“Artangel lets artists do what no one else will. It’s as simple as that.” Jeremy Deller
Open is a £1 million initiative by Artangel and BBC Radio 4 for new site-specific commissions across the UK. It’s a call for artists working in any media to share proposals for ground-breaking projects that will transform the UK’s cultural landscape.
Previous Artangel Open calls have led to some of the most iconic projects of the past decade – Michael Landy’s Break Down, the very public destruction in a department store on Oxford Street of absolutely everything the artist owned; Jeremy Deller’s The Battle of Orgreave in South Yorkshire, the re-enactment of a dark day in the conflict between police and colliery workers during the 1984 Miners’ Strike; Roger Hiorns’sSeizure, the brilliant blue crystal council flat in South London; and Clio Barnard’s award-winning film The Arbor shot on the Buttershaw Estate in Bradford.
Open proposals are encouraged from UK-based visual artists, filmmakers, writers, composers, theatre makers, choreographers and producers as well as artists working in the digital space. The closing date for 2013 Open submissions is Monday 29 April. Shortlisted artists will have the opportunity to meet and develop their proposals with Open Mentors. A range of influential cultural figures including Andrea Arnold, Felix Barrett, Adam Curtis, Tacita Dean, Ryan Gander, Rachel Whiteread and Penny Woolcock have made themselves available as Open Mentors.
In June the first Open commissions will be chosen by a selection panel including James Lingwood and Michael Morris, Tony Phillips, Arts Commissioning Editor at BBC Radio 4, Clio Barnard and Roger Hiorns. They will be announced in June and presented between 2014 and 2015.
Open Platforms
Twelve Open Platforms for artists across the UK are being by hosted by some of the UK’s leading arts organisations in cities including Belfast, Bristol, Glasgow, Manchester and Newcastle between January 28 and February 26. The Platforms are an opportunity to meet Artangel Co-Directors James Lingwood and Michael Morris and artists including Barnard, Deller, Hiorns and Landy.
Full Open Platform listings here.
Open Air
To mark the new alliance of Artangel and BBC Radio 4, five artists including Christian Marclay and Susan Hiller will participate in Open Air, a series of short pieces scheduled for broadcast immediately after the Today programme from 25 – 29 March 2013. Details to be posted shortly.
Submissions
The closing date for 2013 Open submissions is Monday 29 April. Before submitting a proposal pleased download and read the guidelines [PDF] and prepare all the information and materials you will need. The initiative is open only to those who have lived and worked in the United Kingdom for a minimum of three years prior to the closing date. You should not be in higher education below PhD level on this date.
The online form is on this page.
Open Mentors
Shortlisted applicants will have the opportunity to be mentored by some of UK’s most respected artists. The Open Mentors programme is supported by Diversity Arts Forum.
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