Tatton Park Biennial | Invitation to local artists
Artists from Cheshire and the North West are invited to take part in Open Competitions as part of Tatton Park Biennial 2010

Next year sees the return of this remarkable contemporary arts event in Tatton’s gardens. The inaugural Biennial, which took place in the summer of 2008, saw nearly 30 artists, performers and writers develop new works for Tatton Park, to considerable critical and public acclaim.  Tatton Park Biennial 2010 will take a site-specific theme of “Framing Identity” that explores our association with place.

For 2010, artists will be commissioned in three ways: by curator’s appointment, peer recommendation from leading organisations and via two Open Competitions, engaging artists from Cheshire and the North West. 

One competition is open to artists who have recently completed formal training and are either currently living or working in Cheshire or are originally from the county. The second is open to all artists living or working in the North West. Artists are invited to apply by developing their own site-specific proposals, based on the 2010 theme and can apply as individuals or as collaborative groups.   

Selected artists will be awarded a budget of £5,500 to cover fees, materials and expenses.  Most importantly, however, they will be able to participate in the prestigious 2010 Biennial, sharing a high-profile platform with other emerging as well as established national and international artists.

The submissions for the open competitions will be judged by Biennial curators, Danielle Arnaud and Jordan Kaplan from Parabola, Brendan Flanagan, Tatton Park and Visitor Economy Manager and Helen Battersby, Arts, Heritage and Museums Manager, Cheshire East.

Curators, Danielle Arnaud and Jordan Kaplan commented “We are so pleased to be able to offer this opportunity to artists! It is not the easiest option, but it is crucial to our ambition for increasing the scope and reach of the Biennial. Soliciting proposals from artists who are not currently known to us is just one of the ways the Biennial is working as a creative laboratory – positioning itself as a unique event and a new model for participation with contemporary art of the highest calibre”.

Brendan Flanagan, Tatton Park and Visitor Economy Manager said “’Framing Identity’ will explore our relationship with place, whether that be the Egerton family who owned Tatton Park, today’s visitors, or our own identity with place as an individual, community or business. Through the Tatton Park Biennial, Cheshire East Council can extend a unique opportunity to artists from the region.”

Proposals should be submitted via the Spaces Cheshire website

http://www.spacescheshire.com/spacesapp/commissions.aspx

The deadline for submission of applications is midnight Wednesday 30 September 2009. Interviews will be held on Thursday 15 October 2009.

Framing Identity

8 May to 26 September 2010

From 8 May to 26 September 2010, Tatton Park will stage its second Biennial of contemporary art, with up to 20 commissioned works responding to the site and notions of identity that emerge from it. Landscape as a social platform; social divides reflected in landscape; a sense of place in relation to the macro- and immediate vicinity of the Park; the relevance of the boundary wall that encircles its 1,000-acres; people who work at the site and know it intimately and those who live in the very different estates that ring Tatton and are not included among its current visitors are all subjects of enquiry. The opportunity to re-examine the site as a living and evolving subject rather than as an historical keepsake is at the heart of 2010. 

Partners from across the arts and cultural sectors in the Northwest and the UK are working with the Biennial to deliver a programme that will extend the reach of the event to national and international audiences. There will be several commissioning opportunities involving multiple sites and organisations like museums, universities and community groups. 

There are three commissioning schemes: curators’ invitation; peer recommendation and open competition, which will work to develop the artistic scope of the Biennial as it locates itself as a dynamic laboratory for experimentation and exchange. Artists working internationally will be commissioned alongside some of the most innovative emerging artists in Britain, with work taking on a variety of media, from large-scale installation to film, video, book & web-works and performance, with new collaborations throughout.

www.tattonpakbiennial.org

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Tatton Park is managed and financed by Cheshire East Council on behalf of the National Trust.

This impressive historic estate receives in the region of 750,000 visitors every year all of whom come to enjoy its Georgian Mansion, Tudor Old Hall, award winning Gardens and 1930s rare breeds farm.  The 1,000 acre deer park is home to Red and Fallow deer and the estate also boasts speciality shops, adventure playground, restaurant and year-round events programme. 

www.tattonpark.org.uk

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