Beam is seeking to appoint a Lead Artist who is experienced at engaging communities for a new project funded by Arts Council England’s Strategic Touring Fund linked to Wakefield Lit Fest and to be delivered in Castleford in May 2017.

Lead Artists from a wide range of artform specialisms including Writers, Visual Artists, Filmmakers and others will be considered for this commission.

Context

Wakefield Lit Fest was established by Beam in 2012 to stimulate and celebrate reading and writing in the Wakefield city and wider district. Over 14,000 people have been engaged to date across 5 festivals and more than 250 events. Adopting a diverse definition of ‘literature’, Wakefield Lit Fest has a strong sense of ‘places and spaces’ and the relationship between written and performed words and the places people live in, walk through, and imagine. Lit Fest aims to achieve a balance between quality and participation; learning opportunities and has a keen interest in literature’s relationship with other artforms.

 www.wakefieldlitfest.org.uk

The pilot ‘Lit Fest in a Day’ took place at Trinity Church Ossett on Saturday 20 September 2014 working in partnership with Ossett Observer, a team of volunteers and supported by Wakefield Council’s Creative Partners Scheme. The event took place during the main Wakefield Lit Fest programme in September 2014 and focused one day of programming exclusively on Trinity Church in Ossett, West Yorkshire. This pilot created the foundations for ‘Wakefield Lit Fest in a Day’ to be delivered in locations in the Wakefield District outside of the festival’s established city centre venues, working in partnership with local organisations, artists and residents to create an event of high quality and aspiration.

Programme Description

‘Lit Fest in a Day’ goes on tour between 2015-17, seeing Beam bring high quality arts activity to areas of the Wakefield District with least arts engagement, building capacity and strengthening engagement with community partners. This two-year project is now drawing to a close and has seen Beam co-curate and deliver three (of four) major Wakefield Lit Fest events in locations in Wakefield District, each involving substantial programmes of preparatory audience development activity, building its year-round presence; strengthening engagement and building capacity with Wakefield district partners, audiences and venues.

The first ‘Lit Fest in a Day’ took place in Featherstone in 2015, in collaboration with Featherstone Library, the second took take place in Altofts in collaboration with Friends of Altofts Library, the third at Lightwaves Community and Leisure Centre in collaboration with Lightwaves and Next Gen and this, the fourth and final ‘Lit Fest in Day’ will take place in Castleford in collaboration with Castleford Heritage Trust on Saturday 20 May 2017.

Castleford Heritage Trust

The Castleford Heritage Trust (CHT) was established in 2000, and is a registered charity and a limited company which aims to promote the community's heritage and culture to build a strong, successful community. They use natural as well as cultural heritage as a vehicle for regeneration and improving educational opportunities.  The Trust seeks to improve the local area and knowledge of local heritage in order to improve community esteem, raise the aspirations of young people and for the general benefit of local people and visitors to Castleford. CHT have promoted access to local historical and archaeological collections, waterways, woodland and other green spaces, and have a strong track record in developing educational opportunities and community involvement in natural and industrial heritage projects and celebrations.

CHT is based at Queen’s Mill, previously known as Allinson’s Mill, which was at one time the world’s largest stone grinding flourmill with twenty pairs of grinding stones. Although not a listed building the mill is of national significance because of its history, heritage and importance in the local community over hundreds of years. CHT purchased the mill in 2013 and since that date have opened the mill to thousands of people from the local community and beyond to learn about its history and the Trust’s vision for the future. Queen’s Mill is a high quality community facility providing a unique heritage and arts destination for local communities and visitors from across the region. The building provides heritage and arts spaces, skills training, cultural industries development initiatives, a gallery and tea room - and the continuation of stone ground milling on a small scale with a team of volunteers, providing flour for sale and the opportunity for groups to learn about the milling process. http://www.castlefordheritagetrust.org.uk/

Lead Artist Role Description

The Lead Artist will co-curate the ‘Lit Fest in a Day’l in partnership with a project Working Group and Beam and will need to spend large parts of the working time allocated in the Castleford area. This artist–led approach aims to set the ground work for a fresh and innovative take on the event and to challenge and stretch the ambition for all partners to achieve a unique and high quality one-day event. The Lead Artist does not necessarily need to be a writer but will need to produce a legacy item whether this be a publication, film or photography to capture the story of the project, community and the event itself.

Lead Artist Deliverables

• Be ‘Creative Lead’ for the ‘Lit Fest in a Day’ event in Castleford
• Work with the venue and local working group to identify a unifying theme (or themes) for the day that will actively engage with local audiences
• Work closely with the Working Group, venue and Beam to conceive a creative events programme and to think about creative ways of engaging the local community with reading and writing as part of the ‘Lit Fest in a Day’ celebration
• Delivery of engagement workshops (1-2) for identified target audiences
• Support creative audience development approaches
• Feed into programming for the one-day event on Saturday 20 May 2017
• Legacy item – Artist product/ legacy of the day produced – e.g. film, photography, publication/, other
• Support for marketing approach/ branding for event
• Close liaison with working group and local volunteers
• Attendance and involvement with event delivery on the day
• Feed into evaluation process
• Attendance at meetings/ some facilitation as required
• Engagement with and support for social media as appropriate

Process

TIMING

ACTIVITY

6th January 2017 - Deadline for proposal submissions

12th Jan 2017 - Shortlisting and interview

16th Jan 2017 - Appointment and contracting of lead artist

w/c 16th January 2017 - Initial scoping meetings and overall concept/ theme development, working group development

February 2017 - Working group programming sessions

March 2017 - Working Group event development and marketing sessions

March – April 2017 - Community engagement

April – May 2017 - Programme marketing and promotion

Saturday 20th May 2017 - Lit Fest in a Day Event Delivery

June 2017 - Produce Legacy item

Fees

A fee of £2,000 + VAT if applicable is available for this role inclusive of all expenses. The fee assumes a minimum of 10 days work over the period.