Call Out for Artists : Project eARTh , for Autumn/Winter projects 2022, into 2023/24

High Peak Community Arts are looking for freelance artists to send in project ideas for Project eARTh, its programme for adults experiencing mental distress.

We encourage and welcome applications to broaden the diversity of our pool of freelance artists, to include artists from different cultural backgrounds, disabled artists, or those with lived experience of mental ill-health. Please get in touch to discuss any adjustments which would help you carry out this work.

Project eARTh usually holds 2 groups per week, one in New Mills and one in Buxton. During the past year, we have split each group in two – giving smaller groups for covid safety, half in the morning and half in the afternoon – but might need to merge them again soon, due to financial constraints. 

The ethos of Project eARTh is based on participants’ collective working towards a common goal, to create artworks for the local community. We use many art forms and create public artworks for indoor and outdoor spaces – railway stations, parks, woodland trails, GP surgeries, care homes, church halls, art centres etc. – or for publication/release. We have worked in ceramics, textiles, mixed media, occasionally steel (with extra funding); willow, glass, music, animation, photography….and are happy to embrace all artforms. We aim to work mainly on nature-based themes, as we appreciate that the natural world is integral to our wellbeing. We usually hold a celebratory event once artworks are installed/launched.

Artists are supported in each workshop by a mental health support worker and volunteers.

All project ideas will be read by participants in our Project eARTh steering group, who then interview artists whose ideas they would like to explore further.

What we need from you:

1. A project idea to make a collective work of art for a community setting or public release 
2. An idea of what setting this is appropriate for – e.g  GP surgery; local park, care home, woodland path, railway station etc; the more specific the better. 
3. An idea of how many sessions the project would take. At present our sessions are two hours each – if we merge back to one group per town, they will face session is two and half hours; and projects run anything from 4 – 12 weeks.
4. An idea of how much work the artist needs to do to prepare, in the background, and to ‘complete’ the artwork
5. Artists who can travel to work in either or both settings (New Mills SK22 4BH, Thursdays Buxton SK17 6PX, Mondays). 
6. A budget based on costs of:

1. Materials and equipment – each town has approx. 25 participants 
2. The number of face to face sessions needed @£105 per workshop 
3. The number of half-days @£105 needed for all non-contact work 
4. Travel costs at 40p per mile to the venues or public transport costs, up to £30 per session.

Deadline for this round:  June  14th 2022

Suggested interview dates Wed 6th July; Wed 13th July (New Mills) 

Please email all Project Ideas to alison@highpeakarts.org. Please send your Project Idea on a separate sheet from any personal details (name, age, address etc).  

Please also complete the monitoring form and return it (not compulsory, but helpful for us to improve our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion). 

The steering group will only see the Project Idea and budget. 

Please email me if you have questions, or phone 01663 744516 or 0752 815 9283