Exhibition Opportunity! Open Call for MA/MFA Fine Art and MA/MFA Painting Graduates

Application deadline: 12 noon, Wednesday 16 February 2022

Open to MA/MFA Fine Art and MA/MFA Painting Graduates from Manchester School of Art, at Manchester Metropolitan University, who graduated in the last 10 years (2011 onwards).

As part of Castlefield Gallery and Manchester School of Art’s long-standing partnership activity, we are calling for applications from artists who graduated from the school’s MA/MFA Fine Art or MA/MFA Painting courses, and in the last 10 years.  

Whether you are based in Manchester or have moved away, we are excited to hear about your work and share it with our audiences. We are committed to helping artists, across all career stages, to develop and sustain their practice. 

We anticipate that there will be between one to three artists selected for this exhibition. 

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Selectors

Artist, Hardeep Pandhal; Castlefield Gallery Curator & Deputy Director, Matthew Pendergast; and Programme Leader of MA/MFA Fine Art at Manchester School of Art, Ian Rawlinson.

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Benefits, Budget and Resource

Each selected artist will be awarded an honorary 12-month membership to Castlefield Gallery Associates: castlefieldgallery.co.uk/associates 

Depending on the number of artists selected, each will receive an artist fee of between £200 and £600, and access  a production budget of between £600 and £1,800. Selected artists will access technical, curatorial and communications support from Castlefield Gallery, including access to kit and equipment that Castlefield Gallery already holds on site.

We welcome proposals that involve existing work but are also happy to support artists with developing new, and as yet unrealised projects or works. We do encourage applicants to keep in mind the timeline and the available budget.

To learn more about Castlefield Gallery visit the gallery website: www.castlefieldgallery.co.uk 

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How to apply

Applications must be submitted by 12 noon, Wednesday 16 February 2022

To apply by email, please send your application to Leslie Remonato at leslie@castlefieldgallery.co.uk, with Castlefield Gallery – MSoA MA/MFA Alumni Exhibition Application in the email header. 

To apply by post, please send your application to Leslie Remonato, with the enveloped marked Castlefield Gallery – MSoA MA/MFA Alumni Exhibition, and to:

Castlefield Gallery, 2 Hewitt Street, Manchester, M15 4GB, UK 

Your Application must include the following:

1. A statement about you and your work. No more than 200 words.

2. A statement about why you are interested to exhibit at Castlefield Gallery as part of this opportunity, and at this time. We would like to understand why you think this specific opportunity will be of benefit to you. No more than 200 words.

3. Documentation of up to ten recent works. Documentation might include images, web-based works, or segments of audio and/or video work (each no more than 5minutes in duration). Or a combination of images, audio, video or web-based work. Applicants are also welcome to include a description of works. Please ensure descriptions of works are no more than 50 words each, or if submitting up to 10 examples of work, no more than 500 words in total.  

4. An up-to-date CV (in 1 pdf or word file, with your full name in the file name e.g. Alex Green_CV). No more than 2-sides of A4. 

5. If applicable but not compulsory, a specific proposal for new work including any projected costs, can also be submitted. No more than a 200 word summary.

6. We also kindly request applicants complete an Equality Monitoring Form which is anonymised and can be completed via this link Castlefield Gallery Diversity Monitoring (google.com)

Important:

1. Please provide all the above information and images in a single pdf or word document.

2. Audio and/or video works, also examples of web-based works, can be submitted as web links in your application or via WeTransfer https://wetransfer.com (if using wetransfer please keep total size of all files below 1GB).

3. Documentation of each work must be accompanied by basic information: first and last name of artist,  title of work, media, size/dimensions, date. 

4. We suggest you save and title any audio and/or video files with this basic information eg. Alex_Green_Still Life in Blue_oil on canvas_30cmx50cm_2019_MSoA_CG_application  

If you have access needs that could be a barrier to applying, or participating, and want to discuss this, please contact Leslie Remonato at leslie@castlefieldgallery.co.uk or on 0161 832 8034. 

If you need to contact us by phone and reach our answer machine, please leave a voicemail with your name, the nature of your call, and your contact details so we can call you back. We will call you back as soon as we can. 

However, please note Castlefield Gallery office hours are Tuesday–Sunday, 10am–6pm. Castlefield Gallery offices are closed on Mondays. Much of the Castlefield Gallery team work part-time hours and form part of a rota system to cover weekend opening. Working patterns can therefore be irregular. It can therefore take up to 3 working days for the gallery to be able to respond to enquiries.

The deadline for applications is: 12 noon, Wednesday 16 February 2022

Shortlisted applicants will be notified by: 2 March 2022

Exhibition install dates: Monday 12  – Wednesday 21 September  

Exhibition previews: Public Preview; 6pm-8pm, Thursday 22 September and Slow Saturday Preview; 12noon-5:30pm, 24 September 2022 

Exhibition dates: Sunday 25 September – Sunday 16 October 2022*

*Please bear in mind that it may not be possible to open the gallery in the event of a lockdown or similar restrictions as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. To that end, please consider how your work might also translate to an online or digital platform so that it can in some way be experienced by audiences unable to visit the gallery.

Please note: this call out is only open to MA/MFA Fine Art and MA/MFA Painting Graduates from Manchester School of Art who have graduated in the last 10 years (those graduating from 2011 onwards).

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Equal Opportunities

Equal Opportunities Castlefield Gallery is an Equal Opportunity Employer and will not accept unfair discrimination or less favourable treatment on the grounds of race, sex, gender, sexual orientation, age, religion or belief, disability, marriage and civil partnership, gender re-assignment, pregnancy and maternity or trade union activity. Castlefield Gallery’s Equality Policy is underpinned by the Equality Act (2010) which provides a legal framework to protect people from discrimination, harassment and victimisation in the workplace and wider society.

Castlefield Gallery is committed to the promotion of equal opportunities in all aspects of our work, including management, employment practices with both paid workers and volunteers, access to services and service provision. We fully support the principles of equality, diversity and inclusion. We recognise that groups and individuals in society are disadvantaged due to discrimination directed against them by both direct and indirect discrimination.

We aim to remove any barriers, bias or discrimination that prevents individuals or groups from realising their potential and to develop organisational cultures that positively value diversity. Our venue is fully wheelchair accessible and assistance dogs are welcome.

www.castlefieldgallery.co.uk

www.art.mmu.ac.uk