BM125 Buxton Museum has been open to visitors for 125 years. BM125 offers a rare opportunity bringing together artists, an amazing museum collection and a world-class landscape to explore the challenge in the relationship between heritage and culture.

BM125

1. Introduction

Buxton Museum has been open to visitors for 125 years.  As part of a programme of activities, the museum is celebrating with a year of exhibitions, events and artistic initiatives, showcasing our new digital platform www.wondersofthepeak.org.uk  

BM125 offers a rare opportunity bringing together artists, an amazing museum collection and a world-class landscape to explore the challenge in the relationship between heritage and culture.

Who are we looking for:

We are looking to commission four emerging, contemporary artists who make work of exceptional quality. We are open to proposals from artists who work in any medium but we are particularly interested in artists who have an element of performance in their practice. It is essential that you can demonstrate an ability to engage large audiences using digital technology and we hope to be surprised and delighted by your methods!

You must be based in the UK and you must be a professional artist, either earning the majority of your living from your art or able to demonstrate a commitment to doing so.

You will make your own new work that will connect our collection with its roots in the Peak District landscape. You will help us shape an artist-run engagement program filling the museum with the sound of young performers.

Together, we will engage 125,000 people from across the UK, 75% of whom will be new to the museum.

2.     Key Deliverables

We will ask seven things of you:

➢    Your work references and explores the connections between objects in the museum collection and the Peak District landscape from where they came. You will have time to explore the collection, rich in fossils, minerals and artefacts from the landscape. You will be guided and supported by our curatorial team.

➢    An element of the work you make can be performed live, or exist temporarily in actual form in the landscape. For example, a dancer might perform a new piece inspired by one the Peak District’s many stone-circles, or a poet might perform pieces inspired by lead mining deep inside one of the caverns.

➢    Your work can also be presented on a digital platform such as Youtube, Soundcloud or Instagram and accessed via our webapp www.wondersofthepeak.org.uk There is an additional budget to support you to digitize your work, or to bring in a technician such as a photographer or a live stream expert.

➢    You will devise an activity relating to your work that can be included in our engagement programme aimed at children and young people.

➢    You bring with you an existing digital audience who follow your work and who will be new to the museum, and could be encouraged to participate in this commission. We will support you to use and expand on your proven methods of engaging online audiences.

➢    You are available to be a member of a steering group to devise the exact nature of a public engagement programme working alongside existing artist partners and up to six children and young people (to be recruited).

➢    You will contribute to an online marketing campaign:

❖     Working with the museum to co-ordinate online marketing and promotion activity based on a campaign plan drawn up at the outset of the project.

❖     Contributing to monitoring and evaluating participation.

❖     Regularly uploading content about the project’s progress to the museum’s existing social media accounts and museum blogs.

❖     Using a project hashtag.

3.     Submission of Proposal

Proposals (not exceeding 2 sides of A4) are invited from emerging, contemporary artists in which you:

➢    Introduce your artistic practice in museums, galleries, the landscape and other community spaces

➢    Describe 3 projects, works of art or performances that you have produced within the last three years,which demonstrate your ability to generate large audiences using digital technology. Please provide digital links to these projects.

➢    Explain how you will ensure that the relationship between you or your company, the museum, the museum’s partners and the audience thrives, to deliver a successful outcome to the project

➢    Detail exactly what you are able to offer for the budget available (see Section 4). Part of the best value assessment will include an analysis of the number of days offered for this fee. Please detail the anticipated number of days that you will work on this project

➢    Introduce who is working alongside you (although you may work alone), and your expertise to deliver areas of the work you are responsible for. In addition to your proposal, please provide or attach a CV for each team member which demonstrates their experience in working with a wide variety of partners

Proposals must reach us no later than 5pm on Monday 28 May, 2018.

4.     Timescale

Artists will be commissioned in July 2018. Production of artwork will continue through the autumn and be ready to be shown virtually and in the landscape between November 2018 and June 2019.

5.     Fees

Each commission is for £5,000, and available over approximately 12 months. An additional £2,000 is available to digitize your work.

The fee will be payable in three parts in arrears, on receipt of an invoice. Installments will be paid on commission, midterm and on successful completion.

6.     Criteria

The following criteria will be used when assessing the applications. Please clearly address each of the criteria above.

•       Response to the brief

Artistic practice (40%)

Scoring will be based on the quality of your work

Engagement of audiences using digital technology (25%)                                                                                                                        

Scoring will be based on your ability, ideas and experience of engaging audiences using digital technology

Ability to work within a team (15%)

Scoring will be based on your CV, experience, creativity and commitment.

•       Price (10%)                                                                                                           

This will include an assessment of the quality of the submission against the proposal price submitted

•       Clarification Interview (10%)

The interview will clarify your proposal

Proposals will be scored out of 100, of which quality will form 90% of the score and the price comprises 10%.

7.     Location

You will work at your own premises with some access to facilities at the museum.  Some travel within Derbyshire may be required in order to participate in key meetings and events.

8.     Equipment

The successful applicant will be expected to provide their own equipment eg computers, electrical tools, cameras, artist tools and materials. You will be welcome to work in the museum and with agreement, to access objects in the reserve collections.

9.     Intellectual Property Rights

Artists will retain all rights to their artwork.

Artists will need to agree with BMAG the license to use the artworks for display and promotion at the museum and to promote the project.

10.  Reporting

The successful organisation will report to the Derbyshire Museums Manager and the BM125 Steering Group.  Communication will be person to person, by phone, e-mail, skype and/or video conferencing.

11.  Insurance

Please self-certify whether you already have, or can commit to obtain, prior to the commencement of the contract, the levels of insurance cover indicated below:

Employer’s (Compulsory) Liability Insurance = £5 million

Public Liability Insurance = £5 million

Professional Indemnity Insurance = £2 million

* It is a legal requirement that all companies hold Employer’s (Compulsory) Liability Insurance of £5 million as a minimum. Please note this requirement is not applicable to Sole Traders.