Waterford City and County Council (WCCC) is currently seeking expressions of interest from the creative community in the South East for two projects.

 

Project 1.

Spring is in the Air – Expression of Interest call for creatives in Waterford City Centre and Waterford Cultural Quarter.

Waterford City and County Council (WCCC) invites Waterford creatives to submit their credentials, examples of prior experience and basic concepts responding to the theme Spring is in the Air to design, fabricate and install creative installations that reflect new beginnings, longer days, light, brightness, freshness, new energy in Waterford City Centre and Waterford Cultural Quarter (WCQ).

Project Background and Intent

Waterford City and County Council wishes to fund 8 creative projects / installations, locations to include Waterford City Centre; John Roberts Square, Arundel Square, Blackfriars and in Waterford Cultural Quarter; Great Georges Street, Gladstone Street, O’Connell Street and Hanover Street. The installations should be visible to pedestrians living in or visiting the city during April 2021.

Points to note:

Installations should be fabricated from environmentally friendly materials (e.g. felt, wool, timber, natural materials etc) and / or found & recycled objects as far as is practical.

Applications can be made for more than one installation and can be made by an individual or group.

Applicants should take into account that the installations will not be monitored in situ and should therefore consider issues such as security, vandalism or weather events. Installations cannot post a health and safety risk and all measures should be taken into account to ensure that there are no hazards relating to the work. Current Covid-19 restrictions must be adhered to and applicants must ensure that social gathering at an installation site is not encouraged.

Applicants must confirm that they hold public liability insurance in their application, and if successful must provide evidence of same.

Budget:

8 installations will be funded. The maximum budget for each installation is €800 to include time and materials for design, fabrication, installation, removal and environmentally friendly disposal of materials and all costs associated with the project. Installations must be capable of staying in place for the month of April 2021 at minimum.

If a submission has potential to be more impactful and visible if seen from a height, Waterford City and County Council will consider paying for installation costs involved. A separate quotation for installation at height should be included in the application.

Publicity:

All applications should include an outline publicity plan including how they will promote their installation on social media platforms. All successful applicants must provide images of creating their installations and the final work in place to WCCC for social media and website.

Submissions Guidelines:

Expressions of Interest must be submitted via email to culturalquarter@waterfordcouncil.ie

In the Subject line put Spring is in the Air EOI followed by your surname (e.g. Spring is in the Air EOI Murphy).

You will be asked to include the following:

• Expression of Interest/Project Description (3 paragraphs max)
• Bio (250 words max)
• Current CV (1 pages max)
• Visual Support Material with Support Material List (5 images max) Please select all support material that reveals your experience and expertise as related to your proposal.
• Budget breakdown listing costs and artist fee.

Specific city centre / WCQ locations should be identified and given a representation of how you intend to work it up.

Description should clearly illustrate the applicant’s intentions and conceptual approach.

Applications that do not adhere to these criteria or are incomplete may be disqualified. The selection committee may request further information from individual’s applicants.

All applicants will be notified with the selection committee’s decision by March 8^th 2021.

Timeline

February 25^th 2021: Final date for clarifications on EOI/

March 1^st 2021:         Deadline for submissions

March 8^th 2021:        Notification to successful applications

March 29^th 2021:      Installation week

For further information contact culturalquarter@waterfordcouncil.ie

 

Applications deadline: March 1^st 2021 culturalquarter@waterfordcouncil.ie.

Any clarifications request on the contents of the EOI have to be submitted via email to culturalquarter@waterfordcouncil.ie by February 25^th 2021.

Examples of urban installations:

 

Project 2.

Thinking Outside the Box – EOI call for Artists for the Waterford Cultural Quarter

The Waterford Cultural Quarter invites Waterford artists or artist teams to submit their credentials, examples of prior experience and basic concepts so as to transform the Quarter’s 55 (approx) metal utility boxes, bins and litter boxes into artistic interventions.

Deadline: March 1^st 2021

Project Background and Intent

Artists are asked to submit a sample of the work they feel responds to the call and which would be of the style and finish of the work they would place directly on the utility boxes should they be selected.

The artist must be willing to work in a medium which will adhere to the utility boxes/bins and be durable. Artists are encouraged to mention, in their submission, if there are specific utility boxes/bins they wish to work on and why, perhaps in response to their location on or near a specific building (e.g. The Waterford Gallery of Art), or point of historical or cultural significance in and around the WCQ. Submissions could take a number of forms, images or videos of work (sketches, drawings, paintings, examples of completed works) supported by a brief outline of the context behind the proposed work in written or video format.

The broad themes that we would like to see represented are:

• The Cultural Heritage of Waterford City and County
• New Communities and Cultures to be found in and around the Waterford Cultural Quarter
• The Creative Potential contained within all these Communities, Cultures and Heritages
• The Waterford Purple Flag which recognises excellence in the management of the evening and night-time economy and signifies the diverse range of offering available in Waterford in delivering its cultural evening time offerings. https://www.waterfordcouncil.ie/departments/community-sport/purple-flag.htm

Selection of successful artists would be made by a panel comprising of members of the WCQ Team, Waterford Arts Office and Waterford Purple Flag selected by the WCQ Steering Group.

This Project will support fresh, engaging and innovative proposals from both emerging and established artists working in a range of disciplines and media.

Artworks may be created directly on, or affixed to the box (specific boxes may need specific approaches e.g. to allow inspection access by the utility company). The artwork may remain in-situ for up to five years.

Following the ethos of the themes outlined above the artwork should in some manner consider the community in which it will be installed and demonstrate an understanding of the box’s location.

The intention is for all artworks to be installed during a week in March/April 2021 (date TBC)

Total project budget: €10,000

Eligibility:

This is an open to artists or artist teams and arts organisations residing in Waterford. We will welcome submissions from individual artists and from individuals or organisations working with a team of artists.

Community Engagement:

Applicants are encouraged to contact the WCQ Team if they have further queries on the project no later than February 25^th 2021. Please contact Emma Haran culturalquarter@waterfordcouncil.ie for further information regarding the project.

Submissions Guidelines:

Expressions of Interest must be submitted online through Email to culturalquarter@waterfordcouncil.ie

In the Subject Matter Put Thinking Outside the Box, EOI followed by your surname (e.g. Thinking Outside the Box, WCQ, Murphy).

You will be asked to include the following:

• Expression of Interest/Project Description (3 paragraphs max)
• Bio (250 words max)
• Current CV (1 pages max)
• Visual Support Material with Support Material List (5 images max)

Please select all support material that reveals your experience and expertise as related to your proposal.

If there is a specific box that you would like to work on – please identify it and possibly give a representation of how you intend to work it up.

Description should clearly illustrate the applicant’s intentions and conceptual approach.

Visual Support Material should be labelled numerically with the applicant’s name (e.g. Nolan 01.jpg, Nolan 02.jpg, etc.).

If you wish to include video documentation please supply a link address to your video on Youtube, Vimeo etc.

Applications that do not adhere to these criteria or are incomplete may be disqualified. The selection committee may request further information from individual’s applicants.

All applicants will be notified with the selection committee’s decision by March 8^th 2021.

Timeline

February 25^th 2021: Requests for additional information

March 1^st 2021:         Deadline for submissions

March 8^th 2021:        Notification to successful artists

March  / April 2021:  Installation week

For further information contact culturalquarter@waterfordcouncil.ie

Applications deadline: March 1^st 2021 culturalquarter@waterfordcouncil.ie.

Any clarifications request on the contents of the EOI have to be submitted via email to culturalquarter@waterfordcouncil.ie by February 25^th 2021.

 Examples of Utility pieces in Waterford Cultural Quarter: