Castlefield Gallery Associates exhibition call out

Posted on 15 August 2024

40 Years of the Future: WINDOWS is our 2024 Castlefield Gallery Associates exhibition. It will take place in four locations across the North West of England. These locations include the windows and double height space of our lower gallery in Manchester* and Castlefield Gallery New Art Spaces windows in Wigan, Warrington and Chester.

This open call is for Castlefield Gallery Associates to submit a single proposal to transform these four locations. Proposals will be co-selected by guest selector Kate Bryan (Curator and Broadcaster) and Matthew Pendergast (Curator and Deputy Director, Castlefield Gallery).

*See image below

This opportunity forms part of our 40 Years of the Future anniversary programme. We are seeking proposals which open up a dialogue between past, present and future and which make site-specific use of the four presentation spaces. The locations for this exhibition were developed to be or were previously retail spaces – their windows displaying products and advertisements. All the work exhibited in this exhibition will be viewable by passersby. Proposals could be an opportunity to address our changing relationship with our high streets. In many ways windows are part of our everyday lives: metaphorically and physically they frame our points of view, open a window into our souls and slip around our computer screens. We hope this exhibition will be an opportunity to explore the evolving potential of these different sites of display consumption, communication and imagination.

For more information, images and dimensions of the windows spaces click here

Kate Bryan is an arts broadcaster and Chief Art Director for Soho House. At Soho House she is custodian to a collection that numbers nearly 9000 artworks on permanent display across 16 countries. She oversees all new acquisitions and leads the company’s art strategy. She has written and presented television programmes for BBC, Sky Arts and Sky Arte Italia and is a judge on the long running programmes Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year and Landscape Artist of The Year. Her series Inside Arts presented the latest exhibitions across the U.K for Sky Arts between 2020- 2023. In June 2019 she published her first book, The Art of Love, and her second, Bright Stars was published in 2021. In 2014 she won the Arts category in the Women of the Future Awards and is now a mentor for young artists from under represented backgrounds.

Key Dates:

Application deadline for proposals: Tuesday 8 October 2024, 5pm
Install dates: End of January – 19 February 2025
Exhibition dates: 20 February – 6 April 2025

Applicant Eligibility

Applications must be submitted by an active member of Castlefield Gallery Associates. If you’re not an Associate yet, you can find out more about the scheme here

To learn more about eligibility and terms and conditions of application click here

Not reading these terms and conditions means that you won’t be fully equipped to submit your proposal.

We are committed to equitable practice and the promotion of equal opportunities in all aspects of our work. To read our Equality, Diversity, Inclusion & Equity statement, click here

Budget:

The budget of £3000 awarded to the artist is to cover the artist’s fee and production costs of the work across the four sites including any necessary artwork transport, travel and expenses.

Castlefield Gallery will provide a technician (9 days) and curatorial support to assist with producing and installing the work, arrange on-site signage and gallery interpretation.

There will be space made available to work onsite at the venues, some basic tools and equipment will be made available as well as some recyclable materials from previous exhibitions. The gallery technician will be able to access a range of gallery equipment for installation and exhibition purposes; however, the applicant needs to consider costs for any specialised equipment that the gallery does not already own or have access to.

The gallery will also provide marketing & communications of the exhibition as part of the gallery programme.

A list of AV equipment that the gallery has can be accessed here

If your project involves multiple individuals please consider how you will cover fees as well as production materials, transport, documentation and travel expenses (see Paying Artists and the Artist-led Manifesto for guidance on exhibition fees).

How to apply:

Please submit:

A project proposal (500 words max)
An artist statement (250 words max)
Supporting material, eg. images (12 max)
A breakdown of the proposed budget (£3000)
We also kindly request applicants complete an Equality Monitoring Form which is anonymised and can be completed here

Please provide all the information and images in a single pdf no more than 10MB in size, which can include hyperlinks to other images and material*.

Please send your proposal to associates@castlefieldgallery.co.uk by 5pm, Tuesday 8 October 2024. Make sure that your subject heading is clearly marked as “Proposal for Castlefield Gallery Associates exhibition”. Please note that we cannot accept late or incomplete applications.

If you are already a Castlefield Gallery Associate, we’d like to remind you that a simple guide to writing an exhibition proposal can be found on the Associates Resource Page here

If you’re not an Associate yet, you can find out more about the scheme here

*Any time-based media (eg. videos, sound work…) should be no more than 20 minutes in duration.

Further guidance and support available:

Access: If you have any access requirements that could be a barrier to applying or taking part in the opportunity please contact our Gallery and Volunteer Coordinator Ryan French at associates@castlefieldgallery.co.uk or on 0161 832 8034. Our office hours are Tuesday–Sunday, 10am–6pm. Castlefield Gallery offices are closed on Mondays.
Online session: We will be holding a session online on Tuesday 10 September 6:30 – 7:30pm for anyone who wishes to discuss the call out, potential proposal ideas and what might be possible in these spaces with Castlefield Gallery Curator & Deputy Director Matthew Pendergast. Book here

Images

Banner:

Thumbs Up at Castlefield Gallery, 2020. Photographed by Harry Meadley.

From left to right, top to bottom:

Lindsey Bull and Plastique Fantastique at Castlefield Gallery, 2017.
Kate Bryan, 2021. Photographed by Gina Soden.
Work in Progress by Daisy James at Castlefield Gallery New Art Spaces: Warrington.
Touch AR by Brass Art in the windows of Castlefield Gallery New Art Spaces: Wigan. Photographed by Livia Lazar.