Collaborative Connections commission

Rotherham Museums, Arts & Heritage Service invites artists to commission for three new temporary bespoke artworks, as part of the Collaborative Connections project (Covid-19 Resilient grant funded by Historic England).

This commissions will explore community connections to Rotherham’s most important heritage monuments. These are:

• Catcliffe Cone in Catcliffe, Rotherham
• Waterloo Kiln at Swinton
• Keppel’s Column

The commission is for a digital/visual or sensory artist to engage local communities to create an engagement programme and installation exploring the heritage of each site alongside key project outcomes:

• Increasing awareness, accessibility and appreciation of the sites
• Providing a community focal point creating moments of commemoration, solidarity and unity
• Increase access and availability to audiences through high quality digital programming
• Explore the connections and innovation between industrial heritage and the modern day
• Ensure no audiences are left behind where access to digital access is not available
• Reframe our forgotten historic assets for audiences, to forge new memories and connections

We are looking for three artists who will work alongside newly established engagement groups to create art installations, or interpretation bringing new perspectives on each site.

Artists will work alongside communities to co-produce response to the sites with a final outcome installed physically at each site, supported with virtual content.

Artists will be required to:

• Present outline responses to their chosen site to a community panel
• Work with the local engagement groups to gather the stories, connections, and memories associated with each site informing the final artwork
• Work collaboratively with the local engagement group to develop and implement a final temporary site-specific artwork

Social media platforms, the museum website and digital resources will be used to share and promote the engagement programme

The budget for this commission is £5,600 per site.

The commissions will be awarded in November 2020 with delivery of the final responses expected by January 2021.

For a full copy of the brief contact: Christine Evans, Projects and Development Manager