Leicester Art Week 2021

Artist-led Walking Tours: Call for Proposals 

Leicester Visual Art network (LVA) are seeking proposals from East Midlands-based artists to devise and deliver artist-led walking tours between arts venues in Leicester during Leicester Art Week. In 2021, Leicester Art Week will take place 12 – 21 November.

Leicester Visual Arts is a partnership between the principal contemporary visual arts organisations in Leicester, with the aim of fostering collaboration and developing audiences for visual art in the city. Our core members are Attenborough Arts Centre, Leicester Gallery at De Montfort University, Leicester Print Workshop, Leicester Museum and Art Gallery, LCB Depot, Phoenix, Soft Touch and Two Queens. 

Leicester Art Week 2021 is a visual art festival produced by Leicester Visual Arts. Taking place across the city in late November, the festival will present a focussed programme of exhibitions, performances and learning events. Our aim is to develop arts audiences in Leicester and raise the profile of the city among regional audiences, artists and peer organisations. The previous Leicester Art Week programmes have engaged over 10,000 people from the city and region.

For this year’s Art Week, LVA intend to commission 3 artists to lead walking tours. We want to create more opportunities for artists to create new work for Art Week, while also strengthening links between the different arts venues in the city and supporting audiences to have a deeper engagement with the wide variety of organisations and events taking place during the festival.

The 3 commissioned artists will work closely with the LVA team, including staff from Attenborough Arts Centre and Leicester Museums & Galleries, and will be supported throughout the development and delivery of the activity.

LVA are especially keen to hear from artists who use walking in their practice, or who have a particular interest in live art, socially engaged practice or participatory projects.

 

Walking Tour Criteria

We are open to proposals that explore the idea of a walking tour in the broadest possible sense. This might be through taking an unexpected route that takes in points of interest that the artist would like to explore with the participants, presenting factual or fiction narratives or perhaps working with the participants to create something.  

In order for us to ensure that the tour can be delivered safely and meet the requirements of the Art Week programme, your proposed activity must meet the following criteria:

• The start and end points of your walk must be chosen from the following options:
  • Attenborough Arts Centre – LCB Depot
  • Two Queens & Leicester Print Workshop – The Leicester Gallery at De Montfort University
  • Phoenix – Leicester Museum & Art Gallery
• In order to ensure a variety of walking tours, we will select a different proposal for each of the three routes listed above.
• In your application, you can propose a walking tour for each of the three routes options if you wish, though we will only commission one artist per route. 
• Your walk should last no longer than 30 minutes. 
• The walk participants will be advised allow extra time to visit exhibitions at the start and end venues of the walk, so you do not need to allow for this in your activity.
• Your walk will be delivered to a maximum of 8 participants 
• Your walk and any proposed activity must be accessible and inclusive for adults and young people aged 16 and over and all abilities
• You may propose a specific route in your submission, however the final route will be subject to agreement with LVA and may have to be adapted to meet health and safety requirements and/or avoid any roadworks that may be taking place at the time of the walk.
• The walk and proposed activity must meet any COVID-19 regulations that are in place at the time of the event. If you are commissioned to deliver a tour, we will work with you to ensure the activity meets social distancing rules, COVID-safe working practices and health and safety measures, however we also encourage you to consider this at the time of putting your proposal together.

 

Fee 

Each artist will be paid a fee of £650. 

There are three commissions on offer. 

The fee is inclusive of artist fee, materials, production and any other expenses associated with the project. 

Access costs to support the selected artists in participating will be covered separately.

 

Eligibility Criteria 

We will only accept submissions from visual artists who live or work in the East Midlands. 

We particularly welcome applications from disabled artists and artists from underrepresented groups who can meet the eligibility criteria.

 

How to submit 

We welcome submissions in any format – that might be text, audio, video or any combination of media. 

We would prefer to receive submissions by email, so please make sure that the total file size of all your email attachments is no more than 20MB (therefore, larger media files should be sent via WeTransfer, Dropbox or a similar service). 

Please email your submission to: visualarts@leicester.ac.uk 

The deadline for submissions is 11:59pm on 6 August 2021. We will not consider any submissions received after this time. 

 

What to include in your submission 

Whatever format you make your submission in, please include the following information: 

• Your name and contact details 
• What you propose to do as part of your walking tour, if we select you. You could also tell us how it relates to your wider practice. If you have a preference for one of the routes or are proposing a walking activity that could be adapted to suit any of the three proposed routes, please inform us in your application. 

A short summary of your artistic practice – what do you make, what materials do you use, what ideas or themes does your work explore?

• Up to five images or short video clips of your work, or a link to where we can view your work online. Please make sure that the total size of your attachments does not exceed 20mb.
• You can include other information in your submission if you think there is something else we need to know about you or your work that will help us make our decision. If you would like to tell us about your access requirements you can do so at this stage. 
• The text information you submit should be no more than two sides of A4 (at 12-point size) in total. An equivalent length if you are submitting an audio or video application is around 5 minutes. 

 

Selection Criteria 

We can only select three walking tours for this programme. This is due to the limits of the programme budget and the capacity of our teams to work with the selected artists. We expect to receive many more strong applications than we will be able to select. The following information explains how we will make our decisions in the fairest way possible. You should consider these criteria when putting your submission together. 

We will assess each submission against the following criteria: 

• Does your proposed activity meet all of the walking tour criteria set out above?
• Will the project be of clear benefit to you and your artistic practice?  
• Will the proposed activity support audience engagement in and enjoyment of Leicester Art Week? 
• Is the proposed activity suitable for participants aged 16+ and all abilities?

We won’t be able to consider your submission as eligible if it does not contain the information we need to answer these questions. 

 

Selection panel 

The selection panel will be comprised of Leicester Visual Art Network members. This will include representatives from Attenborough Arts Centre, LCB Depot, Leicester Museum & Art Gallery, The Leicester Gallery at DMU, Phoenix, Leicester Print Workshop and Two Queens, as well as an independent artist with experience in socially engaged practice and accessible & inclusive community projects.

 

Selection process 

From the submissions received, we will select three walking tour proposals, each one delivered by a separate artist. The selection process will take place in two stages. 

Stage 1: all submissions will be checked to make sure they meet the eligibility criteria for this award. Any submissions that don’t meet these criteria will not progress to the next stage. 

Stage 2: All applications that meet the eligibility criteria will be assessed by the full selection panel. 

 

Feedback 

We will endeavour to provide constructive feedback to artists who are not selected for the programme. Please be aware that due to the volume of submissions we expect to receive we are unlikely to be able to offer in depth conversations with each artist, but will seek to make sure that the feedback we provide will be aimed at helping artists understand where their application might be made stronger for next time. 

 

Schedule 

• 19/07/2021: Call for proposals announced
• 6/08/21: Deadline for submissions
• Week commencing 9/08/2021: Selection panel meet to review submissions
• Week commencing 16/08/2021: All artists notified of the selection panel’s decision & brief feedback given
• 27/09/2021: Leicester Art Week 2021 programme launch
• 12 – 21 November 2021: Leicester Art Week
• Sat 13 – Sun 14 November: Walking tours to be delivered