Open call for artists to apply for a residency engaging with seascape-scale nature restoration, in collaboration with local communities for the Solent Seascape Project
Deadline for applications: 11 December 11.59pm GMT
Who are we?
The Solent Seascape Project (SSP) is a collaborative, long-term nature restoration initiative in the Solent strait – a diverse coastal system stretching from the tip of the Needles out to Selsey and Pagham Harbour. It is the first project of its kind in the UK to initiate seascape scale recovery. In partnership with ten organisations, we are actively restoring and reconnecting four key coastal habitats – seagrass meadows, saltmarshes, seabird nesting sites and native oyster reefs – to create a thriving, functioning seascape for all. These habitats are home to incredible local marine wildlife, including thresher sharks, seahorses and tens of thousands of migrating birds.
Community engagement is key to the project. Whether this is through encouraging and inspiring interest in the Solent’s seascape, volunteering opportunities, or co-designing a Seascape Recovery Plan, it is important for local communities to be involved.
You can find out more about our work here: https://solentseascape.com/project/
Residency overview
Purpose: To creatively explore and celebrate the connections between people, place and nature in the Solent’s seascape.
Vision: Use artistic practice to engage with local audiences and the Solent Seascape Project to share the importance of, and challenges faced by, the Solent’s coastal areas.
Timeline: This call is open until 11 December 2024. The artist residency can be for up to eight months, anytime from February/March 2025 until early 2026.
Budget: £4,000, to cover the artist fee, and all production and participation costs including materials and travel.
A call to local Artists and Makers
This Artist Residency is an open call to artists who are interested in collaborating with the Solent Seascape Project to celebrate the ways that communities connect to this vibrant seascape, where restored habitats will allow local wildlife to thrive again. A grant of £4,000 accompanies this residency, including an opportunity to exhibit the works locally.
We are looking for artists that are interested in:
- helping us to build connections with local communities;
- communicating the work of the Solent Seascape Project to new audiences;
- providing creative ways for people to engage with their local seascape.
Different themes could include how the Solent Seascape Project connects with place-specific cultural traditions, to contemporary perceptions of biodiversity and people’s hopes and visions for the future.
Artforms may include, but are not limited to, music, painting, writing, ceramics, photography, sculpture, poetry, performance and site-specific installation. It is critical that the artist engages directly with the local community and creates new art work(s) in response to the unique people and place of the Solent seascape.
Who can apply?
The residency is open to local artists, makers, performers and other creatives working in any medium.
We welcome proposals from artists who are:
- Solent-based or have strong connections to the Solent;
- passionate about the Solent and working within the seascape;
- willing to collaborate with local communities to co-produce artworks;
- over 21 and have demonstrable experience of arts practice in a related area.
Demonstrable experience could include the following: your practice might relate to cultural history of place, environmental philosophies, wildlife, climate, environmentalism, restoration landscapes or cultural geographies.
Background to funding
This scheme is supported by the Endangered Landscapes and Seascapes Programme (ELSP), funded by Arcadia. The ELSP are keen to apply collaborative, transdisciplinary arts practice to celebrate the distinctiveness of the land- and seascape restoration projects (including SSP) that are supported by the ELSP, including their communities, as well as to provide a better understanding of the hopes, ambitions and opportunities that come with nature restoration at scale.
The ELSP is supporting significant restoration projects in key areas across Europe. From wetlands and marine habitats to deciduous woodland and mountain ranges, every project seeks to establish more resilient and self-sustaining ecosystems; enabling native species to flourish, as well as providing sustainable benefits to people.
Previous Artist Residences have seen artists work with local communities to co-create a ‘Commonplace Book’ to share local perspectives on a landscapes (Cairngorms Connect), participatory workshops resulting in multi-media performances (Summit to Sea) or collaborative video-sonic poems (Greater Coa Valley). You can read more about other ELSP projects and Artist Residencies here.
Further information
If you have questions, please get in touch with the team at info@solentseascape.com.
If you’re interested in applying, please click ‘apply here’ by 11 December 2024 11:59pm:
