BARN Commission Opportunity
Deadline: May 26, 2015, 12:00 pm
BARN seeks expressions of interest from experienced and suitably qualified artists or design teams in developing a new public artwork. The total budget available for the artwork is up to £35,000 (inclusive of VAT) Appointment of the successful artist/design team is contingent upon the availability of funds from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.
The project seeks to develop a legacy artwork reflecting the group’s journey towards peace. The Building Peace through the Arts – Re-Imaging Communities Programme themes are community cohesion, regeneration through the arts, positive relations at the local level, peace and reconciliation, connecting communities.
The growing rural community at the Birches has witnessed a 23% growth in population in the last 10 years as new housing developments have expanded. A quarter of the population are of school age with only 14% over 65. BARN wish to re-image previous widespread misconceptions about apparent single identity local traditions, address community issues including sectarianism and racism, and encourage a renewed and welcoming identity which will be inviting to neighbouring communities, the wider Northern Ireland population and beyond.
As a first phase of the project the group developed a local steering group to help manage the process. Artists Idan Meir and Paul McGuckin were recruited to carry out creative community consultation with a wide range of stakeholders in the community. They presented a report containing their findings to the steering group including possible themes and potential site locations for the proposed artwork. The steering group agreed that ‘shining out' was the theme most open to artistic interpretation.
The preferred location for the public art is at a "gateway" location beside the junction of the Birches Road with the B196 Clonmakate Road, immediately north of Junction 12 (The Birches) on the M1 motorway.
For more details please download the full brief below
Download BARN ARTIST BRIEF 2.pdf(356 KB)
