Eye of the River by Jill Randall

Tuesday 2 December 2008

Hiddenplace - an invitation












In November 2008, we sent the following invitation to over 70 artists, creative individuals and organisations based around Burnley and Pennine Lancashire. We have shortlisted 14 artists to develop their ideas towards one of 7 commissions for Hiddenplace. We set up this blog to document their responses and provide a space for sharing ideas and presenting work in progress.


Ian Banks & Noah Rose 2/12/08



Dear Burnley Creative,
We are writing to you as an artist or creative individual based in or around Burnley to see if you are interested in being part of ‘Hiddenplace’

What?
‘Hiddenplace’ is a showcase of visual, performing, and new media arts, a series of temporary commissions for new creative work in a range of media, an animation programme for hidden, forgotten or disused spaces.

Where?
Various locations around Burnley town centre - see the attached map for details.

When?
The individual commissions will be programmed together to be launched every 2 weeks during spring/ summer 2009. They will be curated, planned and publicised together in a ‘festival ‘ format, with a dedicated website and joint marketing programme.

Who?
Visual artists, musicians, dance, drama or other performance-based artists, lens-based artists working with video, photography or new media.

How much?
Each commission has a budget of £5000.00, There are 7 commissions in total.

What next?
If you are interested, please contact Ian or Noah at one of the email addresses below. Please mark your email ‘Hiddenplace - statement of interest’ and send it to us by:
5.00pm on Thursday 27th November.

We’re looking for a small amount of information at this stage. We would like to see:
• A short statement of interest– telling us a bit about your practice and why you’d like to be considered for the project.

• Some examples (up to 5) of previous work – images/ descriptions/ audio files and/ or a link to any websites, if appropriate. (Jpegs, MP3s, Quicktime movies or Powerpoint/ Keynote presentations, please)




Who are we?
We are Ian Banks and Noah Rose - an architect and artist respectively, who have been working jointly and individually on a series of creative projects aimed at exploring and transforming Burnley town centre. We are responsible for curating ‘Hiddenplace’ and managing the project until its completion.

Why Burnley? Why now?
As you know Burnley is a town going through a huge period of change. Burnley Borough Council commissioned us in 2006 to research a piece of work called the Burnley Creative Scope. This fed into the Masterplan and Public Realm Strategy for the town centre. Some of you contributed to it and told us you were interested in undertaking some actual creative projects in the town. We think this is an interesting way to get people discussing the current and future use of space in the town centre and to begin a debate on who the town centre is for and what kinds of activities can go on there.

Why ‘Hiddenplace’?
The title comes from a song by Björk on her album ´Vespertine´. We think it sums up the quiet excitement and secret passion you can have for a thing, place or person, which only you know and which you keep safe from the world. We have found Burnley to be full of interesting hidden places with secrets to be examined, interpreted and uncovered, perhaps only partly. We encourage you to explore them and discover your own curiosities and wonders, small or large. These treasures will be yours alone to decide to share or keep secret and the manner in which you reveal them is up to you.

No comments: