Light Up The North ILLUMINE Light Art Commission
Deadline: 20/09/2024City: Potential festivals currently earmarked for the tour include: Light Night Leeds, Lightpool Blackpool, Light Up Lancaster, BD is Lit Bradford, Light Night Wigan and Lightwaves Salford | Country: United Kingdom | Emma Harrison
Paid opportunity
Light Up The North (LUTN) is excited to launch ILLUMINE, an ambitious light art commissioning opportunity for Black and POC artists. This is a positive action that recognises and responds to the lack of artist diversity at festivals of light art. The opportunity is to create a new, striking light art installation that will tour to multiple light art festivals in the north of England, be seen by more than 1 million people and capture the hearts and minds of audiences. LUTN festivals offer unrivalled platforms for huge audiences to enjoy and feel inspired by stunning light art and this commission is for a mid/large-scale work.
ABOUT THE OPPORTUNITY
LUTN is a network of light festivals across the North of England, funded by Art Council England. LUTN member festivals are working together to commission an artist or collective to develop a new light artwork for the 2025/6 season. The artwork would travel to a number of different festivals in the network between October 2025 and February 2026. ILLUMINE is for Black and POC artists with an established professional practice and a recognised, successful portfolio of work. It is an opportunity for an artist to realise a work at scale. If an artist has never worked with light before, LUTN will budget for technical specialists and a creative producer to help realise the work. The ILLUMINE programme aims to address the lack of diversity of artists within the light art sector to ensure that light festivals are more representative of the populations they serve.
WHAT
The ILLUMINE commissioning opportunity includes:
- an artist’s bursary of £8,000 to research, create and present an original, exciting and captivating proposal for a new light art wor
- a comprehensive induction to the partners and festiva
- support, training and mentoring from across the LUTN network including guidance in areas, if required, such as marketing, finance, production, risk assessments method statements (RAMS) and fundraising
- a potential residency at IOU Creation Centre, Halifax to support the development of the work
- a projected production/creative budget of up to £70,000
- invitations to LUTN member festivals and introductions to their teams during LUTN 24/25 season with an opportunity to connect with a new group of artists, technologists, producers
- if required, support from the ILLUMINE Producer to help realise the work.
WHEN
Concept sign off: April 25
Prototyping and production: May / June – Sept 25
Installation: Oct 25- Feb 26
Development phase: October 24 – March 25
Delivery: The ILLUMINE programme will culminate in a new light artwork to be exhibited at up to 6 of our member festivals between October 2025 and February 2026.
* See application timeline below for details of application & selection process
WHO
We invite applications from UK based Black and POC artists who may be working in light art, other media or other artistic practices. As this is a mid-to-large-scale commission, we expect artists to have an established professional practice with a demonstrable portfolio of previous work. This commission is not suitable for new or emerging artists.
Artists may also choose to identify as a ‘person of colour’ or not, and/or prefer other terms of reference as suggested by the #BAMEover statement for the UK, which rejects acronyms and calls for the specific recognition of people from different diasporas and diverse cultures and heritages. We further note that the term ‘artists of colour’ fails to make explicit the complexity of lived experiences of inequality, for example where racism intersects with gender, class and disability discrimination.
WHERE
The final artwork will be exhibited and toured to up to 6 of our member festivals. Current festival members of Light Up The North network are shown on LUTN website. Potential festivals currently earmarked for the tour include: Light Night Leeds, Lightpool Blackpool, Light Up Lancaster, BD is Lit Bradford, Light Night Wigan&Leigh and Lightwaves Salford.
The artist may also negotiate for further displays of the work after March 2026 and will be responsible for the storage of the artwork after this time.
YOUR PROPOSAL
The final artwork will need to be:
- SUITABLE for presentation at outdoor winter light festivals in the UK
- ARTISTICALLY challenging, aesthetically impressive and of high quality
- STRUCTURALLY resilient enough to withstand the winter weather at multiple festivals between October 2025 and February 2026, and to withstand transportation across the festival network
- ABLE to be seen by large crowds of people
For 2025, the successful ILLUMINE artist will also need to:
- DESIGN an artwork for suitable to be repurposed – consider sustainable materials and equipment as well as what happens at the end of the presentations
- CREATE an artwork of mid / large scale – we are encouraging ambitious proposals
- DELIVER an experience for audiences to enjoy, be inspired by and engage with
FINANCE
The artist (or collective) will receive a bursary of up to £8,000 (inclusive of VAT) to research, develop and produce a proposal for an achievable new work. This will be paid in three parts – £4,000 at the start of the research phase, £1,000 on presentation of the final proposal and £3,000 on delivery of the work at the first festival.
Reasonable travel, accommodation and subsistence costs will be covered separately by LUTN.
Artists will also receive a production/creative budget up to a maximum of £70,000 (inclusive of VAT) to deliver the new work. The production budget includes all materials and technical, installation and operational costs.
Reasonable travel, accommodation and subsistence costs at the delivery stage will be covered separately by LUTN. Transport of the artwork will be covered by the participating LUTN festivals.
If needed, you can apply for match funding from other sources, but ensure you have planned for and are prepared to do this. Capacity for this is not built into the ILLUMINATE programme although we can provide guidance.
Please note that the vast majority of light festivals apply annually for funding for each festival. This is usually confirmed around June/July. So we can only move into the production phase, once the funding is in place. The artist’s fee is guaranteed.
ELIGIBILITY
To be eligible to apply to the ILLUMINE open call you must
- be UK-based
- aged 18 or over
- be Black and POC artists or collectives
- able to demonstrate a portfolio of previous work
- have the ability and experience to realise ideas to a high quality
The programme is intended to support and expand artists’ practice in scale and technologies of production, therefore applicants who haven’t already worked with light based artforms are welcome to apply.
Contact the curator
Artists may also choose to identify as a ‘person of colour’ or not, and/or prefer other terms of reference as suggested by the #BAMEover statement for the UK, which rejects acronyms and calls for the specific recognition of people from different diasporas and diverse cultures and heritages. We further note that the term ‘artists of colour’ fails to make explicit the complexity of lived experiences of inequality, for example where racism intersects with gender, class and disability discrimination
Reasonable travel, accommodation and subsistence costs will be covered separately by LUTN.
Artists will also receive a production/creative budget up to a maximum of £70,000 (inclusive of VAT) to deliver the new work. The production budget includes all materials and technical, installation and operational costs.
Reasonable travel, accommodation and subsistence costs at the delivery stage will be covered separately by LUTN. Transport of the artwork will be covered by the participating LUTN festivals.
If needed, you can apply for match funding from other sources, but ensure you have planned for and are prepared to do this. Capacity for this is not built into the ILLUMINATE programme although we can provide guidance.
Please note that the vast majority of light festivals apply annually for funding for each festival. This is usually confirmed around June/July. So we can only move into the production phase, once the funding is in place. The artist’s fee is guaranteed.
- Artistic quality – the strength & quality of the idea and the artist’s previous work (if applicable).
- Public experience – who it is aimed at and how will the public engage with it?
- Financial viability – can all elements of the activity be delivered effectively within budget?
- Project management – can the piece be created within the time available? Is the work durable enough for the festival dates? What materials are you using when considering the environmental impact and outdoor display?
- Environmental sustainability – has this been considered in the design and proposed delivery of the artwork? Is there a plan for what happens after ILLUMINE?
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