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Play and Imagine Artist Commission, Richmond Arts Service and Orleans House Gallery

  •  London
  •  Â£20k-25k
  •  Part time
  •  Closes February 10, 2025
  •  Dawn Stevens
  •  dawn.stevens@richmondandwandsworth.gov.uk
  • #Visual arts

Description

Job Summary

We are looking for an artist or a collection of artists to create an exhibition at Orleans House Gallery that transforms the environment into a space for exploring imagination in a playful way for people of all ages.  The exhibition will run from April to August 2026.

Job Description

The Play and Imagine programme is one of our main strands of work exploring the question "how does play and imagination impact everyday life?" We commission artists to explore this question through creative workshops, participatory events, exhibitions, and art.

We are interested in how this question relates to your practice and can develop engagement with our local community. The exhibition aims to celebrate and champion play and imagination across the borough, working with partners in the Council and local communities. We believe that everyone from young to old can play, imagine and should have access to play.

We are particularly interested in this commission exploring any of the following:

  • Imagination - exploring with children aged 8+ and adults when we "lose" our ability to play and imagine, and provide a creative space for adults and children to be free, imaginative and playful
  • Intergenerational work - creating cultural opportunities for families to play and imagine together; for parents/carers to become "level" with children, and remove barriers to playfulness for adults
  • Artist research through installations, exhibitions, or playful experiences exploring the importance and benefits of play and imagination in our lives
  • Play as art for adults, allowing spaces for play and imagination
  • Participation, co-curation or co-creation with community groups

We are interested in how you might interpret the above and add any other starting points for how you might approach a show with us. We aim to be supportive to the intentions and risks being explored by any artist with whom we are working. As a contemporary art gallery, we support artists from all disciplines and have featured shows that utilise all art forms.

Reimagination of previous projects is encouraged to meet our budget and timeline.

There is a fixed fee of £20,000 for this commission.

Job Requirements

Artist or collective to deliver an art exhibition at Orleans House Gallery.

Artists will be selected using the following criteria:

  • Initial concept thoughts in response to the brief
  • how closely your work and approach aligns with our vision

Job Responsibilities

Artist or collective to deliver an exhibition at Orleans House Gallery.

Useful Links

How to Apply

If you are interested in putting yourself forward for this project, we would like to invite you to provide the following: 
An introduction to yourself through a link to your website and/or a copy of your CV 
Relevant visual examples of previous work you’ve exhibited or a link to view 
Initial thoughts (max 100 words and/or 4 images) of your starting points of what you would like to explore in relation to this opportunity 
Your submission can be through a brief word document or PDF, a short audio or video clip (no longer than 2 minutes), or through another creative and playful response.    
We will be selecting three artists or artist collectives to further develop and discuss their project ideas with Orleans House Gallery. We will be supported in our shortlisting process by a group of children and young people from one of our partner organisations. Those selected will be paid £250 per artist or artist collective to attend an interview to share their ideas.  

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