ON YOUR DOORSTEP MARGATE - ARTIST COMMISSION
HELP US TO DEVELOP A NEW PIECE OF LIVE PERFORMANCE IN PARTNERSHIP WITH OUR
DIVERSE LOCAL COMMUNITY
Looping the Loop is seeking an artist (or group of artists) to make a live performance with communities living in the Athelstan Road neighbourhood in Cliftonville West, Margate. We expect the project to finish with a performance in the week of 25 September 2021.
KEY DATES
Position Advertised: Fri June 11th
Deadline for Applications: Fri 2nd July
Interviews: Weds 7th July
Start date: Mon 12th July
Date of the final performance/series: wk comm 25th September 2021
Fees:
All fees are worked out on a daily company rate of £117 per day.
13 days @ £117 per day
Total fee: £1,521
There will be an additional budget for materials, and bilingual support as required (to be discussed at interview.)
WHO ARE WE?
Looping the Loop CIC was set up in 2013 with a mission to bring theatre and live performance to anyone in Thanet that wanted to engage. We believe in a playful world full of magic and wonder. We believe that play connects us to others and the world around us,
adds joy to life, relieves stress and supercharges learning. We believe in treating every member of our audience as a VIP regardless of race, gender, age, wealth or education.
Looping the Loop is a founding member of the Collaborative Touring Network (CTN) - a national network of producers, established in 2013 by Battersea Arts Centre in London, with a goal of bringing world-class entertainment and participation opportunities to communities living in areas of cultural deprivation.
In 2015 The Warwick Commission stated that the wealthiest, best educated, least ethnically diverse 8% of the population are the main producers and consumers of publicly subsidised theatre. We are interested in reaching the other 92%.
WHO ARE YOU?
You could be an artist, group of artists, or company specialising in the performing arts, with the skills, passion and experience to produce a new piece of community-led work which is responsive and relevant to the place in which the commission is happening.
We are purposefully keeping our brief open to allow new ideas and themes to emerge organically, in close collaboration with the local community living in the neighbourhood of Athelstan Road, Cliftonville West.
We are passionate about making live performances that can bring communities together.
We want local people to be a part of the show’s development and performance. That might be because local people have taken part in workshops, written scenes, made costumes, helped us to promote the activity, or taken part in the performance itself.
WHO IS OUR COMMUNITY?
The tenants and residents of Athelstan Road, Margate.
WHAT IS THE PROJECT?
Background:
Cliftonville West has the highest child poverty rates in Kent, with an estimated 1,513 young people living in poverty, which is more than 52% (The End Child Poverty Coalition, 2018). A significant proportion of residents in Cliftonville West are EU migrants from Slavic countries - particularly Bulgaria. Due to language barriers, migrant communities are often forced to live in a bubble and struggle to interact with non-migrant, English-speaking communities.
Social cohesion between different communities in Thanet remains a challenge in many respects, and the district still has some historical associations with far right political groups. Last Autumn, LTL brought a free doorstep theatre show, ‘Thanet's Dog Agility Team’, to one of Kent’s most deprived streets, Athelstan Road in Cliftonville West. We worked with Ayaan Bulale (from Open School East) to identify a number of households to perform to - all were experiencing poverty in some way and several spoke little or no English. The people we met that day were creative, funny, silly and exuberant (particularly the children). Residents on Athelstan Road deserve more free, inclusive, accessible cultural activities taking place on their doorstep - particularly when the different languages existing on the street can be accommodated for.
The project:
We want you to create a new piece of live performance in collaboration with tenants and residents of Athelstan Road - embracing the rich diversity of the street. This could be developed over a series of workshops, or in a shorter space of time. Your process will be able to accommodate people who do not speak or understand English easily, though it should not be solely focused on migrant residents. We have some budget to employ a bilinguist or multilinguist to support your work.
As this project is to be co-created with our communities it’s hard to pin down exactly what the final result will look like but what we do know is listed below.
- The performance will happen live on Athelstan Road.
- The performance will be bilingual/multilingual in some or all aspects (one of the main languages spoken on Athelstan Road currently is Bulgarian.)
- The project will empower and celebrate the residents of Athelstan Road and the final performance will reflect their input into the project.
TO APPLY
Please submit your application via email to loopingthanet@gmail.com . This should contain four attachments:
- Our short application form
- A brief description of how you would approach the project (either a Word document with no more than two A4 pages, or as a 5-minute video recording)
- An up to date C.V. and at least one link to your previous work.
- Equal opportunities form
The closing date for receipt of completed applications is Friday 2nd July. We regret that applications received after that time cannot be considered.
Shortlisted candidates will be contacted by phone or email. Interviews will be on Wednesday 7th July (most likely via zoom.) Projected start date: Monday 12th July.
LTL actively seeks to recruit individuals from less well-represented groups in the arts, this includes those from working class backgrounds, black and minority ethnic, deaf & disabled and LGBTQI+ communities.
We will be collecting anonymous equal opportunities data about applicants for this job to help us in our aim to combat inequality.
APPLICATION PACK
Download our guidance pack below.
All applicants will need to complete our equal opportunities form below.
We hope that our guidance pack includes all the information you need. If you have any further queries, please email us at loopingthanet@gmail.com
| ltl-equality-monitoring-form.docx |
| guidance-pack-ltl-2021_oyd.docx |
