Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art (GI) has launched two open application funding strands for its next edition, taking place in 2014. The Open Glasgow award is aimed at artists with at least three years professional experience, while the new Open Glasgow Bursary is for final year undergraduate students, masters students and recent graduates. Both awards look to support new work by artists living and working in the city. GI 2014 will be the sixth edition of the biennial, city-wide festival.
Speaking about the Open Glasgow Bursary award, new GI Director Sarah McCrory who joined the team at the end of 2012, said: “The award aims to connect GI more fully with the student population of the city, and to hopefully support one or two young artists who will perhaps have their first solo show during the festival, or use the funds for a project or event.”
The £2,000 award is to support new work and assist in the production of an exhibition, event or project. “It’s not a huge amount of money, but hopefully we can also help with producing too, if that’s what the artist wants,” explained McCrory.
The Open Glasgow award offers a total fund of £14,000 for proposals of ‘ambitious presentations’ from individual artists or collaborative artist groups.
The award funded John Shankie’s GI 2012 project No Meal Is Complete Without Conversation – a collaboration with Andrew Miller comprising a series of lunches held at Shankie’s flat, where visitors were fed in exchange for conversation.
Reflecting on the relationship between GI and the city’s artists, Shankie said: “GI provides both local artists and Scotland’s artistic community with a platform to showcase and consume visual art as part of a festival with a truly inspiring international profile.”
“The award provided us with the opportunity to realise an ephemeral project conceived some months earlier,” he adds. “It was well attended and due to its performative ‘social’ and inclusive nature was the subject of much word of mouth promotion, in addition to the GI marketing, and was subsequently over-subscribed for most of its duration. The outcome has led to a continued and increased interest in both our collaborative potential and individual practices.”
Erica Eyres, an artist who completed her MFA at Glasgow School of Art in 2004 and participated in previous editions of GI, echoes these sentiments. “GI brings together work from local and international artists, but focuses especially on artists based in Glasgow. During the festival, there’s an air of excitement as the city seems to transform. It’s a chance to see new work, and often in venues that have been redone to provide a new and different context.”
For more information and to apply see Jobs.
