*** PLEASE READ THE GUIDANCE DOCUMENT BEFORE BEGINNING YOUR APPLICATION ***

Are you a creative practitioner interested in local ecologies and our relationship to nature within the urban environment as part of your creative practice?

The Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) and Bow Arts Trust are seeking applications for two Artist Fellowships based at Bow Arts’ Royal Albert Wharf site, situated in the heart of the Docklands in East London. The appointed Fellows will work closely with V&A Research Institute (VARI), the National Art Library (NAL) and Archives teams, as well as with V&A East, taking the starting point of histories and practices of making, manufacturing, and materials in the area of Newham, which borders the east bank of the River Lea and encompasses the historic Royal Docklands.

We are particularly interested in practitioners who examine local ecologies and our relationship to nature within the urban environment. We are looking for artists, designers, or makers with a socially engaged practice or practitioners who consider community engagement and participation to be a central part of their creative process. The two Fellowships will be rooted in the local context with the aim of engaging our local communities as part of the pre-opening, outreach programme for V&A East, the V&A’s new project in Stratford, London. V&A East will be at once locally rooted and globally relevant. These site-specific Artist Fellowships embody this ethos and are integral to our pre-opening community engagement programme that operates as a test site for exploring new and innovative modes of museum engagement for the 21st century.

In addition, the work undertaken during the Fellowships will form an important part of Bow Arts’ ongoing project Common Distributions, a co-creation exploration with local communities at Royal Albert Wharf to build a pavilion in Pump House Square for summer 2024.

The V&A is the world’s leading museum of art, design and performance. We enrich people’s lives by promoting the practice of design and increasing knowledge, understanding and enjoyment of the designed world. As the first museum in the world to establish a dedicated research department, the V&A Research Institute (VARI) plays a leading role in binding together the fields of art, design and

performance; conservation and collections management; and object-led, museum-based learning through a broad variety of research activities.

Fellowship dates: 2 x 3-month Fellowships running from mid-September – mid-December 2023 and January – March 2024

Fellowship Stipend (to include accommodation cost and transport): £10,000 per Fellowship

Production budget: depending on project and proposal (max. £2,500 per Fellowship)

THEME: MATERIALS & LOCAL ECOLOGIES IN NEWHAM

The appointed practitioners (x2) will:

· Work in the Bow Arts’ space at Royal Albert Wharf for 3 months which is an empty commercial unit looking onto Pump House Square;

· Collaborate with V&A, Bow Arts and T – AA colleagues to creatively investigate the local ecologies and materials, manufacture and making histories and practices in Newham, east London;

· Devise and deliver creative, participatory activity as an integral aspect of their work;

· Work with V&A East and VARI teams to explore and understand how the Museum can continue to create and facilitate useful spaces and platforms for creative practitioners to engage with the V&A, each other and our communities;

Please download the attached Open Call document for full details about the Artist Fellowships and application guidance, including specific points to address in your application.

Closing date: 6 August 2023, 23:59 BST

Interviews: Week c/o 21 August 2023