Lead Artist – Schools Project – Estuary 2020

About this Role:

We are looking for an artist to plan, deliver and manage a schools programme for Estuary 2020.

In September-October 2020, in partnership with Metal, we will present Estuary 2020, a month long festival of visual art, literature, performance, film & discussion that will take place across the Thames Estuary in North Kent and South Essex. It will be the second edition of the festival that celebrates the spectacular Thames Estuary. Taking place on the river itself, and along the South Essex and North Kent coastlines, an ambitious programme of new and existing artworks and events will explore and respond to powerful themes resonant to the Estuary, including how it is likely to change over forthcoming decades including population growth and rising sea levels due to climate change.

The aim of the schools programme is to inspire children to think expansively and imaginatively about the Thames Estuary, and to encourage new and increased critical understandings of the place.

The project will have a main focus on (primary and secondary) schools in North Kent, but there is also the potential to stretch across the river to include some schools in South Essex, and/or to connect schools across the river.

You will be contacting schools, and creating relationships with teachers, most of which will be new to us. We have ambitious overall targets to reach and the schools programme needs to reach substantial numbers of children. We will agree the number of schools/children to be involved with you ensuring there is a practical and achievable plan.

Schools will need/want to be involved at different levels. Some schools may work from a teachers’ pack you devise and distribute; some receiving an artists’ visit or talk, others take part in artist-led workshops. We are open to models of delivery, and how much you bring in other artists to collaborate / deliver. The process of the project is highly important, but you will also build towards creating works with the schools that will be showcased at Estuary 2020 – we would like work from the schools programme to feature in a highly visible way in the festival.

We are working closely on Estuary 2020 with our South Essex partner Metal, who are developing a creative programme with schools in South Essex. You will informally explore ways with Metal and the artists working with them that the schools programmes might crossover and collaborate.

Estuary 2020 is part of Creative Estuary, one of five Cultural Development Fund projects across England, which will create the foundations for a transformational, culture-led innovation and growth strategy for North Kent and South Essex. The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport funds the Cultural Development Fund which is administered by Arts Council England.

www.estuaryfestival.com