Painting

Introduction
Cardiff County Council wish to appoint an artist to paint a series of hoardings for Upper Shops, Beechley Drive. The artist will facilitate a number of workshops at three primary schools and Waterhall Youth Centre in order to design and paint the hoardings.

Background
Upper Shops, Beechley Drive is one of two local shopping centres serving the Pentrebane estate. Built in the 1970s the local shopping centre sits adjacent to three local primary schools and the Pentrebane Community Centre and forms a focal point in the southern part of the estate.

The shopping centre is in a state of decline and the Council has been working with the local community to consider its future. The Local Shopping Centres Survey (June 2007) ranks Upper Shops and Lower Shops in the top ten of Cardiff local centres most in need of regeneration.

At Upper Shops, four of the seven retail units in the parade are vacant and this is a source of complaint from the local community. Residents also feel that the appearance of the shopping centre stigmatises the area. When discussing the shops with local children in the area, we found that the children liked some of the existing artwork on the shops but did not appreciate the incidental graffiti. Whilst the Council is investigating opportunities for redevelopment, it will be at least two to three years before any works commence on site.

The four vacant shop units are in poor condition and are unattractive. As part of several interim measures to the parade, the intention is to create a mural along the front of the empty shop units. The mural will be designed with young people and children living in the area.

Neighbourhood Regeneration, in conjunction with the local youth centre, will produce promotional materials and distribute them to promote the project to local people.

The Site
The four vacant units are dispersed in between occupied units. Three of the four units have individual frontages each measuring 6m. The fourth unit is a corner unit and has frontage measuring approximately 29m. Each shop frontage is approximately 2.1m high. The potential art space is therefore 47m long and has an area of 73.5m². All the units are setback behind an overhang that runs the full length of the parade. It is anticipated that each school will be given one of the three smaller frontages and the youth centre will work on the largest shop front. However, it will be up to the Artist to structure the workshops and guide the design process, therefore a different approach is possible.

The Commission
The Artist will be responsible for purchasing the hoarding material and all paint and equipment necessary in order to carry out this project. However, delivery of the hoardings to site and installing them in front of the shops will be carried out by a Council approved contractor.

Strong community involvement is an essential element of this scheme and the artist will be expected to engage with local young people and school children. There are three local primary schools and we envisage two half day workshops per school (the equivalent of 3 days workshops over a two week period). The youth club is based at Waterhall Youth Centre and meets on Thursday evenings 7pm – 9pm. We envisage that 4 workshops over 4 weeks would take place with the youth club prior to 5 full days of workshops during half term.

The primary school workshops are likely to be design only workshops, with the Artist developing a final design incorporating the children’s designs to be painted by the Artist onto the hoardings. (There are about 25 pupils per class). There are three schools within the vicinity of the shops; they are Pentrebane Primary School, Ysgol Coed Y Gof and Holy Family RC School.

The evening workshops with the youth club could be design workshops followed by the half term week for painting the actual hoardings with young people. (We expect about 7 young people will be involved in the project). The Artist will need to deliver the hoarding panels to Waterhall Youth Centre and prime the panels with the youth club. The design should be completed with two coats of exterior paint and a top layer of anti-graffiti sealant.

Although it is an important part of the project to develop the skills of workshop attendees, given the scale and timetable of the project, it may be necessary for the Artist to paint a portion of the hoardings him/herself.

The Artist, project manager and Neighbourhood Renewal team will liaise closely during the design workshops to ensure that the design is promptly approved so that the process of painting the hoardings is not delayed. The completed designs should be presented on A3 paper so that they can be used by Neighbourhood Regeneration for consultation with stakeholders. Consultation with residents and local stakeholders is required before we can proceed with implementing the design.

The selected artist will be expected to demonstrate previous experience of managing and implementing a project of a comparable scale and an awareness of any technical issues likely to arise.

Provisional Programme
The deadline for completion of the whole project is late November 2010; there is a proposed programme, however, the primary school workshop dates can be agreed once the Artist is appointed but the youth club workshops are not negotiable. Please see attachment below for the schedule.

Selection Procedure
A shortlist of artists will be drawn up by the art consultant for interview. Artists will be provided with plans and photos of the site in advance and expected to give a short presentation at the interview. During the interview the artists will provide a brief overview of their work and a description of their approach to the commission. This will be followed by a question and answer session. The interview panel will consist of representatives from the art consultancy, Cardiff County Council and local stakeholders.

Selection criteria will include: experience of working on schemes of a comparable size and complexity; experience of consultation with young people; creativity in past projects and ideas presented at interview. A standard CRB check.
To apply for the project please send images of your previous work on CD as a powerpoint or pdf document with an image list, a brief CV, and a letter outlining your interest in this project.

Three to four artists will be short-listed for interview. At interview stage we will expect the artists to have considered how they would approach the project. (Artists may include this information in their initial application, but are not required to do so.) Interview travel expenses will be re-imbursed.

Send applications to: Celfwaith, 7 Pontfaen, Cardiff CF23 7DU

The Board of the George Melly Sculpture Appeal wish to appoint an artist to work with a sculptor and jazz musician to devise and facilitate a number of school workshops in Brecon. The art workshops are part of a programme of community engagement for the commissioning of a permanent artwork to celebrate the life of the renowned jazz singer George Melly. A selection of the output from the workshops will be exhibited in Brecon.
The George Melly Sculpture Appeal is a registered charity, no. 1130174.

Background

The George Melly Sculpture Appeal was set up in July 2008 at the 25th Anniversary of Brecon Jazz Festival. The aim is to commission a sculpture which commemorates George Melly’s relationship with Brecon, his role in the founding of the Jazz Festival and as President of the Contemporary Art Society for Wales and to provide a lasting legacy for the town.

George Melly was the first musician to be contracted by Brecon Jazz for the 1984 festival and remained a loyal and inspirational performer and supporter until his death. He and his wife Diana had a home in Scethrog just outside Brecon for nearly 30 years.

The inspiration for this tribute to George and his long association with Brecon and Brecon Jazz is the long-held dream of Liz Elston, who fittingly, was the instigator of the very first festival. She was Chairperson for the first ten years and has now formed the George Melly Sculpture Appeal committee to realise the dream.

The Project

As part of the process to commission a permanent artwork for George Melly, it is envisaged that a number of school workshops will be held to introduce school pupils to the project and publicise the commission. The workshops should engage pupils in the culture and heritage of their area and highlight the Brecon Jazz festival. The workshops could be about how to capture a person’s life in an artwork or could explore the representation of jazz through visual art. We are particularly interested in artists whose practice relates to form and colour, rhythm and line, which would have an affinity with jazz music. To stimulate debate about jazz and art and enliven the workshop events it is proposed that a jazz musician would be involved to play music and to explain how jazz music is constructed (a musician will be appointed to a separate budget).

Some of the output from these workshops will later be exhibited in St Mary’s Church in Brecon. As well as this display it is possible that as part of a planned Art Week in October, the pupils’ artwork from the workshops could be digitally printed onto banners and bunting which would decorate the town during the Art Week. The cost of producing these banners would be separately funded.

Professional Practice
The selected artist will need their own public liability insurance.

We aim to short-list artists in late August and interview in the first week of September. The workshops would be spread over September and October 2010. The workshops schedule will be managed by the project manager, Mererid Velios, who will liaise directly with the schools to arrange dates and times that are suitable for the artist.

Procedure

This brief has been widely advertised and the Artist Selection Panel, consisting of Robert Macdonald, David Moore, Elizabeth Jeffreys and Mererid Velios, will short-list 3-4 artists to interview. Reasonable travel expenses to interview will be re-imbursed. The selected artist will be given a workshop contract and paid in two instalments, one at the beginning of the project and one on completion.
The criteria for selection will be based on:
• Creativity shown in past projects
• Experience of delivering innovative workshops and collaborating with others.

To Apply:
Please send examples of previous work as a pdf or powerpoint document on a CD. We also require a printed up to date CV with additional information about workshop and residency experience, and letter of application outlining your interest in the project. Send applications to: Celfwaith, 7 Pontfaen, Cardiff, CF23 7DU.