Work with me! Performer
I’m the lead artist on a very exciting long term project with Chisenhale Gallery. We’re currently looking for a performer to be part of the project.
I’ve pasted details below:
Dates: April 2024 to September 2024
Artist fee: £4000. 20 days, £200 a day.
To apply, please complete the application form here.
The deadline for applications is midday (12pm) on Friday, April 12.
If you have any access requirements, or any questions concerning the application process, please contact Seth Pimlott (Curator: Social Practice at Chisenhale Gallery) at seth [dot] pimlott [at] chisenhale [dot] org [dot] uk.
Artist Brief
Chisenhale Gallery is expanding an ongoing project with artist and filmmaker Edwin Mingard alongside students and teachers at London East Alternative Provision, a Pupil Referral Unit (PRU) in Tower Hamlets. This project forms part of a wider programme of commissions and events exploring the role of the arts and art-teaching in alternative provision settings, produced by Chisenhale Gallery, called "art-making in unstable contexts". We are commissioning one artist with a performing arts background (actor/applied theatre practitioner/performer/choreographer) to work with Edwin at the school next term. The exact schedule will be determined following the appointment of the commissioned artist. A record of the project and the finished work will form part of an exhibition produced by the gallery in Autumn 2024 and will feature prominently in a new Chisenhale publication. We are looking to work with a performing arts practitioner who has lived experience of school exclusion, the criminal justice system, the care system, or an analogous experience of institutional exclusion, and/or has significant experience working with young people who have been excluded from mainstream education. In our work over the last few months we have found it is important to bring adults into the space who have direct experience of the issues the young people in the project are facing.
Background
Pupil Referral Units (PRU) are an increasingly utilised pressure valve in the British education system, a destination for children and young people who have been suspended, excluded or have withdrawn from mainstream schools. Compared to peers in conventional settings, students at PRUs are more likely to live in poverty, experience abuse and neglect at home, have a learning difficulty or suffer from a mental health condition, while certain ethnic groups are disproportionately represented in PRUs. There are few recent examples of artist residencies or other kinds of external creative interventions in PRUs, despite evidence of the positive impact artists can have in similar settings elsewhere. For this programme, we are piloting what such a residency or placement might look like, introducing the freedom, play and criticality of creative practice into an environment where these qualities can sometimes feel in short supply.
Artist and filmmaker Edwin Mingard has been working with a group of students at the school since May 2023 (more info can be found here). Having developed trust with the young people and the institution over three successive terms, the school, Chisenhale Gallery and Edwin have the opportunity to expand the project in the summer - working with more students and, crucially, staff (particularly Key Workers) towards a film for presentation in September 2024. For this new project, we are looking to work with a performing artist (actor/applied theatre practitioner) to work alongside Edwin to devise a collaborative project centring on performance. This role will include:
Helping to plan and deliver workshops as part of a creative team
Leading break-out groups, brainstorming sessions, and one-on-one activities within a workshop setting.
Making a meaningful contribution to the creative development of the final piece (a play/a script/a film)
Working with interested staff and students at the school to support their creative ambitions through formal and informal learning sessions.
This project is process-led, with no predetermined outcome, and will be informed by the school community's interests and aspirations. However, broadly speaking, the project will address the experiences and interests of young people who have been excluded from mainstream education in a way that does not define them solely by this experience. There will be challenges that the gallery and artists will need to navigate together. For example, the project will develop within the strictures of the school environment: on school premises and according to pre-existing timetables. At the same time, activities will need to be tailored to engage students with sometimes complex needs. It will require careful reflection at every stage.
But there are also compelling opportunities. Ultimately, when working with young people who have been failed by the education system and often betray low self-esteem and self-confidence, small shifts in dynamics can represent significant leaps, yielding considerable rewards for students, artists and educators alike.
We are open to the creative background of practitioners and want to support their creative development through this project. While certain parameters are set (the artist will spend a significant period of time in the school working with students), within these conditions, we will support the artists in creating the work they are most interested in making in collaboration with the staff and students at London East Alternative Provision (LEAP).
One cornerstone of our approach is close collaboration between artists and teachers. In our experience, this is a source of mutual learning and a productive way to embed an artist's practice in a school, leaving a legacy of the work beyond the project’s time span.
Practicals
Time
10-12 days for workshop prep and delivery
6 half days (24 hours) for planning workshops
3 days (24 hours), admin, care, and debriefing
5 oversight therapy sessions - one hour each, online (5 hours)
3 half days paid for rest
One day of debriefing and research in person (8 hours)
= 20 days at £200 day
Financial
Artist Fee - £4000
Access costs - personal access costs should be covered by access to work
Oversight therapy - 5 sessions (see details below)
Travel and subsistence - a flexible budget of £200 to pay for travel and food.
Provisional Timeline
Late-April - workshops begin
July - workshops finish
Sharing - September 2024
Publication - Winter 2024/2025
Care, wellbeing and emotional labour
We are committed to pioneering better models of care and emotional well-being for those we work with and for ourselves. We acknowledge the emotional labour in working within sometimes challenging settings. We will work closely with the commissioned artist to provide formal and informal care and meet access requirements where necessary.
However, it is important to acknowledge the potential volatility of the environment you will be working in and that this work might not be for everyone. It will require a certain amount of emotional resilience and existing strategies not to be overwhelmed. For this reason, we are looking to commission an artist with significant previous experience working with young people or other relevant experience.
The practical care strategy, which can be adapted and added to, includes:
Oversight therapy from a professional therapist
Informal debriefs - we will meet weekly with the commissioned artist to debrief, reflect, gather critical feedback, and support with planning and
logistics
Paid rest and recovery time - each artist receives three paid half days for ‘rest and wellbeing time’ - which can be used at your discretion outside of scheduled time with the young people.
Travel and subsistence - the artist will have a flexible budget of £200 to pay for travel and food.
Agree on working methods—Each artist will meet with the commissioner to agree on ‘how they are going to work together’, which could include communication requirements, times of work, expectations of each other,
privacy, and safeguarding guidance.
Other strategies we may not have thought of.
DBS
Chisenhale Gallery operates a Safeguarding Policy to ensure the protection of children and vulnerable adults. The successful applicant will be subject to a satisfactory Enhanced DBS Disclosure and a check against the barred list for children and/or adults, as appropriate. For further information please refer to https://www.gov.uk/disclosure-barring-servicecheck/overview.
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
Chisenhale Gallery is committed to equal opportunities. We welcome applications from candidates of all backgrounds and are committed to building a diverse workforce. We particularly encourage applications from Black, Asian and ethnically diverse candidates and disabled candidates who are currently under-represented in employment within the visual arts. Chisenhale Gallery is located on the ground floor, and access to both Chisenhale and LEAP is compliant with the Equality Act 2010. Chisenhale Gallery is a Disability Confident Employer, and we guarantee to interview anyone with a disability whose application meets the minimum criteria for the post. By ‘minimum criteria’, we mean that the individual must provide us with evidence in their application form which demonstrates that they meet the qualifications, skills or experience defined in the artist brief.
The selection process includes an application form and a panel interview. If you require any special arrangements at any stage of the selection process, please contact us at seth [dot] pimlott [at] chisenhale [dot] org [dot] uk or 020 8981 4518.
Application Procedure
Please complete the application form here: https://form.jotform.com/240874216437055
We have tried to make the process as simple as possible. If you have any questions about the application or role, please contact Seth Pimlott at seth [dot] pimlott [at] chisenhale [dot] org [dot] uk
Deadline for applications:
Friday 12 April, 12 pm (midday)
Interviews will be held the following week.