Dudley Creates - nature inspired micro commissions
Do you work creatively with nature and our environment, create with natural materials, or take a focus on nature as a subject matter? If so, we are looking for Dudley Borough based creatives to support co-created projects that can inspire people to connect with nature and their local green and blue spaces.
The Dudley People’s School for Climate Justice will take root in 2024 and we’d love to kick-start it with a creative injection of nature-inspired projects that take place this autumn and winter.
What if… we could inspire local communities to think about their own nature connections?
We are looking to inspire local people and communities to think about how important their own connection to nature and the environment is taking inspiration from the five pathways to nature connection as seen in The Nature Connection Handbook: A Guide for Increasing People’s Connection with Nature which is available at bit.ly/NatureConnectionHandbook.
We’d love to invite people to hosted workshops to produce a co-created piece of work (this could be an installation or a series of workshops for instance that build on a collective piece of work).
We’d like groups/projects to potentially produce something that can become part of an exhibition in the new year.
What we can offer
We are looking to support 2-4 separate project ideas of between £1500 and £3000.
When it needs to take place
Between Mid October and Mid December, 2023
Who you would need to work with
We want to help support the cultural ecosystem of the Dudley borough to be inspired by nature connectedness so we would love to ensure that projects are open to local communities to take part in. This is part of Dudley Creates - A 100 year cultural strategy in action.
We have a space on the High Street in Dudley that can be made available (although it isn’t currently accessible to people with mobility issues) and we work with a number of partners so can potentially help access spaces to host workshops but we would love to hear from new groups.
We have an access budget so if you are working with communities that require additional access needs to take part please let us know in your proposal (info below). There is also a modest materials budget and we have a stash of materials at CoLab Dudley which can be used. Where possible we’d like to encourage up-cycling and the use of natural materials.
Please note: This is not an opportunity for an individual artist to produce their own piece of work - this is intended as a collaborative piece with people who are curious about how nature can be part of their creative inspiration.
If you are interested in applying please send over an expression of interest by 12 noon on the 18th September that includes:
Your contact information and a paragraph about you with a link to your website or social media (wherever you share your work)
What your idea is - please keep it simple and easy to understand and do use images/video if it helps illustrate your idea
Let us know where you would like to work and why
If there is a community / group of people you want to work with let us know who they are, where they are based
When you would like to run sessions/workshops (e.g. 4 x sessions on a Saturday afternoon in XX venue during XX dates)
What you hope the outcome might be (this doesn’t need to be a fixed idea - we appreciate co-created projects will shift and change to reflect the participants)
We’d also like you to take a look at the Dudley Creates website and see which of the ‘5 Key Ideas’ you most are most drawn to and if how it might relate to your project idea (just a couple of sentences).
A rough budget breakdown (e.g. artist/practitioner fee / materials / venue hire / access requirements / etc) and the amount you are requesting that includes any access budget you might require
At this stage we’re not expecting to receive more than 2 sides of A4.Please send to: colabddudley@gmail.com by 12 noon on the 18th September.
What happens next
We will read your proposal and let you know if we would like to chat further
You will hear back from us by Monday 25th September
If you have any questions you can email us before the deadline and we will aim to support you further.
This opportunity if part of the Time Rebels of Dudley project that is funded by Arts Council England National Lottery Project Grants and supported by CoLab Dudley and Creative Black Country.
These are the five pathways to nature connection - bit.ly/NatureConnectionHandbook