Easington Colliery Primary School (scheduled for demolition)
Amber Film and Photography Collective CIC, would like to commission a visual artist or photographer with an established documentary, community art or socially engaged practice – to engage with the community of Easington, County Durham to explore and creatively respond to issues around the planned demolition of the colliery town’s Grade 2 listed former infant school which has stood on the site for over 100 years. Scheduled for demolition, proposals around the redevelopment and use of the site have been the subject of much local debate. In addition to this, the community has informally began to commemorate the school, which closed 23 years ago, sharing photographs and memories via social media.
The Amber Collective have a deep connection to the community of Easington, through longitudinal film and photographic engagements documenting and celebrating the community prior to the miner’s strike of 1984/85, to the most recent Amber film What Happened Here, which premiered online in October 2020. This project will once again engage local people, this time to creatively respond to the planned disappearance of this iconic building from the local landscape. Some project development has already taken place, with contact established with Durham County Council, who control the site. There is also a concurrent film project in development, supported by Amber.
This project is part of Amber’s new digital strategy and will be supported by the newly appointed Audience Development Coordinator, who will manage the project and assist with the development and engagement of project partners, supporters and stakeholders.
We would like to invite expressions of interest setting out how artists would;
- Research, present and produce relevant archive material as foundational project resources
- Engage local people over a 3-week period, to creatively respond to site, place and memory, including strategies to include those who do not have access to online or digital technology.
- Create, curate and disseminate a physical and digital/online exhibition utilising environmentally sustainable materials
Whilst we expect photography to feature, we also expect the project to harness and reflect an expected variety of creative community responses. We expect project engagement to be interactive across social media platforms as well as location based in the community and look for suggestions as to how you might negotiate this.
Project Timeline
Wk Commencing November 30rd 2020 : Artist Appointed
Mid-December – January 2021 : Research and development (including resource preparation)
January 2021 – March 2021 : Project launched and concluded across multiple platforms
Artist Fee
The Artist Fee is £3k which will cover all aspects of the project. Additional support will be available from Amber for the production of digital training resources and there will be an expenses and materials budget of approximately £2k, to cover the community exhibition etc. The Artist fee will be paid in the following instalments.
Phase 1 : Planning and Development December 2020 £800.00
Phase 2 : Delivery January 2021 £1200.00
Phase 3 : Exhibition conclusion March 2021 £500.00
Please send all expressions of interest along with a CV via email to side.gallery@amber-online.com Closing Date : Monday November 23rd, 2020 at 12 noon
For further information about the Amber Collective, please refer to the website www.amber-online.com To see examples of Amber’s work in Easington, please refer to https://www.amber-online.com/collection/easington/
Amber Film and Photography Collective CIC
5-9 Side
Newcastle
NE1 3NA
