"The Spirit of Youth" will be an art commission to be made in engagement with local young people for the Templemore Avenue/ Harvey Court areas of East Belfast, Northern Ireland.
BACKGROUND
The project seeks to develop a legacy artwork reflecting the community’s readiness to embrace change, to develop community capacity and to reflect the steps taken towards embedding peace.
The Building Peace through the Arts – Re-Imaging Communities Programme themes are community, cohesion, regeneration through the arts, positive relations at the local level, peace and reconciliation, connecting communities.
The Communities Moving Forward project is an ambitious project developed by Charter NI to address the issues of paramilitary murals and other territorial markings in a number of communities in East Belfast.
The group have brought together a local steering group, conducted a community consultation with a range of community stakeholders leading to the production of a report that identified the themes that the community would like to see represented in any future artworks produced for the area. This project is being developed with the community in Templemore Avenue/ Harvey Court in East Belfast in close proximity to some of the most iconic examples of Belfast’s Industrial Heritage with the cranes from Harland & Wolff casting their shadow over the area.
The preferred site is also adjacent to the recently refurbished Templemore Avenue School and there is a long-held connection between the area and young people and it was agreed by the steering group that ‘The Spirit of Youth’ was the most appropriate theme for the project and the one most open to artistic interpretation.
Charter NI seeks expressions of interest from experienced and suitably qualified artists or design teams to tender for the design, production and installation of an artwork, in the public realm in central Belfast.
The total budget available for the artwork is up to £25,000 sterling (approx 31,000 euro) (inclusive of VAT).
The deadline for expressions of interest is Friday 5th December 2014 at 1pm
Late submissions will not be accepted.
APPLICATION PROCESS
Stage 1 Expressions of Interest
Expressions of Interest are sought from artists (or a team of collaborating artists) to deliver a piece of Public Art.
The selection panel will consider submissions received by this deadline and select up to three artists to go forward to Stage 2 of this process.
Stage 2 Proposal Stage
£500 will be made available to up to three artists / teams who will be invited to present their proposals to the selection panel.
The proposal must include; sketch designs, visualisations and/or a maquette as well as an explanation of the concept for the artwork, how it relates to our theme and how the artist/artist team would approach its design, fabrication and installation.
Details of maintenance requirements and lifespan expectations should also form part of the presentation.
The artist/artist team must demonstrate how the work can be implemented within the allocated budget and details of the anticipated duration of the project with timescale broken down into research,production and delivery.
The selection panel aims to select one artist / team to undertake the commission.
The local community and Charter NI will be at the heart of this project and the selected artist/artist team must demonstrate how they will work with the community to develop a sense of ownership / pride in the piece & the environment and most importantly help create a shared space for all.
Therefore the artist/artist team must also outline the approach they will take to engage and work with the local community and showcase the successful project.
Selected artists /teams must submit their presentations to Leanne Todd, Charter NI by 1pm on Friday 5th December 2014.
ARTIST’S BRIEF
Theme: The Spirit of Youth
Templemore Avenue/ Harvey Court in East Belfast are located within a short distance of some of the
most iconic industrial sites in the whole of Northern Ireland. The area is well-known for sites that were connected with young people – from Templemore Avenue School – now a community hub – through to Templemore Baths were many young people learned to swim early in life.
This community, like many in other working class areas of Belfast have witnessed upheaval and violence during the Troubles and the political wall murals within them reflected how that upheaval was felt by many within the area.
Since the ceasefires of the 1990’s the community has been on a path towards a more peaceful and inclusive Northern Ireland and Charter NI have been working with thecommunity to address the issues of how they can reflect the community identity in the future.
This project aims to see the political murals of the past being replaced by more inclusive, permanent and durable artworks, including works in relief, that still reflect the community’s identity in line with the theme identified through the community consultation process.
This project aims to work with local young people and to reflect the ideas expressed by them in the community consultation and to provide a visual example of the ideas and identity of young people and youth culture.
Project Specific Constraints:It is part of the artists brief to contact utilities companies and statutory
agencies for advice in regard to nearby services i.e. electricity and water supply for any artist wishing to incorporate light or water as part of the art works, although this is not a pre-requisite of the brief.
Any work involved in extending the services to the site will be part of the overall budget. The site is on a road junction so, consequently, the artist will need to ensure that materials used take road safety into consideration.
Materials: The brief does not specify the materials to be used, but the artwork is intended to be permanent and of high quality. Therefore should be made of high quality, durable materials which require minimum maintenance.
Other Considerations:The successful artist / team will be expected to provide satisfactorydrawings and elevations to satisfy planning procedures. On completion of the project, the successful artist will be required to provide an engineer’s certificate to satisfy the groups Steering Panel that the artwork has been designed, constructed and installed in accordance with current standards and judgments.
PUBLIC ART SELECTION PANEL/STEERING GROUP
The selection panel is comprised of representation from local stakeholders and the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.This panel will be responsible for all short-listing and selection procedures as well as overall management of the project.
This commission is part-financed by the European Union’s Programme for Peace and Reconciliation (PEACEIII) managed by the Special EU Programmes Body; the Arts Council of Northern Ireland; and the International Fund for Ireland.
For the Full and Comprehensive Terms and Conditions/ Briefing Document click on this link
http://visualartists.ie/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/ARTIST_BRIEF_youth.pdf
Building Peace through the Arts
CHARTER NI
352 Newtownards Road, BELFAST, BT4 1HG
