Glow - RHS Bridgewater/Lightwaves – Salford Quays. Open Call – Artists For Pilot Project. £8000 commission for pilot Project between two light festivals in one city – Salford - at the same time.

Lightwaves

Lightwaves is an annual interactive light festival presented at Salford Quays, home to Media City. Each December, the event attracts in excess of 400,000 visitors to explore a trail of illuminated installations that animate and transform the outdoor surroundings. With a focus on bold new commissions, the festival is proud to support international artists alongside local and emerging talent, with a growing focus on enrichment activity with local communities at its heart.

The festival is part of the Quays Culture Programme, a partnership initiative with a mission to animate public spaces, bringing extraordinary art into the heart of the community for everyone to experience free of charge.

Glow

Let it Glow! An unmissable after dark spectacle of lights that takes place across all 5 RHS gardens over the festive period. Opening in May 2021, RHS Bridgewater ran its first ever Glow in 2021. Glow is now returning in 2022 for its second year and a whole new route. The trail runs across four nights for seven weeks starting in mid-November and ending at the end of December and is a meticulously designed light trail designed to enchant visitors and enhance the natural beauty of the garden.

The Commission:

We are looking for artwork ideas that will connect the two festivals together.

Have a focus and theme on water as both festivals are on crossing bodies of water. Two light festivals, on two separate canals within the same city.

The work must be able to be presented at both festival for 4 days at each.

The call out is open to all artforms, but must include light as part of the artform and be suitable to present outdoors in winter.

The successful commission will also need to:

• consider both environmental impact and sustainability
• look to engage with both the communities at Bridgewater and Salford Quays.

We particularly welcome applications from Greater Manchester and North-west Artists.

We are committed to encouraging diversity and intersectionality in the arts and we actively encourage proposals from artists from under-represented communities, including people who experience racism, identify as working class, have disabilities, are from the LGBTQ+ community, are care experienced or are discriminated against.  

We encourage you to apply for this opportunity no matter what your age, caring responsibilities, disability, gender, gender identity, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief and sexual orientation.  

The budget

 £8000 including materials, fee and expenses.

Dates:

Closing Date: Wednesday 28th September

Interview dates: 4th October 2022

Presentations:

Lightwaves 1-4 December 2022

Glow 7-10 December 2022

Install/De-rig:

Install Lightwaves 28 Nov-1 Dec 2022

De-rig Lightwaves 5 Dec 2022

Install Glow 6 Dec 2022

De-rig  Glow 12 Dec 2022