This call is now closed. Thank you to all who applied.

The Bristol City Fellowships programme is looking for a creative to work alongside the City Fellows

Call closes: 5pm 27th March 2020

See PDF version of this call for circulation: Call for Creative City Fellow.pdf

Background

Bristol City Fellowships is an innovative new programme of fellowship opportunities for practitioners and academics working alongside communities at the margins. The overarching aim of the programme is to contribute to changing cultures of collaboration in city governance and to work towards a radical rethinking of the inclusion of the expertise of communities at the margins in city decision making. The Bristol City Fellowships are a collaboration between the University of Bristol, Bristol City Office and the Social Justice Project.

Aims of the City Fellowship programme

• To influence systems and process change at city level in order to include the expertise of communities at the margins in city decision making;
• To facilitate and support actions to develop as a result of our collaborative work;
• To understand and develop inclusive processes of governance at city scale.

The Creative City Fellow

Funding is available from the Brigstow Institute to enable a Creative City Fellow to work on the programme (for the equivalent of one day per week for 12 months) to develop and implement work that connects with the aims of the City Fellowship programme as outlined above. In particular to consider creative processes and methods that might support communities at the margins to be involved in city decision making.

We are particularly interested in creatives/artists with existing connections, experiences and methodologies that might enhance the work of the other city fellows. The Creative City Fellow would be expected to attend regular monthly meetings with the other fellows, becoming a member of the City Fellows cohort.

We would hope the creative would be able to work alongside the City Fellows and communities to:

• Introduce the Fellows to new creative methodologies, and possibly processes of documentation that might support the fellows work with communities at the margins;
• use the opportunity to learn and develop their own practice within the context of coproduced research, and work alongside the other fellows
• Some additional funding will be available to cover costs related to the production of creative work alongside the fellows and the communities involved.

Why apply?

The City Fellows programme encourages applications from creatives interested in collaborative working, shifting cultures of decision making in the city and finding ways of thinking and doing beyond current practices.

The programme will provide:

• A collaborative working environment with civil society practitioner/activists, organisations in the public and private sector and academics;
• An opportunity to bring to the fore expertise and knowledge embedded in communities at the margins in the city;
• Space and time for collaborative thinking, doing and reflection, involving experimentation and taking risks;
• Funding of £10,000 p.a. to enable the Fellow to spend the equivalent of one day per week on the programme, for a period of 12 months;
• Access to University of Bristol resources – desk space, IT resources, library access and access to other academic databases;
• Access to City Office and Social Justice project hot desking space;
• Links with academic and professional services staff at University of Bristol

Submissions

Please send the following to city-fellowships-uob@bristol.ac.uk by 5pm, 27th  March 2020

• An expression of interest in no more than 2 pages of A4 outlining: Existing connections, experiences and methodologies that you would bring to the City Fellowships programme;
• A relevant CV of no more than 2 pages;
• An example of work that demonstrates relevant experience, presented in an appropriate form.

Contact city-fellowships-uob@bristol.ac.uk for questions and informal conversations about the creative city fellowship.

Selection

The submissions will be shortlisted by the cohort of existing City Fellows. Shortlisting will be based on:

• Demonstration of an understanding of methods of working that enable listening to and critically engaging with communities at the margins;
• Demonstration of a commitment to and engagement with participatory/socially engaged arts practice;
• Demonstration of engagement with the aims of the City Fellowship programme;
• Clarity of the specific contribution the artist would provide to the City Fellows cohort;
• Creative ability to undertake the work.

Shortlisted applicants will be invited to interview with a panel made up of City Fellows and the director of the Brigstow Institute, Tim Cole.

We are committed to equality of opportunity and welcome applications from individuals regardless of their gender, age, ethnicity, sexuality, race or disability status.