Call out for a Poet/Story Workshop Leader
Histories at Hobmoor, Mercurial Arts
A Heritage Lottery Funded Project
Deadline for expressions of interest: 18 May 2017 5PM
Mercurial Arts Charity, and it sister trading company Mercurial Dance is a small arts organisation with substantial experience producing and delivering arts projects for young people. With a specialism in Dance and Digital art, our work has grown from performance project to developing & delivering whole school arts curricula. We have an extremely good reputation among the organizations we work with, and have a long standing relationship with Hobmoor Primary School, based in Yardley, Birmingham.
Histories at Hobmoor
Mercurial Arts has received funding from The Heritage Lottery to deliver Histories at Hobmoor. Histories at Hobmoor will enable adults and children in Yardley, an area of low engagement in heritage and arts in Birmingham, to learn about their heritage and share their stories of moving to, and living in this area.
Children from Oasis Academy Hobmoor will learn to interview and record memories and oral histories of their family members, local councillors, teachers and members of the public fostering a love of heritage and deeper community connections. The project will take place over a series of after-school sessions; at the local library for the public; and activities enabling Hobmoor Community Centre to open in the holidays for the first time. We will invite local partner organisations to present information (e.g. old maps & objects) to inspire participants.
The role of the Poet/Poetry Workshop Leader will help the participants to create their own poetic responses to the oral histories (& heritage) they collect, enabling a deeper emotional understanding of their identity and the journeys people have taken. The Poet will also write in response to the histories and stories we collect. We will publish the collected Oral Histories, family memories and creative responses via an Augmented Reality (AR) App – a walking tour of the area sharing heritage, 3D scanned objects & photographs linked to location; e-book and on a new website, where people can comment and add their own stories.
Time frame
18 May 2017 5PM Deadline for expressions of interest
26 May 2017 Interview and appointment
w/c 12 June Launch Event and project starts
21, 22, 23 June 2017 Taster Sessions at Oasis Academy Hobmoor (3 days)
July –Sept 2017 Regular Children’s Groups sessions (10 x sessions)
24 -28 July Children’s holiday intensive (5 days)
August Heritage Days @ local library 3 x Saturdays (dates tbc)
28 October Project Celebration
Mid Dec Finish of Project
Who we are looking for
We are looking for an established Poet/Poetry Workshop Leader who has an interest in heritage and expressing stories of those from local families. We are looking for an artist that has great interpersonal skills and can work with the community at Oasis Academy Hobmoor to communicate their personal stories. The artist will have experience and is comfortable in working and engaging children ages 8-11. Training will be given in Oral History collection, however experience of heritage projects will be an advantage.
For a large population of the school children and their families, English isn’t their first language, therefore being able to speak another language (preferably Urdu) would be an advantage.
We actively welcome applications from artists of South Asian Heritage.
All artists will require references and an up to date enhanced DBS check.
Fee
£4000 inclusive of VAT (if applicable) and expenses offered on a self-employed/freelance basis.
We anticipate this to be a minimum of 18 days @ £220 per day (inc VAT if applicable)
How to apply
Please send us an up to date CV along with an expression of interest (no more that 1 side of A4) explaining why you would be suitable to deliver the project with Mercurial Arts. Please contact us here for how to submit.
Deadline for applications: 18 May 2017 5PM