81 Kempston St, Liverpool L3 8HE, funded by Stop Loan Sharks England

LIMITED SPACES AVAILABLE, contact artgroupie@outlook.com for a registration form.

They will explore the wondrous world of shadow puppetry, a simple yet effective theatre technique.

Liverpool Poetry Prize Open Call, closes 31 Mar

The Liverpool Poetry Prize is returning for 2023, with a £1,000 star prize up for grabs.

Following their highly popular competition last year, 2023’s Liverpool Poetry Prize will celebrate neurodiversity.

Poetry unites us all, and whether you are writing from lived experience of neurodivergence or distilling your thoughts on a neurological condition, they want to hear from you!

Categories for the Liverpool Poetry Prize 2023

For 2023, the Liverpool Poetry Prize has two categories:

  • UniVerse: open to anyone in the UK aged 18 or over, writing on any subject.
  • NeurodiVerse: for a poem about a neurological condition, neurodiversity or neurodivergence.

They are pleased to announce that the ground-breaking Liverpool-born poet Brian Patten will be judging this year’s shortlisted poems.

Poems must be no longer than 40 lines, and you must be over 18 to enter (under 18s may enter with the written permission of their parent or guardian).

Entry costs £5, and the closing date is 12pm on March 31st, 2023. Entries received after the closing time will not be eligible. You are able to enter a maximum of one piece of work for each category.

To submit your piece of original poetry, please follow the instructions here. You can also attach your poem as a word document or PDF file.

Performers/Artists – Neurovision/The Brain Charity, closes 31 Mar

The Brain Charity is excited to launch Neurovision – a live event that puts neurodiversity on the musical map ahead of this year’s Eurovision Song Contest in Liverpool!

What is Neurovision?

Neurovision is a one-night-only live music event, being held on Friday, 5th May 2023 at the Carnival Brewing taproom in Liverpool City Centre.

There will be special guests from the world of Eurovision, performances from our competition entrants and a star prize.

We want to encourage entries that reflect neurodiversity – the concept that brains work differently. in an inclusive arena that showcases your talent as a musician, singer or songwriter.

How can I take part in Neurovision?

Enter your performance – whether singing, dancing, spoken word or something else!

Anyone over the age of 18 living in the UK can apply (under-18s can apply with a parent/guardian’s permission).

They are looking for original compositions and unique covers covering all musical genres – from indie, metal and rap to classical, country and folk. Whatever the musical genre, they would like you to get in touch.

If you would like to perform poetry, comedy, dance, theatre or something else entirely, they’d still like to hear from you.

How to enter

All you need to do, is send a link to a music or video file of your performance, via the form here.

Tracks can be instrumental or with vocals. Entry costs just £5, and you can only enter once.

The competition closes at 12pm on Friday, March 31st 2023.

Mural Artist – Cheshire East Council, closes 15 Feb

The main objectives of the painted mural commission are to:

  • Create a unique large-scale iconic mural that speaks to Macclesfield’s creative heritage, referencing the naturalistic art works of Charles Tunnicliffe
  • Create a piece of art that appeals to the local community, visitors and businesses, complements the surrounding area and views, and is bespoke to the local environment
  • Reflect Macclesfield’s rich creative and artistic talents
  • Increase the appreciation of public art in the Borough and contribute to tourism and inward investment / visitor economy within the town

This is offered as a freelance contract.

They anticipate the inclusive costs for planning and completion of the artwork to be in the region of £10,000 subject to design complexity / experience of artist.

The artwork must be completed by the end of March

How to Apply

To request the full brief please email: culturaleconomy@cheshireeast.gov.uk.

The closing date for submission is Wednesday 15th February

Please return your proposal or direct any queries to:
Janey Moran, Cultural Economy Development Manager, Cheshire East Council culturaleconomy@cheshireeast.gov.uk

Social Clubs Coordinator – Liverpool Cares, closes 21 Feb

Liverpool Cares are hiring for a Social Clubs Coordinator to join their team to design and deliver engaging social activities that bring people together and help to build a strong community in Liverpool.

If you have experience leading and organising an events programme, strong organisational and communication skills, and you’re passionate about supporting communities to grow and connect – they want to hear from you!

Click here for full job description and how to apply.

Closing date: 21 February

Volunteer – Eurovision 2023, closes 14 Feb

With just over three months until one of the biggest music competitions in the world takes over Liverpool – the Eurovision host city team wants YOU to get involved.

The volunteering programme has officially opened, giving people the chance to be at the heart of this iconic event.

Around 500 roles have been created to support the delivery of this exciting global event, with volunteers being required for various periods of time starting from Monday 1 until Sunday 14 May 2023.

Guaranteed to be an exciting experience combining hard work and fun, volunteers will have the chance to mix with people from different backgrounds, as well as the opportunity to gain skills along the way.

To apply, volunteers must be at least 18 years of age, be friendly and approachable and have good local knowledge. It’s also a bonus if candidates can speak a language other than English due to the international nature of the event.

Volunteers will be located across the city centre, at the Tourist Information Centre in Liverpool ONE, at the Eurovision Village on the Pier Head and at key transport hubs. Duties will include scanning event tickets, meeting and greeting visitors, or welcoming artists to backstage areas in the Eurovision Village.

The ambition is to create a diverse and inclusive volunteering team, with a blend of local volunteers and volunteers with knowledge of the Ukrainian language and culture. Please note, for those outside the UK, volunteers will need a work visa to take part.

To register your interest in becoming a Eurovision Song Contest 2023 volunteer and to find out more about the roles available, visit the Culture Liverpool website.

The closing date for applications is midnight, Tuesday 14 February.

Please note, volunteers will not be required to work on site at M&S Bank Arena where the Eurovision Song Contest is taking place.

 

Artists – Language of Misogyny, a workplace campaign, closes 10 Feb

This commission is part of a wider Visible and Safe initiative, a partnership, cross-service approach tackling Violence Against Women and Girls (see additional information below).

Culture Liverpool are seeking proposals from arts and cultural organisations to create an intervention and resource responding to the issues around the language of misogyny* in the workplace. It is anticipated that this campaign via the media of film, spoken word, theatre with strong visuals and be suitable for social media highlighting and questioning the language of misogyny.

This should be suitable to be shown on social media as for example a short film, impactful stills/words as part of the City Council’s Safer Streets initiative. The piece/ product should be suitable for all audiences but directed at those people who may think misogynistic language is acceptable. The piece will utilise words deemed as misogynistic by responders to a survey undertaken by LCC across major employers in the city to ascertain what words or sayings women and girls find offensive or intimidating that are used often in everyday life and ‘accepted’ within society.

The piece should be hard-hitting, and challenging but also family friendly, (or a version of), to be suitable for adults to discuss with children and young people. Thought should be given to whether the piece can work both on socials and as stills, in print etc and also as to length of the piece to make most impact, especially with young men. 

The commission should include working with focus groups with major city employers to workshop ideas around language and visuals to develop the concept for creative alongside commissioned artist/arts organisations.

Completed campaign to be launched end of June/July 2023 with further training in workplaces continuing until March 2024.

Budget: £40,000 tbc/ subject to approval from external sources

To submit an expression of interest, please send the following:

  • Proposal outline
  • Indicative budget inc. any contributions/in-kind.
  • Examples or illustrations of work if applicable
  • Timescale
  • Brief information and experience of your organisation and any collaborative partners you’d be working with.

Please send this to sarah.vasey@liverpool.gov.uk by 9am, Friday 10th February 2023. They will then shortlist and ask for further information and/or discussions.

Artists – Eurovision Visual Art Education Resource and Public Art Egg, closes 12 Feb

In 2023, Liverpool will host the Eurovision Song Contest.The event should be taking place in Ukraine, but due to the ongoing invasion the UK will instead host the competition on their behalf.

The Eurovision Festival will land in Liverpool on 1st May and run until the 14th May. The Eurovision Grand Final is being producehope

  • mental health & wellbeing
  • voice of the child (Child friendly cities (CFC))
  • and celebration of Eurovision.

The Opportunity 

As part of our education and community programmes, our visual arts strand will focus on the Ukrainian and Eastern European tradition of egg painting. Called pysanka, these painted eggs are a central part of Ukrainian culture around by the BBC and will be broadcast live on 13 May to 160 million viewers across the world. 

To support this, as host city Liverpool will be delivering a cultural festival in the lead up to the main event with a series of commissions, events and installations which will act as a platform for modern Ukraine – telling a story of an ambitious, progressive country. Sitting alongside these will be an education and community programme to ensure that our young people and wider communities can engage in the event also.

The overall theme of both the community and education programmes is ‘United by Music’, with sub-themes of: 

  • welcome 
  • home
  • sanctuary
  • belonging 
  • loneliness
  • togetherness

d Easter. 

Schools across the region will be able to access an online resource providing cultural references, ‘how to’ guides and ideas and inspiration for the decoration of their individual eggs in their school settings. These include but are not restricted to use of the national symbols of the Ukraine, the nightingale and sunflower. The resource pack will be shared with the commissioned artists.

To complement this programme we are working with Liverpool ONE to provide a unique opportunity to commission 7 visual artists to work with schools and the Ukrainian community across the Liverpool City Region to design and decorate a largescale painted egg for inclusion in a public art trail. There are 7 large-scale eggs in total, each measuring 1000mm high x 700mm diameter, 1 for each Liverpool City Region Local Authority and 1 for the Ukrainian Community in Liverpool.

Each Local Authority area will decide which schools will be involved, this might be one school or a primary, secondary and Early Years/SEND school working together. The commissioned artists will work with the chosen schools to design the decoration for a giant egg to be displayed in a public location within Liverpool ONE during the Easter Holidays and in the run-up to Eurovision.

The designs should reflect the above themes, Ukrainian culture and traditions, those of the other competing Eurovision countries and our wider Liverpool City Region communities. The eggs can be decorated using paints, decoupage, and collage and must be varnished for outdoor display prior to being collected and returned to Liverpool ONE.

There will potentially be opportunities for the commissioned artists to collaborate with artists working on other aspects of the wider Eurovision programme.

Who are they looking for? 

We are looking for artists who:

  • Have a proven track record of high-quality co-creation with schools and/or communities
  • Can work to the brief provided by Culture Liverpool and within the timescales
  • With a history of delivering work to a tight deadline
  • Proven track record of developing and delivering high quality work suitable for the public realm
  • Have own Public Liability Insurance of at least £5,000,000
  • We will endeavour to secure a space within the school to decorate the egg but please let us know if you have access to own studio or space to decorate egg if needed

Guidelines:

  • There are 7 eggs in total
  • Hollow fibreglass egg
  • 1000mm high x 700mm diameter
  • The egg has a small fibreglass plate attached to the bottom which enables it to stand upright.  This has bolt holes and sits within a frame on a large round wooden base to which it is attached for display on site (see images below)
  • The base to which the egg is attached for display is 500mm high and 1500mm 
  • The egg will be supplied WITHOUT the large base, the egg stands upright on its small base plate
  • The artist is not required to paint/design the large display base, only the egg
  • Each egg has different fibreglass scenery on the small base plate such as sand, grass, gravel, rock effect. The artist can paint over this if preferred
  • The eggs have a smooth surface and will be painted with an outdoor base coat, onto which artists can apply their media – paint, decoupage/collage etc. Please provide details of the media to be used with your application
  •  The artist should varnish over the design with a varnish suitable for outdoors or use materials that will be suitable for display outdoors without varnishing 
  • The eggs may be repurposed in future so nothing should be attached onto the original structure

Considerations

  • The eggs will be on display outdoors for over 2 months
  • The media used must be waterproof or finished with a waterproof varnish
  • Liverpool ONE must be able to wash the eggs, for example to remove bird droppings. food and drink spillages
  • Do not attach anything to the egg that makes it easier to climb or sit/stand on
  • The eggs will be on display and accessible to the public 24 hours a day so should not be designed in a way that would attract antisocial behaviour. They will not be locked away at night 
  • The design must not involve anything being screwed/bolted into the egg or other methods of attachment that penetrate the structure
  • Do not cut holes in the egg or remove any parts of it
  • People sit on the bases and lean on the eggs so there shouldn’t be anything on the sides that can be damaged/squashed or that would injure people
  • No part of the design should protrude significantly from the egg
  • Keep in mind public will be interacting with /touching the eggs so all materials must be safe
  • The egg will be viewed from all sides including above so please design to be viewed from all angles
  • Repairs may be required during the display period so please retain spare materials/media should any need to be carried out
  • The egg will be transported to the school by a courier company who will need to take it to the exact location it will be painted.  Teachers/artists should not attempt to move it around the school due to the weight.  Under no circumstances should pupils move the egg.  Ideally the courier company will put it on the floor where it is to be designed/painted and that is where it is left until collection by them
  • The egg must be completely finished including any weatherproofing/varnishing done before it is collected from the school and brought back to Liverpool ONE. 
  • The wooden display bases will be painted and have vinyl branding, with details about the artist and school, egg design and logos. This will be done by Liverpool ONE.
  • Use of corporate logos in designs or design with political, sexual and religious connotations will not be accepted
  • The artwork must withstand the rigours of outdoor living. Artwork that is fragile or deemed to present a public safety hazard will not be approved

Timeline 

12.2.23 Deadline for applications

16.2.23 Commissioned artist informed

17.2.23 – 26.2.23 Research & development, preparation

WC 27.02.23 Eggs delivered to schools. Begin work with schools to develop designs

WC 20.3.23 Eggs will be collected from schools

31.3.23 Installation of egg trail (to be managed by Liverpool ONE)

Exact dates and times to be agreed. The egg will be at the school for approximately 3 weeks (unless an earlier collection is arranged).  

The duration at the school cannot be extended beyond 24 March.  

Fee  

There is a fee of £2000 per artist/egg to include all research and design, school engagement, workshops, design development, materials, install of designs onto the egg and artist expenses.

Transport of the eggs from Liverpool ONE to the school and return will be arranged separately.

The artist would need to do any repairs to the artwork if damaged during the public display period.  A call-out fee of £250 would be paid to the artist for any repairs needed. Repairs need to be done outside store opening hours and in agreement with Liverpool ONE.

Requirements for application

Provide CV, examples of previous work and one page cover letter outlining experience, your ideas, how you would manage the project, workshops and if you have a chosen Liverpool City Region local authority area  you would like to work with and why.

Deadline for Application 

5.00pm (17:00hrs) Sunday 12th February, 2023

Send to – harriet.warnock@liverpool.gov.uk

 

 

 

Speakers/Performers – Ignite Liverpool/TEDx/Stand Up event

Share your passion for Eurovision – Call for speakers/performers for TEDx/Stand Up event with a focus on Eurovision.

Ignite Liverpool who have been producing these unique events for years, have announced that they are looking for speakers/performers for their next event in May to celebrate the joys of Eurovision.

Talks could be on anything Europe/Ukraine or Eurovision. From the history and culture of the contest, to the music and performances, to the politics and controversies – each speaker will have just 5 minutes to share their perspective and passion.

Dressing to impress is a must

Whether you’re a Eurovision fanatic or simply curious about the contest, this event is for you. Sign up now and you too could be a star for 5 minutes. https://igniteliverpool.com/2022/12/open-call-for-speakers-euroversion/

Organised by https://igniteliverpool.com/