Artist Commission

Call out for artist commission for the Music Hall, Aberdeen    

Aberdeen Performing Arts is pleased to offer this commissioning opportunity, which aims to communicate to our audience that everyone is welcome in our spaces.  We are seeking a visual artist to produce original and accessible signage for exhibition at Aberdeen’s Music Hall around the theme ‘Everyone is welcome here’.  The signage will be installed to coincide with the launch of a photography exhibition showing the diversity of Aberdeen’s present-day population. Together the works should spark reflection about what makes a space safe and welcoming for all. The work should engage our audience with the topic in a gentle, playful way, inviting consideration and conversation as they move through the space.   

The signage will be displayed in areas of heavy footfall where audiences attend performances at the Music Hall. The work will be displayed on walls, and proposals should consider the heavy footfall and multi-use nature of the space.       

Within your proposal, we would like to see:    

• How your proposed work will engage with the topics of accessibility, equality, and inclusion.  
• How you would connect with the otherwise uninterested so that the viewer can identify and resonate with the ideas being presented to them.  
• Consideration around the materials and processes used to minimise the work’s environmental impact.   

Timeline: July, 2023 – September, 2023 (installed)   

Fee: We are offering a fee of £3,000 to create pieces for permanent exhibition in the Music Hall foyer, café, promenade and dressing rooms. This fee is based on approximately 9 days of work over a period of 6-8 weeks (Scottish Artists Union rates).   

Submission process:     

Previous experience working within the themes of equality and inclusion is preferred but not essential.     

Interested artists are encouraged to visit the Music Hall during our opening hours to look at the public spaces (foyer, promenade, Coda café bar) and consider how their work would connect with audiences in these spaces.   

We will invite shortlisted artists to meet with us at the Music Hall to talk through their proposal.  

The successful artist will be selected by a panel of members from the Creative Engagement Team at Aberdeen Performing Arts.     

This opportunity welcomes applications from artists with previous experience delivering commissions and/or exhibitions, particularly those based in the North-East of Scotland. We are especially interested in hearing from those who are currently under-represented in the arts, specifically artists of the global majority* or artists who identify as disabled.  

To Apply:  

Please combine your application into a PDF to include:    

• a cover letter, telling us about you, your artistic practice, your proposal for this project and a clear and concise outline of how you would plan and deliver the work. Please try to keep this to 750 words max.    
• a CV/portfolio summary of recent and relevant experience.      
• Send your application to hanna.louise@aberdeenperformingarts.com by Friday 7th July 
  

Aberdeen Performing Arts is an independent arts charity. We run three venues across the city centre– His Majesty’s Theatre, the Music Hall and the Lemon Tree, staging 800+ shows a year that attract audiences of 400,000+ and we run three festivals, Granite Noir book festival, True North music festival and Light the Blue, our youth arts festival.    

Our venues are places where people, groups, artists and organisations gather to be inspired, share stories, learn and enjoy the arts. We present, produce and commission diverse and distinctive arts and cultural programmes, support talent and help develop professional practice. We work with communities, particularly those with fewer opportunities, using the arts to improve people’s lives. We are strongly committed to using the arts to explore equality, inclusion, and the climate conversation and have introduced new Creative Change Maker roles within our organisation to develop our work in this area.      

*Global Majority is a collective term that refers to those who make-up 80% of the world’s population. By ‘global majority’ we refer to those of the following backgrounds; African or Caribbean heritage, South Asian heritage, East Asian heritage, West Asian heritage, Central Asian heritage, South East Asian heritage, East Asian and South East Asian heritage, Middle East and North African heritage, and those who have experienced racism. By the term ‘those who have experience racism’, we are referring to individuals who have experience discrimination based on the colour of their skin, race and/or their culture 

Photo by Katie Moum on Unsplash