Inches Carr Mentoring Award 2019/2020
We are delighted to invite applications from Scottish makers for the third Visual Arts Scotland : Inches Carr Craft Mentoring Award. The award is £5000 for a maker, plus an additional £2000 for a mentor whose discipline and/or professional experience would add value to the winner’s practise. The purpose is to encourage and mentor makers to develop their practice to a higher level, consider innovation and introducing new materials or techniques to their existing practise.
Up to four shortlisted artists will be invited to exhibit their work at the forthcoming VAS exhibition alongside the project that resulted from the previous award in January 2019. Highland duo Yellow Broom have been working with ceramicist Myer Halliday to expand their material and introduce cast ceramic elements to their body of architectural inspired lighting. Faceted block shapes in translucent Parian porcelain are inspired by the unique architectural landscape of Reykjavik, stemming from Clare and Dave’s time in Iceland with Emergents and XPO North. Working together on the design practicalities and aesthetics of a series of surface standing parian light blocks they are striving to convey Yellow Broom's vision of clean, precise, flat angled surfaces, utilizing Myers own clean and minimal aesthetic, and his vast knowledge and expertise of the material.
The purpose of the award is to encourage and mentor makers to develop their practice to a higher level, consider innovation and introducing new materials or techniques to their existing practise. Shortlisted artists will be invited to exhibit a body of current work in a dedicated section of Visual Arts Scotland’s next Annual Exhibition at the Royal Scottish Academy, 22 December 2019 – 30 January 2020. The winner will be announced during the exhibition and will be invited to develop a new body of work in conjunction with their mentor to be exhibited at the subsequent VAS annual exhibition.
The deadline for applications is 1 October 2019.
This is a development award and is aimed at makers who are looking to develop a new body of work or expand their existing practise.
Eligibilty:
• Applicants must have been living and working in Scotland for four or more years, and at least four years since graduating
• The award is open to makers, applied artists, designer makers and craftspeople working in any discipline Application
• Applications open on Tuesday 8 August 2019
• The deadline for applications is Tuesday 1 October 2019
• All applications must be made through the online portal on the Visual Arts Scotland website and include up to three images, an artist’s statement, a statement of intent, and a short CV
• You can add up to five images of your work to your application
• Images should include your current or most recent work. You may also include any prototype or preliminary research images that correspond to your proposal
• Within the selection of images uploaded at least one should show the work in its entirety, and one should be a close up shot that demonstrates quality of making
• The images submitted should show the work you would like to submit for exhibition
• Submitted images might be reproduced in publications to accompany the exhibition so please make sure you have permission to use the image and credit photographers as necessary
• There is an application fee of £15
• Shortlisted artists will be informed in the week commencing 4 November 2019
• Submissions will be judged both on the written proposal, and the quality of work proposed for the exhibition. The proposed work should show where you are currently in your creative practise, and your written proposal should clearly demonstrate how the award would build on this and help you in your continued development.
• Please answer each of the questions in the application in full.
The Mentor:
• Applicants may suggest a preferred mentor in the application if they wish to do so, but it is not a requirement and we will work with the winner to recruit a suitable mentor if necessary
• If you do name a preferred mentor please explain your reasons for choosing that person, explain what value you hope they could add to your practise
• If you do not have a mentor in mind please detail instead the particular area of your practise that you would like to develop, eg introducing new technology, working with a new material, expanding on existing skills
• If a mentor was not specified at the time of application then VAS and Inches Carr will use their pool of contacts to identify a suitable mentor in line with the requirements outlined in the winner’s application
• The appointment of the mentor will be subject to approval by The Inches Carr Trust and Visual Arts Scotland. We may suggest an alternative mentor to the one you have specified in your application
• The mentor will work with the maker to develop a body of work to be exhibited at the subsequent VAS Annual Exhibition where the maker will be shown as an invited artist
• The £2000 mentoring fee should cover around six sessions where the maker and mentor meet, and also reasonable communication by email/phone in the interim periods between meetings. The fee will be paid in instalments directly to the mentor Judging: The panel will consider the following in drawing up the shortlist
• A clear demonstration that the applicant has considered a new direction in their work and has an understanding of the role a mentor could play in it
• The clarity of the proposal and ability to convey potential outcomes
• The quality of the artists current work and its appropriateness for inclusion in the Visual Arts Scotland : Inches Carr Mentoring Award exhibition
• Applicants are encouraged to focus on a single area for development, and not to include too many varying outcomes
Terms & Conditions
• Applicants must be resident and working in Scotland for at least four years and at least
four years since graduation.
• The shortlisted artists must make the selected work available for exhibition from 15
December 2019 – 1 February 2020
• Any exhibited work that is for sale will be subject to VAS’s standard commission of 40%. The
work does not have to be for sale
• The maker will be required to document the development of the project as it unfolds for
monitoring purposes, and for future use by VAS and Inches Carr via the press, social media
and within publications. This should take the form of excerpts of conversation between the
maker and mentor, images of the work in progress, developmental sketches etc
Apply here: https://visualartsscotland.oess1.uk/entrydetails.aspx?exhID=115