Wakefield Museums and Castles: Artist Commission - Wakefield Museum Learning Zone Display

Introduction

Wakefield Council Museum Service has been successful in securing funding from Arts Council England for a project to commission an artist or cultural organisation to create an open display in Wakefield Museum’s Learning Zone. This display will contain objects from the museums extensive handling collection and will be co-curated in partnership with people who have not visited Wakefield Museum before.

We are looking for an artist to use our handling collections as inspiration to create a beautifully engaging display that incorporates the potential for visitors to interact with the display. Combining artistic practice, be it sculpture or multi-media or painting, with museum objects to wow, thrill and surprise our visitors. Take this opportunity to amaze us with ideas that allow people to engage with museum collections in a different way.

Wakefield Council’s museum handling collection

Wakefield Council holds over 110,000 historic objects, which tell the stories of the people, places, events and activities of the residents of and visitors to the Wakefield District, from prehistoric times to the present day. Part of the collection (around 4000 objects) is designated as a ‘handling collection’. This has objects as diverse as a lion’s skull, a Victorian mouse trap, wind-up toys, household equipment and roman oil lamps.

Co-curation

The successful project will work to co-curate the display with people who have not visited Wakefield Museum before, bearing in mind the diverse nature of the Wakefield District and those people who may face barriers accessing the museum. It will be the responsibility of the selected artists / organisation to identify, recruit and liaise with this group of people.

Learning Zone

The Learning Zone is situated in Wakefield Library, in Wakefield One. It is used by the Museums learning team to deliver learning sessions to a wide range of audiences. The display will be placed by the glass wall linking the Learning Zone to the library so needs to be viewable from both sides, acting as a partial screen, and accessed from within the Learning Zone. We expect the installation to project into the room no more than about 0.5m. An image of the space can be provided upon request.

Display Area: Learning Zone Windows

Project timetable: Display to open by the end of June 2017.

Project budget: up to £2500

This budget covers fee and delivery of the following:

Object selection (in conjunction with museum staff)
The formation and construction of a visually interesting display using the selected museum objects (to include display materials)
Recruitment of and sessions working with your selected group
Graphic interpretation explaining the installation (text writing, proof reading, image selection and sourcing, graphic design and production)
Text and image selection for marketing material (marketing material will be created by Wakefield Council)
Regular updates of progress
Installation of display, staff briefing.

Object selection, text content, graphic design and display techniques to be signed off by Wakefield Council museum team.

Please note that in the interest of conservation you cannot:

Dismantle objects without agreement
Use non-conservation grade adhesives and fixings

How to apply:

If you are interested in submitting a proposal please provide the following information:

An outline of your idea, including what group of people you will be working with and how you will recruit them to the project.
A breakdown of budget (including a clear indication of your fee).
A delivery timeline, featuring key dates for object selection, text writing, graphic design, production and installation.
An explanation as to how you would ensure the safe and appropriate display of the museum objects.