This is an open call for a North West based creative practitioner or artist to respond to Gallery Oldham's natural history collection and habitat themes within the Our Beautiful Oldham exhibition which is currently in development. We expect the commission to create something collaboratively with our Early Year families that tells the story about the diversity of Oldham’s landscapes. We invite you to bring an imaginative and sensory approach to the work.

This exciting new commission, with a budget of £10,000, is a rare opportunity to create a new piece which will reflect and celebrate Oldham's diverse habitats. Working with Early Years families and exhibition designers, could you create something fun and interactive for this new gallery space?

Gallery Oldham is currently working with Early Years audiences to reimagine our current display of permanent collections. Our Beautiful Oldham gallery will be a hands-on experience that will open in June 2026 and is supported by a Reimagine grant from Art Fund. 

This new permanent exhibition rallies to the cry of social reformer Mary Higgs. In 1902, she laid down the challenge 'Beautiful Oldham Why Not?', initiating a movement to create a greener, healthier Oldham.

Working with Oldham Family Hubs and Northern Roots we will transform our gallery space, develop our Early Years offer and embed creative approaches to exhibition co-curation.

This new exhibition will raise awareness of the natural world and encourage people to explore the outdoors whilst providing better access to our Natural History collection. Our Beautiful Oldham will explore Oldham's diverse habitats and landscapes as well as what they mean to different people.

The exhibition will prompt people to notice the habitats around them and help them to think differently about the animals and plants amongst which they live their lives.

It will also encourage them to go outdoors , explore habitats and investigate landscapes on their doorstep. The exhibition comprises of 5 interlinking thematic spaces.

• Urban
• Woodland
• Grassland
• Water
• Moorland

Our priority is to make provision for our Early Years audiences; however, the space will appeal to other audiences, including adults, families with older children and schools. 

Key messages of the exhibition

• Oldham has a wide range of diverse habitats
• We have shared ownship of our nature world
• Oldhamers have always had an interest in, and continue to have a connection to nature.
• Taking time in nature and exploring the outdoors is inspiring and good for our health and wellbeing.
• Our actions, no matter how small,  can have positive and negative effects on our environment.

The Commission

This is an open call for a creative practitioner or artist to respond to our natural history collection and habitat themes within Our Beautiful Oldham exhibition. We expect the commission to create something collaboratively with our Early Years families that tells the story about the diversity of Oldham's landscapes.

We invite you to bring an imaginative and sensory approach to the work.

The timescale is tight with site visits and eight creative workshops to take place in Autumn/Winter 2025. The final end product must be ready for installation in late May 2026. You will need a flexible approach with an understanding of the requirements of working with Early Year audiences and exhibition designers.

All creative practitioners/artists involved in the project must have an up to date DBS check and Public Liability insurance in place. If selected, the creative pratitioner/artist will need to contribute to a risk assessment for the workshops and will be asked to report on data and feedback from each workshop.

We are seeking a creative practitioner who

• Is based in the North West (or with connections to artists in the North West)
• Is skilled and experienced in inspiring participants and engaging them in creative experiences to develop ideas, build confidence and skills.
• Has experience in co-developing ambitious work for spaces, alongside communities.
• Is excited about delivering effective, creative engagement processes during the research and dvelopment phase with Early Years families.
• Is experienced in ensuring all engagement methods and outputs are accessible and inclusive.
• Is excited to work closely with Gallery Oldham, our partners Oldham Family Hbs, Early Year audiences and design company The Creative Core to create an end output which will work in this space.

We are open to creative ideas and are not prescriptive of what the end product is. It could be a trail, sculpture, mural, artwork or any other number of outputs however, proposals should consider the following:

a) Space limitations - there is limited space within the gallery, content will also include interactives and display cases. We are still in the development stage of the design and some alterations to layout can be made. We do want to encourage the use of all the space including our high ceilings and items at floor level.

b) Approach to working with The Creative Core - your proposal should address how the commission will be incorporated into the overall exhibition design. (see image)

c) The end product is practical and robust - the commission will need to stand up to use by Early Year families and should be easy to maintain, clean and be produced to a high standard, fit for purpose.

Throughout this exhibition process we will work with Early Years groups and expect the creative practitioner to respond back to feedback from our Early Years Co-Creative Group, Hive Mind.

Key Words and Phrases

Key words contributed from Hive Mind group:

• Colour
• Reflection
• Movement
• Sound

The elements we are looking for in proposals:

• Creative and fun way of exploring nature.
• Showcases the Natural History collection.
• Exploration of one or more of the habitat themes.
• Output will be community co-produced, with the creative practitioner/artist delivering eight creative sessions to help develop the commission.
• Appeal to Early Years families and imaginative use of the gallery space.
• Robust and suitable for Early Years audiences.

 
Budget

Total Budget is £10,000 inclusive of VAT. Under the following headings, please provide a breakdown of this budget within your application. Your fee including all travel and expenses, materials for the workshops and production of final piece.

Development will be in partnerhsip with The Creative Core who have been appointed to oversee the design, production and installation of Our Beautiful Oldham exhibition.

Any proposal must work holistically and practically within the overall design and exhibition space. For health and safety, robustness and sustainability reasons any materials used within the commission must be agreed in advance with the design company.

Installation will be carried out by Gallery Oldham staff.

Deadline: Tuesday, 17 June, 9 am.