At Potton Hall, Blythburgh Rd, Westleton, Suffolk IP17 3EF
27 May – 26 June 2022
Introduction
Sculpture in the Valley 2022 (SitV 2022) is the flagship event of Waveney & Blyth Arts’ (W&BA) annual ‘Celebrate’ programme, which uses the arts to connect people to their time and place in the coastal areas, market towns and rural hinterland of the Waveney and Blyth river valleys. Our multi-arts programme offers a lens through which to experience the physical and cultural environment, and in particular to explore what it is that attracts people to a region that is steeped in history, and embraces modernity. For this Call-Out, we are seeking 3-dimensional works that respond in ways that reach and engage with new and wide audiences.
Theme for 2022
Each year, there is a theme. This year’s theme – Between Two Worlds – asks that artists and makers create new work, (or work that has not appeared in the trail before). Artists may submit proposals for site-specific works, newly created pieces and existing work suitable for this overall theme.
Please consider your response carefully.
Between Two Worlds is an opportunity to consider ideas around concepts of duality, which feature heavily in contemporary thought and experience. There is ample scope to respond from a number of starting points in 3D form; figurative, abstract or conceptual. Below are just a few examples to get the creative juices flowing:
- Climate Change / Sustainable Climate
- Settled / Migrant
- Insider / Outsider
- Covid / post-Covid
- Analogue / Digital
- Land / Water
- Earth / Sky
- Yin / Yang
About Curation
This year we are experimenting with the formation of a curatorial team consisting of 3 local artists each of whom has had a very different journey, and therefore perspective, on what constitutes ‘art’. In particular their focus will be on how each submission relates to this year’s theme, and by its relationship with other installations and within different environmental settings.
Grace Adam:
Grace is a practising artist and a Senior Lecturer at Chelsea College of Art & Design. She is co-creator and co-host of The Art Channel which creates short film reviews of major contemporary exhibitions; Paula Rego at Tate being the latest.
Grace trained as a painter, and went on to complete her M.A. in Sculpture and Installation at Chelsea College of Art & Design., and was Fellow at the college for a year. Her lecturing and education work includes The Royal Academy of Arts, The Whitechapel Gallery, The Serpentine Gallery, The Courtauld Institute, The National Portrait Gallery, Frieze and Tate.
In her own practice, she works across drawing, painting, sculpture and installation. She is particularly interested in our environments; how we build, negotiate and use them. We invest objects with meaning, and work references the objects we own, the everyday, the ways we understand landscapes, notions of what can be beautiful and where. Grace is interested in exploring the possibilities for celebrating, questioning and animating the places and spaces we use; in noticing. She exhibits regularly and has been Artist in Residence at St Giles in the Fields, Covent Garden, The Museum of Domestic Architecture, The Whitechapel Gallery, HMP Prison Gartree, and Banff Centre for the Arts.
Simon Raven:
Simon is a self-taught ‘naive’ arts practitioner who, over more than 50 years, has repurposed the detritus of everyday life into objéts d’art using everything from redundant stone and rusted iron to driftwood and plastic flotsam. He is particularly fascinated by the way in which one object often evokes resonances of another, and how, in the process of recreation, the resulting outcome is re-animated within its new context. Simon has helped to run all of our previous sculpture trails following attendance at a course in curation led by Sarah Cannell.
Cindy Lee Wright:
Cindy has exhibited in several post lockdown sculpture trails and has seen at first hand the power of art to inspire, liberate and even just entertain those struggling with the events of the last couple of years. As a result, she is eager to support the management and curatorial team of Sculpture in The Valley. There is a huge appetite and urgent need for creative visual art, and trails like these are an exciting way of bringing together artists, sculptors, crafts people and technicians to create a great event.
About Potton Hall
The areas of the 10 acre site which will be used for SitV 2022 includes a wild-flower meadow, groves of mature trees, an orchard, meditation garden, an artificial waterfall feature and a long horseshoe of formal pergolas featuring mature climbing plant archways. The Hall is set in a hidden valley with views looking out towards heathland and woods as well as sheep grazing in nearby fields.
Commission, Sales & Expenses
New Incentive for 2022 – This year we are experimenting with an additional incentive for exhibiting artists. For the first time we are giving our exhibitors a 10% collective share of box office income. The more visitors we attract, the greater will be the pay-back to exhibiting artists from the ‘collective pot’, irrespective of whether or not you make any individual sales! As an arts and artists’ organisation we want to be clearer about serving the interests of our creative membership. So enjoy!!
Artists taking part in the SitV 2022 will hopefully sell their work, but it must stay in-situ for the duration of the event. There will be a box office & small marquee shop area to handle payments. Artists will receive 70% the sale price with the remaining 30% commission going to the organisers – W&BA.
Any sales made during the event will be paid out to artists by BACS (minus the W&BA commission) between 10th and 31st July 2022.
Application Guidelines & How To Apply
You do not have to be an existing member of Waveney and Blyth Arts to apply but on selection you will be expected to pay a non-returnable fee of £20 (free if you are a current W&BA member) made online through our secure system – see below following the application template. Your application fee covers a full year‘s membership of W&BA. Membership benefits can be found here: https://waveneyandblytharts.com/product/yearly-membership/
If you are selected as an exhibiting artist, you will be required to commit to at least one full day’s invigilation during the 31days of the event. This is non-negotiable as we rely on a huge amount of volunteer work behind the scenes to put on such events. An important aspect of the Trail experience is for visitors to meet and talk to the artists.
Public Liability Insurance
Artists will be expected to have current insurance of up to £5m cover for the duration of the installation, event and take down.
NB. Subscription to the Artist’s Newsletter is one way of obtaining the necessary cover for a minimal fee. You might like to check this out if you have not previously carried such insurance.
Event timeline
Monday 21 Feb – Submissions close at 5pm (please use the online form on the W&BA website)
Monday 28 Feb – SitV Applicants informed as to whether or not they have been successful
Sunday 27 March – All successful applicants are asked to attend our ‘On-Site’ Day if at all possible to select location sites for artworks jointly with the curators + SitV reception training# (#only if new to SitV reception duties). While artist preferences are important, the final decision rests with the curators who need to take into account the opportunity to site similar works – or works that ‘speak’ to each other – together.
Monday 5 May – Deadline for statements, images and information for press and for inclusion in the SitV Guide – a format for this will be provided on or before the 27 March
Sunday 22 – Tuesday 24 May – On-site installation of works + Press/Media open invites
Thursday 26 – May 6-8pm – Private View – artists and others by invitation only
Friday 27 May to Sunday 26 June – SitV open to the public from 10am to 4pm daily
Monday 27 to Saturday 2 July – Take Down and site clearance
APPLICATIONS
Please complete and return the Application Template below if you wish to take part in SitV 2022. Please contact Simon Raven on 01502 478794 if you would like to discuss your proposal or have any other queries prior to completing the application template.
Please submit one PDF 1 MB max, document titled with the artists name with
1. up to 3 images of previous work (if not readily available on your website)
2. up to 3 sketches/plans/drawings/photographs of your proposed piece
to info@waveneyandblytharts.com
We look forward to hearing from you!