Tyne & Wear Archives seeking a freelance artist in residence

Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums is a regional museum, art gallery and archives service managing nine museums and galleries across Tyneside and the Archives for Tyne and Wear. Our mission is to welcome and connect people to the past, present and future of the North East through stories, shared spaces and experiences. 

Based in Discovery Museum in the heart of Newcastle, Tyne & Wear Archives is home to thousands of documents, housed on 12 miles of shelving, relating to the five local districts of Newcastle, Sunderland, Gateshead, North Tyneside and South Tyneside. The documents range from the 12th to 21st centuries and include building plans, school, hospital and church records as well as business records, especially those of important local industries such as shipbuilding, engineering and mining.

Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums was one of 10 regional hubs for the Unlocking Our Sound Heritage (UOSH) Project between 2018 and 2022. This was a national partnership, funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and led by the British Library, to save almost half a million rare and unique recordings that are threatened by physical degradation or stored on formats that can no longer be played. 

Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums was the North East and Yorkshire Hub and digitally preserved over 5,000 recordings from the North East including oral histories, local radio programmes, popular and folk songs, classical music, recordings of events and talks, and adverts.

We are continuing to work with the British Library who are funding four regional Share Our Sounds residencies across the UK.

This brief can also be downloaded for offline use: Tyne & Wear Archives ‘Share Our Sounds’ Artist in Residence Freelance Brief (PDF, 385 KB)

We are seeking to appoint a freelance creative practitioner to work with us from May – September 2024 as an artist in residence exploring the sound archives, developing their creative practice and engaging new audiences with sound archives.

The programme is open to all creative practitioners including, but not limited to artists, filmmakers, writers and musicians. The aim of the residency is for the artist to develop their experience of working with sound archives and to engage audiences. The residency will focus on the UOSH recordings held by Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums. These feature oral histories, local radio programmes, popular and folk songs, classical music, recordings of events and talks, and adverts.

We are seeking an artist who is familiar with working with communities. We’d like the artist to both develop their creative practice and, through events, activities or workshops use their practice to encourage new adult audiences to explore these fascinating collections. 

We particularly welcome proposals that engage with communities underrepresented in our collections and enable a wide range of people to explore the sound heritage of the North East. The residency is open to all artistic or creative mediums and we’d expect the resident to produce at least one blog post towards the end of the project reflecting on the experience.

Tyne & Wear Archives staff will provide onsite access at the Discovery Museum to the sound archives, meeting rooms for any workshops or activities (dependent on availability) and will provide archive professional support as required including collections access and sound copyright.

By 5pm on Wednesday 20 March 2024.

The deadline for submission of proposals is 5pm on Wednesday 20 March 2024. Shortlisted applicants will be invited to interview either in person or online on Wednesday 27 March.

Quotation assessment

There is a fixed price (inclusive of VAT) for this work, including all time, travel to Discovery Museum and subsistence.

Budget

£8,000 including VAT and travel to Discovery Museum. 

This work is offered as a freelance contract. The budget will be paid in three payments as follows:

• Start of residency: £3,500 (early May)
• Mid point of the residency: £3,500 (July)
• Completion of the residency: £1,000 (September)

This equates to approximately 25 days of work with Tyne & Wear Archives and two visits to the British Library (total 27 days plus travel time to London).

In addition, there is a £2,000 budget for project expenses including material for workshops and to cover the costs of travel and accommodation in London for the two British Library visits. We aim to ensure the accessibility of this programme for disabled people and others with specific access requirements. Please contact us to discuss any additional costs associated with achieving this objective.

Based on the information we have provided and the outputs stipulated in this brief, explain how you would propose to undertake the residency and outline the programme of delivery you propose:

Please provide details on:

• Your experience of work relevant to this residency including with sound recordings, archives and community engagement
• How working with sound archives will enable you to develop your own creative practice and the types of creative outputs you would create
• Your proposal to work with communities and audiences to engage adult audiences with sound archives. This should include an indication of which communities and audiences you would particularly wish to target, and how you feel that might be achieved.

Please submit your proposal of no more than two sides of A4, by email to: lizzy.baker@twmuseums.org.uk 

Additional images may be included and/or web links to previous work where appropriate. Proposals should include the details of two references and must be received by 5pm on Wednesday 20 March 2024.

If you have any questions or would like an informal discussion about this work, please contact: lizzy.baker@twmuseums.org.uk to arrange a call.

This brief can also be downloaded for offline use: Tyne & Wear Archives ‘Share Our Sounds’ Artist in Residence Freelance Brief (PDF, 385 KB)