Commissions for professional creatives & companies

We are offering six small commissions for professional creatives and companies working in any artform to develop innovative ideas that reach and engage Somerset’s residents. We want to support projects that will positively contribute our Arts Engagement & Outreach Strategy. 

We want to invest in local professional creatives & companies at any stage of their career, working across all forms of creative art whether that’s art & craft, circus, dance, film, music, opera, photography, poetry, puppetry, sculpture, song, storytelling, theatre, or something else. These commissions will contribute to Somerset’s cultural resilience, making art & creativity accessible to Somerset’s residents, where they live. 

Applications for these commissions open on 1 November, closing at 5pm on 30 November. 

Introduction
The Octagon Theatre & Westlands Entertainment Venue is offering six small commissions for professional independent creatives and companies at any stage of their career to develop original work that can reach people living in Somerset.

What are we looking for?
We are looking to support innovative ideas that reach and engage Somerset residents as participants, audiences and artists.

We want to support projects that will positively contribute to at least one of the following contextual factors in Somerset:

• Rurality & Rural Isolation
• Deprivation
• Poor Mental Health
• Ageing Population

These contextual factors are embedded in our Arts Engagement & Outreach Strategy. For more information on these significant challenges and to read our strategy click here.

We want to support all forms of creative art whether that’s art & craft, circus, dance, film, music, opera, photography, poetry, puppetry, sculpture, song, storytelling, theatre, or another art form.

Why are we doing this?
We want to invest in local professional creatives & companies.
We want to nurture ideas that help develop Somerset’s cultural resilience.
We want to make art & culture accessible to Somerset’s residents, where they live.

Commission details
We will be awarding six commissions, each of which will receive:

• A £500 grant.
• Creative development space at Westlands Entertainment Venue, where needed, subject to availability.
• Help finding a platform for sharing the project with the public.
• Bespoke project support.  This may include project development, project management, creative, marketing, fundraising, technical, programming consultation etc, according to the needs of the work.

Who’s it for?
This commission is for emerging or established professional independent creatives and companies with a connection to Somerset.

Eligibility
To be eligible for this opportunity, applicants must be:

• Aged 18+.
• An early-career or established professional independent creative or company working in circus, dance, film, music, opera, painting, photography, poetry, puppetry, sculpture, song, storytelling, theatre, or another art form.
• Able to demonstrate a connection to Somerset.

Your proposal
You may have the outline of an idea, you may be at the early stages of your creative process, or you may have already started making something. Either way we anticipate supporting projects at different stages of development. 

We’d like to know who you are, what your idea is, how it celebrates Somerset and the difference it will make to Somerset’s residents.  We’ll ask questions around:

• About you: How do you describe your creative practice?  If you are an independent creative, who else do you collaborate with? If you are a company, who is involved? What is your connection to Somerset?
• Your idea: How it is original & innovative? How does it celebrate Somerset? How will it help build Somerset’s cultural resilience? How would you describe the form of the creative work you want to make? Who will benefit from the project? Do you have a specific community in mind?  Where and how will they engage with the project?  How will you reach them? Which of Somerset’s contextual factors – as outlined in our Arts Engagement & Outreach Strategy – does your idea look to benefit? This could be all of them, some of them, or just one of them. 
• Delivering the project: How much will the project cost? We will ask you to share an outline budget and project timeline with us. Will you need creative development space at Westlands Entertainment Venue? What sort of bespoke project support do you think you might need? What does a successful project look like for you? How will you measure it?

At the end of the project we’ll ask you to complete a monitoring & evaluation form, so that you can let us know how you got on, how many people engaged with the project and of any challenges you may have encountered along the way.

Please note, we are unable to support completed projects or finished work that has been seen by an audience.

Application process, dates and how we’ll make our decisions:

To apply, please complete our online application form: Celebrating Somerset: Creative Commissions 2023-24.

We will open applications on 1 November 2023
Deadline for applications is 30 November 2023
We’ll announce our selected commissions by 8 December 2023.

All eligible applications will be reviewed by our Arts Engagement & Outreach team before a panel meeting to select the projects we can support. This panel will consist of The Octagon & Westlands Venues Manger, Arts Engagement & Outreach Manager and a member of our NPO Board.

What To Do Next
If you’d like to discuss your project before you apply, or for any other information about this commission, contact Arts Engagement & Outreach Officer, Nick White via email nick.white@somerset.gov.uk or call 01935 462514.

To apply, please complete our online application form: Celebrating Somerset: Creative Commissions 2023-24.