City of Swansea, Wales + Ice House Square

The City and County of Swansea and the Welsh Assembly Government wish to appoint a lighting artist, or team of artists, to design a public space and lighting scheme for Ice House Square, a key arrival site in the SA1 development.  The development of SA1 aims to reconnect the Prince of Wales Dock to the rest of the city. The vision for SA1 is for it to be a 'lively, attractive waterside destination, fostering a high standard of urban design and architecture with an emphasis on innovation, modernity and flexibility'.  The square is overlooked by two developments and has already been planted with a formal grid of 16 boxed trees but remains unpaved with temporary finishes to the adjacent footway.

It is envisaged that an artist working primarily in light will animate the space and create a dynamic and integrated artwork, which would also make the most of the trees as three-dimensional structures. The artist will also be expected to consider the paving/surface design of the area around the trees.

Budget for design and implementation: Ł150,000 + VAT (includes all fees, lighting fittings and installation, artistic treatment to the paving but not the cost of the paving material.)

Budget: $150,000
Deadline: January 29, 2010
Information: mererid@celfwaith.co.uk

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Various Cities in Japan + US/Japan Creative Artists' Program

The Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission works cooperatively with the National Endowment for the Arts to sponsor the U.S/Japan Creative Artists' Program.  The program provides support for up to five outstanding contemporary and traditional artists from the United States to spend a five-month residency in Japan to pursue their individual artistic goals. 

The U.S/Japan Creative Artists' Program is extremely competitive; applicants should have regional or national recognition and anticipate a highly rigorous review of their work.  Artists should also present compelling reasons for wanting to work in Japan. Selected artists will receive:

a monthly stipend for living expenses and a housing supplement, as well as an allowance for professional support services; up to $6,000 for round trip transportation for the artist, domestic partner and/or dependent children, and a baggage/storage allowance; and a stipend for pre-departure Japanese language study in the United States.

Eligible applicants are architects, choreographers, composers, creative writers, designers, media artists, playwrights, visual artists, or solo theater artists who work with original material (including puppeteers, storytellers and performance artists). Multidisciplinary artists and artistic directors of theater or dance companies are also eligible.

Budget: monthly stipend and $6,000 travel reimbursement
Deadline: February 1, 2010
Information: http://www.jusfc.gov/creativeartists.asp or Jennifer Kareliusson kareliussonj@arts.gov

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Vancouver, BC Canada + Cultural Olympiad Artist Registry

VANOC has created an artist registry for individual artists and ensembles interested in participating in Cultural Olympiad and/or other Olympic and Paralympic Games programs. Designed as a programming resource, the registry will also serve as a central artist database that VANOC can reference for the development of future events.

Deadline: on-going through 2010
Information: www.vancouver2010.com/en/CultureEducation/CulturalOlympiad/ArtistRegistry

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Derbyshire, England + Sutton Scarsdale Hall Call for Concepts

With this call for entries, the Centre of Attention is seeking concepts and proposals for the re-imagining of Sutton Scarsdale Hall into a pavilion of postcontemporary curating.  This call is open to architects, designers, artists, curators and others. Concepts and proposals can be submitted as drawings, images or texts, by email to the address listed below.  All ideas, gestural, utopian or pragmatic are welcome.  At this stage we need to raise an initial Ł1,250,000. Fundraiser launch in London: late Autumn 2009

The skeletal remains of Sutton Scarsdale Hall continue to decay. A dilapidated wreck of a structure, you enter at your own risk.  In the very heart of England, Sutton Scarsdale Hall is to become the Pavilion of Postcontemporary Curating.

What is a pavilion of postcontemporary curating? First it will be a new international art facility set in the beautiful Derbyshire countryside. The current Hall is a perfect exhibition/ performance space, lit from above, with high walls, neutral floor. It will be dedicated solely to new curating. Second, the Pavilion of Postcontemporary Curating will be a sculptural work incorporating the remains of Sutton Scarsdale Hall.  Third, the pavilion of postcontemporary curating will provide a home for the Centre of Attention and its archive.

The space will have a special remit to act as a 'patron' to working class artists and curators by providing these facilities for free.  It will facilitate new media production as well as old, it will have a library, archive, research facilities and study resource, studios and accommodation as well as a gallery dedicated to the history of the house.  A sculpture, it will become part of the regional landscape and act as a beacon to advanced ideas and art praxis in the regional and international scene.

Timetable for the pavilion: (2009) secure the remains of the building. ACT NOW to stop the decay; source architects through competition and re-imagine the site; recruitment and announcement of Advisory Board (2010) construction of sculpture/art centre (2011) completion and inaugural exhibition and residency. 

Deadline: on-going
Information: http://www.thecentreofattention.org/  or on@thecentreofattention.org

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Den Haag, The Netherlands + Marcello’s Art Factory/URM Project

An Urban Ready Made (URM) is a street, a building, a view, an object or an event in an urban- or industrial environment, where a conjunction of circumstances cause beauty and art. When an artist or architect declares this (with some ritual proceedings) art, it becomes an Urban Ready Made.  With the Urban Ready Mades Project we would like to bring art closer to people. Art doesn't have to be difficult to understand. You can find beauty everywhere and to enjoy art you don't have to visit a museum or an exposition. We hope our project lets people realize that they can find art and beauty in their own city.
Marcello & Els, the founders of the project, want to give other artists and architects a chance to declare an URM in their own surroundings and join this unique concept. This way there will grow a "gesammtkunstwerk" (a collective work of art) of thousands of URM's, which will go beyond borders. Firstly this is going to take place in the form of a virtual exhibition on the World Wide Web, crossing virtual borders. In the year 2010 it will become a traveling exhibition, kicking off in The Hague.

Deadline: on-going
Information: info@urbanreadymades.com or http://www.urbanreadymades.com/