Commissioning call for the outdoors (UK)

North West Greenfield Festival Touring Consortium > Commissioning call for the outdoors (UK)

The organising comittee is looking to commission one exceptional new piece of work to be toured to at least three greenfield festivals in the Northwest in 2015: Kendal Calling, Just So Festival and Ramsbottom Festival, and potentially up to three additional associate festivals. The work should be aimed at a family audience. It shoud have large scale visual impact and be interactive. Though we are flexible as to art form, we expect the project to have a physical artistic presence throughout the festival weekend, and not to be purely performance based.

The North West Greenfield Festival Touring Consortium is a partnership between Just So Festival, Ramsbottom Festival & Kendal Calling. Through Arts Council England strategic funding, the three festivals aim to create an environment where a wide range of high quality outdoor family arts can thrive at North West weekend festivals; utilising the work of great companies to develop audiences for family work outdoors.

Commissioning Brief

We are looking for projects that meet the following criteria:

• First and foremost we are looking for projects that are specifically designed for the outdoors and work within a natural landscape.

• We are looking for projects that are innovative, that relish the challenges and opportunities that working outdoors brings.

• These commissions are not bound by art form, ALL art forms will be considered. However, this commission is not suitable for time specific performance, but aimed at projects that can engage the audience throughout the weekend, visually and/or physically.

• Projects must be able to accommodate significant audiences; we are not interested in work that is designed for limited audience numbers in tented spaces or similar. However, companies must take into account how they cater for an audience in inclement weather.

• Projects must be affordable, transportable, flexible and accessible.

• Artists must consider and demonstrate how they might target/engage a family audience specifically.

• We are open to collaborative approaches.

 
Commissioning Fees
The commission available is worth £4000 inclusive. In addition, if required, Just So Festival will support the development process by providing residential development space in our woodland venue , the whirligig, and providing audiences to feedback during development.

In addition to the commissioning fee the projects will then be programmed at each of the three partner festivals (Kendal Calling 31 July/1/2 August 2015), Just So Festival (21/22/23 August 2015) & Ramsbottom Festival (dates tbc) for a fee of £1,500 per festival (inclusive for three days). This may be extended to up to three associate festivals over the summer.