Open Call: Light Art – Legacy Partners

Image credit: 103 Colmore Row

We are currently working on the development of a new City Curator Project, Birmingham Light Festival. You can read more about the idea for this project here.

As part of the development of this idea we want to ensure a legacy for the city beyond the annual event itself. Our ambition is to progressively illuminate the city at night, all-year-round. To achieve this, each year we are aiming to commission a minimum of one permanent light installation that will remain in place year-round. For 2025 we are looking to commission 3 smaller works. Our experience of this process will help inform our legacy approach moving forward.

We are now seeking partnerships with land owners who share our interest in light art and our ambition to illuminate Birmingham year-round. We are particularly interested in hearing from:

• Individual Organisations: Land owners or building owners who are have both a suitable space for a permanent, outdoor, installation and who are passionate about contributing to the cultural and visual landscape of Birmingham through permanent light installations. 

• Collaborative Partnerships: Land owners working in partnership with one of our City Centre BID partners. This collaborative approach is our preference.

We have secured up to £50,000 of capital funding through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund. This funding will be used to commission up to 3 permanent light installations which will contribute to our long-term vision of lighting up Birmingham at night. This funding is intended to cover the costs of commissioning, producing, and installing the artworks. Each award will be up to £16,667.

Eligibility

To be considered for this opportunity, partners must meet the following criteria:

Commitment to the Vision: 

Share our vision for Birmingham Light Festival and its associated legacy work, noting the key principles that guide our work: https://colmorebusinessdistrict.com/2024/03/city-curator-blog-light-is-coming/.

Location: 

Own or have significant influence over an outdoor space in Birmingham’s city-centre where a permanent light installation can be located. 

If you are not the land owner your application must be in partnership with the land owner. The location you have in mind must have:

• Suitable infrastructure to support a permanent light installation with particular consideration to access to electricity & structural stability.
• It must be outdoors
• It must be free to access and open to all

Collaboration on Design: 

Be able and willing to work in close collaboration with the Birmingham Light Festival team on the design of the installation to ensure the successful integration into the thematics of the broader festival and city environment. 

Permissions & Insurance: 

Be prepared to resource and obtain any required legal permissions such as planning permission or land use agreements. 

Take full ownership of the installation and its associated liabilities, putting in place suitable risk management strategies and insurance, as required.

Long-Term Engagement: 

Commit to funding power and maintenance of the light installation for a minimum of 3 years with intention to extend. 

Be prepared to support our evaluation of the legacy project through evaluating the impact of your commission

Application Process

Applicants are invited to reach out to Alex, City Curator, and find out a little more about Birmingham Light Festival before submitting.

We invite all interested parties to apply through submission of a proposal, no more than 2 A4 pages long. This should include:

• Why you want to be part of Birmingham Light Festival’s first legacy project
• Identified location (address, google maps pin and images of space as additional attachments)
• How you / your partnership meet each one of of the 5 identified eligibility criteria
• Letter of support from land owner (if applying in collaboration)
• Outline of the in-kind support you are able to commit to the project, including staff time for project management
• Beyond the required resourcing outlined under long term engagement, details of the match funding you are able to commit to the project, if any

Applications must be submitted to: alex.nicholson-evans@colmorebid.co.uk by midnight on Sunday 29 September 2024.

What happens if you are successful and we enter into a partnership?

Once partners have been selected, we will work with you to commission a creative delivery partner via the following process.

Open Call:

We will deliver an open call for creatives with an interest in showcasing their work in Birmingham Light Festival through the permanent installation legacy programme. Light artists, designers and architects will be invited to submit new ideas (or potentially, existing works) to a mutually agreed brief.

Selection Process:

We will collectively review submissions and we will then invite mutually agreed shortlisted applicants to discuss their proposals in more detail at interview.

We will then mutually agree which creative to appoint for the commission.

Delivery:

Once the above selection process is complete, we will hand over the reigns to you but we will remain involved in the creative process to ensure the commission aligns with the broader festival vision and operational plans. 

It is a requirement of the funding that the Birmingham Light Festival team are engaged throughout the design process and jointly sign off the final design with the land owner.

From here on in you will need to independently project manage the delivery of the commission with light touch reporting at key mutually agreed milestones.

Awarding of funds:

£10,000 will be made available at the point of artwork sign off.

The remaining £6,667 will be made available upon successful completion by 10 February (latest) in readiness for switch on W/O 17 February.

Timeline:

The timeline for this project is challenging so we are looking for partners who are agile and able to commit to the below timeline:

Legacy Partners Call Out Opens: 10 September

Legacy Partners Call Out Closes: 29 September 

Follow Up Meetings: 2 October

Partner Contracts Issued: 4 October

Creative Open Call begins: 7 October

Application Deadline: 20 October

Shortlisting with Partners: 22 October

Shortlisting Announcement: 24 October

Interviews: 31 October

Creatives Contracted by Partners: 4 November

Latest date for final design sign off: 2 December

Hard deadline for completion on install: 10 February 2025

Switch on: W/O 17 February (precise dates TBC)