The Culture Mile Learning (CML) team at the Museum of London are recruiting an artist(s) to work with teachers and pupils from the City of London Family of Schools to create a collaborative digital artwork which will be in the form of a map to launch in early July 2022.
This role will require the artist(s) to:
Creatively produce a base background map with accompanying key for all schools to work from
Plan and deliver engaging workshops with pupils from each of the participating schools
Reimagine the 2D paper maps produced by each participating school into a mass, collective digital artwork that can be exhibited online
CML is one of three teams in the Learning and Engagement Department at the Museum of London. It also delivers the learning strand of the cultural district, Culture Mile (CM) – see www.culturemile.london/creative-learning
CML has a particular mandate to work with the City of London Family of Schools to embed creativity and cultural learning across the curriculum and to support pupils’ skills development and employability. In 2021, for the first time CML collaborated with 10 schools in the Family of Schools to produce a joint art exhibition - #mood. This mass digital artwork gave pupils an individualised, yet collective and creative way to express their experience of the pandemic. About 1000 students took part, see more here.
#mood was a really positive experience and the schools and CML have already begun planning the 2022 exhibition. The chosen theme is ‘our local community through our eyes’ - and our ambition is to produce new maps of each of the areas of London where the schools are located, and also to join them together into a combined digital map. As in 2021, we are commissioning an artist(s) to work with us to create the combined digital artwork. We are open minded about the format of this digital map artwork and are keen to hear your ideas about what it could be. It will need to be displayable on the CML website.
The schools have chosen drawing as the medium they wish to work in and each participating school will create their own physical 2D map on paper. It’s probable that whereas in 2021 each student created a meme and a hashtag, this year they’ll each draw a building or ‘landmark’ of importance to them which collectively will make up their school’s map. These buildings or landmarks will be drawn separately to the base map so that they can also be photographed and used digitally for the combined digital map.
Schools will also be provided with a pack of documents of their local area by CML partner, London Metropolitan Archives (LMA). This pack is likely to contain maps, drawings, photographs, newspapers reports etc. of their local area through the centuries so that schools can reference different historical periods in their artwork. Each school may interpret the brief in slightly different ways and/or link it to different areas of the curriculum.
The artist(s) will be expected to:
Design and configure the base background map and a key for that map which all schools will work from to produce their 2D map on paper and which will feed into the digital map – for example, the keys might later translate into digital filters.
Record two short (no longer than 2 minutes) introductory videos (one for Primary and one for Secondary schools) introducing yourself, your practice, the context of the project and what pupils may expect in the workshop. These will then be shared with the participating schools so they get a sense of you as the artist(s) and the project.
Plan and deliver a maximum of 10 engaging 2 hour workshops for up to 30 pupils in each of the participating schools (includes primary and secondary) in May. Pupils will be chosen by their art teachers to represent their school. The aim of the workshops is twofold - for the pupils to input into the creation of the digital map artwork and for them to learn about your practice and career journey. Teachers will be present to at all the workshops and can support with the delivery if needed.
Create a mass digital artwork for display on the CML website which is made up of every pupil’s work and which speaks to the project’s vision of creating a new map of London.
Attend project planning and review meetings as needed, including with the project team, the teachers and the CM Marketing team who manage the CM website.
Contribute to communications and marketing activity around the project, including the production of a short making of film about the project, and feed into project evaluation.
This role will report in to Beth Crosland, CML Senior Programme Manager and work closely with Georgia Dodsworth, the freelance producer for the project.
Please note that having previous experience of working with young people is desirable but not essential, as you will be supported by art teachers during all workshops and Beth Crosland and Georgia Dodsworth can support with any planning.
April – prep work and planning – creation of base mapand key
May – workshops with schools
June – creation of digital artwork
July – launch of artwork
Most planning, research and meetings can be doneremotely as meetings will be online.
We are planning for each school to have an inperson workshop. Schools are in the London boroughs of Islington, City of London, Southwark and Hackney and one is in Ashtead, Surrey.
NB: if Government Covid guidelines change and prevent in-person workshops then we willadapt the sessions to be delivered online.
There is a budget of £7,500 (+VAT whereapplicable) inclusive of expenses and materials, available for this commission including planning, delivering theworkshops to schools and creating the artwork. You will need to provide yourown equipment. CML will cover any additional costs required to integrate theartwork into its website.
If you would like to be considered for this work, please outline:
A brief description of your vision for the collaborative digital map artwork
Details of your experience of working on similar commissions
A brief description of how you would approach the workshops with the pupils and what you’d focus them on
Details of any experience of working collaboratively with young people towards acreative output.
Any examples of previous work you would like to share.
Please also confirm your availability for the above timeline.
Proposals should be e-mailed to Beth Crosland at bcrosland@museumoflondon.org.uk by 5pm on Monday 14th March 2022.
Short interviews will take place throughout the week of 14th March 2022.
Please send any queries to the above email address.
