A group of young Islanders are offering a £5,000 fee for an artist (or artists) to help create a place-changing artwork that will be showcased in The Bay area of Sandown and Lake this autumn.
The Sandown and Lake Youth Forum, supported by Community Action IOW youth workers, has joined The Island Collection and the Isle of Wight CEP’s Supporting Young Minds project to create artwork for the area in which they live or go to school.
Their Bay project is 1 of up to 4 planned for the Island, all of which aim to support young people’s mental wellbeing by increasing physical activity and engagement with the Isle of Wight Biosphere through creativity.
Peta Rainford of Independent Arts, says:
“The first call-out represents a really exciting opportunity for artists based in the Isle of Wight and Solent region to create a place-based artwork in the Bay, and I really hope we have lots of artists, with experience of working with young people, apply,”
Janet Owen, executive director of The Island Collection said:
“The project is all about giving young people a voice. They have written the brief. They will choose the artists they eventually work with.
Julian Wadsworth MBE, Community Resilience Coordinator for the Bay area & Youth Intervention Development Officer, said:
“When we launched the Youth Forum, we wanted to fairly represent young people within local communities and to provide opportunities for young people to have a voice, share their ideas and to influence. This creative project will contribute to that journey by focusing on young people’s opinions and feelings across several themes through the medium of art and creativity. The young people are really looking forward to being involved in the process to commission artist/s and work with them closely throughout the project.”
Artists working in any medium are invited to apply, but the Forum is particularly interested in film and moving image, photography, text-based work and animation. The deadline for applications is 12:00 on Friday 26th August, with delivery of the project throughout September and October 2022.
