Practice: Bradford

Practice: Bradford is divided into two distinct phases, a Research and Development Phase (R&D) from January to July 2025, and a Production Phase from August to mid September 2025.

These dates are guidelines and there is flexibility within this, however artists should be able to commit approximately 15 days over the course of the programme.

Research & Development Phase

(January to July 2025)

This phase involves:

• 4 x bi-monthly group meetings (every 2 months) from January 2025 to July 2025, facilitated by Yorkshire Contemporary. Each meeting will take place over a weekday and will provide opportunities for sharing work and ideas, providing peer feedback, discovering and exploring wider artistic practices, and raising any specific issues or challenges experienced
• A personal development budget of £500 for research and development for things like visits to exhibitions, travel to meet mentors, undertaking research and skill acquisition
• A mentoring program with suitable mentors selected to aid artistic and professional development and network building
• At least three one-to-one half-day sessions with Yorkshire Contemporary’s Curator and Assistant Curator

This phase is expected to take approximately 8 days; 4 days of in-person meetings, 3 days of mentoring and one-to-one sessions, plus one day for administration. For this phase, each artist will receive a fee of £2,400 – equivalent to £300 per day.

Production Phase

(August to mid-September 2025)

From August 2025 there will be a Production Phase which involves working towards an exhibition of all four selected artists in September 2025 in Bradford City Centre, supported by Bradford 2025. For this phase, each artist will receive a £2,000 fee (equivalent to over 6 days at £300 per day) and a £1,000 budget towards production. This Production Phase can build upon existing work, or create new work.

The exhibition will be further supported by the Yorkshire Contemporary curatorial team and Bradford 2025 with technical support and documentation, plus promotional support from all partners.

We are committed to making our opportunities accessible to all and supporting those facing barriers to apply and participate in this programme.

• We have an access fund available to minimise any barriers to participation. Our access funds can cover things like travel and other expenses or any other access provision you may require, such as childcare and other caring costs, language and interpretation costs, digital access, access support workers, or any other access needs.
• We will also work with each selected artist on an access ‘rider’ document in order to outline and address any access needs during the programme.

Please contact bryony.bond@yorkshirecontemporary.org by Friday 29 November 2024 if you want/require any additional support to enable you to make an application, or to answer any questions.

To apply please complete the application form.

In addition to general questions about yourself, the application form will ask you to:

• Upload 3 examples of existing work
• Upload a one-page CV detailing your relevant experience to date
  This doesn’t have to be formally presented, it can be a simple text document listing your experience
• Upload a statement about your practice (no more than 800 words)

When writing your statement, it may be helpful to think about answering some of the following questions if they are relevant to you:

1. What is your work exploring?
2. Can you describe your work and/or describe what an audience experiences when they encounter your work?
3. What medium/s do you work in?
4. What motivates you to make work?
5. What opportunities have you had to develop or show your work to date?
6. What do you want to do next?
7. How do you see your work and your career developing?
8. Do you have an idea of a work you would like to develop during the programme, or existing work you’d like to develop further?
9. Why is this a good time for you to do this programme now?

When writing about your work we encourage you to use accessible language. You will not be assessed on the quality of your writing, nor will you score more highly by using complicated jargon. Please try to be clear and concise.

Stage 1: Applications will be checked to ensure they include all information needed and meet the following eligibility criteria:                                          

• An artist or collective can apply if all members live, work, or make work in Bradford, or have a demonstrable connection to the Bradford District.
• Artists cannot currently be in formal education, such as FE, BA, MA, MFA or PhD. Alternative arts education is acceptable.
• We prioritise those who have not received significant or institutional opportunities in the last five years. This includes national and/or international gallery representation, solo exhibitions in galleries that are not artist-led, artwork/s in gallery or museum collections, individual ACE funding of £15,000 or above, national arts awards or commissioning programmes above £5,000. We appreciate everyone’s situation will be different, so we ask you to consider and expand on this in your statement.
• Confirmation that you are available for an interview on Monday 13 January and to attend the first full-day session on Thursday 30 January.

Stage 2: Each application which meets the eligibility criteria will then be sent to the selection panel to assess and score on the following criteria:

• Strength of artistic practice
  There evidence of a strong direction in the artist’s practice, as evidenced by examples of work and statement demonstrating a coherence and sustained artistic investigation into a particular subject, medium and/or idea.
• Potential for development
  The artist has reached a point where they need external support and mentoring to move forward, as evidenced by CV and statement.
• Potential for exhibition in September 2025
  The artist demonstrates the potential to develop a strong body of work for exhibition as evidenced by examples of work and their statement.
• Likelihood of Practice: Bradford to have a lasting and positive impact on career
  The artist demonstrates that they would be able to maximise on this opportunity at this particular moment in their career, as evidenced by their statement and CV.

Stage 3: Interviews

A shortlist of 6 applications will be agreed by the selection panel and invited to interview in person on Monday 13 January 2025. Shortlisted artists will be notified of the final selection by Wednesday 15 January 2025.