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Attenborough Arts Centre, “Unexpected Tales” commission.
Who are Attenborough Arts Centre?
The University of Leicester’s Attenborough Arts Centre prides itself on being accessible and inclusive. We want everyone to feel welcome and get involved in what we do.
With over 20 years of experience, our programme offers performance, courses and workshops, contemporary art exhibitions, activities for children and families, and more. We are proud to champion emerging talent and disability-led artists, supporting those starting their careers. Our outstanding access and inclusive work has been recognised, through multiple awards and grants from Arts Council England, BBC Children in Need, Leicester Shire Promotions and Paul Hamlyn Foundation. Our audience has grown to 86,000 people over the last year.
Our brand new gallery is dedicated to the exhibition of contemporary British and international art. Doubling the size of our existing building, the new £1.5 million capital project makes Attenborough Arts Centre the largest contemporary art gallery in Leicester and one of the largest in the East Midlands area. The new gallery has been funded by Arts Council England, University of Leicester and over 1,000 public donations.
Attenborough Arts Centre’s work is inspired by Richard Attenborough, a world leading filmmaker, actor and lifelong patron
of the arts. Richard Attenborough was an inspirational talent and pioneering thinker, our founding patron and a hands-on man who helped establishing our arts centre. Handing the patronage to his son Michael, we continue to follow Richard’s vision and continue his legacy striving to include everyone in great art, culture and learning.
What is The Unexpected Tales?
Between October and December 2020 Attenborough Arts Centre launched its first programme of Unexpected Tales. These were a mix of new ideas, script readings, fully realised shorts, theatre, comedy, dance etc. In differing Coronavirus tier systems we were able to in part provide physical audiences, and throughout provide to digital audiences, completing every recording from Attenborough Arts Centre. Some work was as short as 10-15 minutes, some work was around a full hour. We are currently in our Spring programme which features much more from home performances. This summer we will host a number of commissions from an artist or company coming to Attenborough Arts Centre to tell us and our audiences a story. An audience of no more than 30 will be present (from a student bubble, or if allowed and agreed a public audience), with the story either recorded with the live audience or before one enters (according to preference), for a wider audience to enjoy at home.
There is no overarching theme to these stories, so feel free to think as creatively as you wish. Please do however let us know if you would prefer to visit Attenborough Arts Centre to tell a story on a specific theme or date. We will have the Mik Godley exhibition Considering Silesia in our galleries Summer 2021, so there would also be the opportunity to tell your story within that if you wished. More information on this particular artist can be found here (https://mikgodley.wordpress.com/) and more on the exhibition at the bottom of this application form.
Who is the commission for? This is Attenborough Art Centre’s second call out for a performing arts commission. As an inclusive arts centre, offering opportunities for all, Attenborough Arts Centre will be happy to receive applications from all professional individual artists or theatre companies, regardless of experience. However, we are more likely to offer select work which includes some of the following criteria:
A contemporary piece of ‘storytelling’. We would welcome simplified retellings of previous shows you have developed. We would welcome all forms of storytelling in its broadest interpretation, be that dance, theatre, comedy, a lecture etc.
A show which is accessible and appropriate for a wide audience.
A show which will be engaging to a student audience. A show which will embrace digital outputs to include
audiences. A show that might actively seek to engage its audience as
active participants.
What does the commission include from us? £500.00 commission fee Rehearsal / writing space if available A performance on a Friday between April and July to a small
audience of no more than 30 recorded or streamed for digital output.
Technical support either at AAC or from home. Editing your recording from our marketing team.
A copy of your recording on request. Support from the Attenborough team. We will increase the fee by a small amount to provide
equipment should we require to record your unexpected tale from home.
What we would require from you? A short piece of storytelling. We have found that 10-15
minutes works well for digital audiences, and 30+ minutes works well for physical audience. We are not tied to this as a condition of application.
An Instagram takeover on the scheduled stream date. A script to support our marketing and technical team to edit
your recording. Any simple lighting cues and sound effects in advance.
How to apply? Please fill in the form below and return to [email protected]. We also accept video applications, please send links to these to [email protected]. The deadline for commission applications is 5pm on Friday 19 March 2021.
Key Dates: The deadline for commission applications is 5pm on Friday 19 March 2021.
Selection will take place w/c Monday 22 March.
Performance dates are Fridays between April and July. We are flexible about from home recordings. The streams will be released the following Thursday to allow time for editing. If you have not worked with Attenborough Arts Centre before we will send you a new supplier form as soon as we confirm the programme. It is vital you provide this information quickly.We will contact you for images to promote your performance with us and make arrangements for an Instagram takeover approximately 4 weeks before your performance.We will contact you for technical requirements approximately three weeks before your performance.
Equal OpportunitiesAttenborough Arts Centre has a 20 year track record in promoting work by disabled artists and those working in inclusive practice but
is committed to enabling access for all to improve equity and representation. We are committed to ensuring all applicants are considered fairly based on their performance. This ensures we recruit the best talent for the programme from the widest possible talent pool, irrespective of background, socio-economic status, gender, ethnicity, disability status, sexual orientation or other protected characteristics. We are actively encouraging applications from artists/companies of all backgrounds.
Application formCompany / Individual name:
Contact number:
Email:
Please tell us about the story you would like to tell for this commission.
Please tell us about your access requirements, if any as we want to help where we can to actively remove barriers to access.
Please let us know if you have any preference for performing dates, or any that you cannot make.
@AttenboroughAC/Attenborougharts
