In partnership with Jerwood Arts, FACT is pleased to invite emerging artists, curators, technologists, and cultural activists, in particular those from underrepresented backgrounds, to apply for 1 of 3 paid hybrid residency opportunities in 2022.

DEADLINE: Wednesday 5 January 2022, 23:59 GMT

Information about this opportunity is available in 3 different formats:

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FACT is committed to supporting the next generation of creative talent, and highlighting a broad range of perspectives on digital culture. Now in its second year, the Jerwood Arts / FACT Fellowship will bring 3 more distinct creative voices into the organisation to focus on their practice and professional development. Applications should be from UK-based artists and should broadly respond to our Radical Ancestry programme, which focuses on understandings of ‘belonging’.

Residencies will be hybrid (a mixture of in-person stays in Liverpool and online), and will focus on the development of a new piece of work or research interest, with outcomes presented at FACT in Summer / Autumn 2022. Residency outcomes can either be works-in-progress or final versions of the work and can take the form of installations, events, or a range of other outputs. We invite candidates to experiment within our programme and their own practices, using this opportunity to make connections in Liverpool, exchange with other resident artists, interact with our audiences, and test out ideas and approaches.

Each fellow will receive:

• £4,000 fee

• £3,000 production budget

• Travel, accommodation, and per diems for the final presentations, as well as any other agreed upon visits.

• Alongside this, there will be professional mentoring from the FACT team and our network of collaborators, to assist in the development of not only your idea for a work, but also your practice.

DEADLINE: Wednesday 5 January 2022, 23:59 GMT

FACT’s ongoing focus for 2021 / 2022, Radical Ancestry, is an exploration into ideas of belonging. Over the next 12 months, this programme of exhibitions, projects, residencies and events at FACT will look at how our sense of self is shaped by the histories, geographies, biology and culture we inherit, and question how technology can help us to explore new way of thinking and experimenting with who we are.

Developed over a number of years in collaboration with curators and artists, the Radical Ancestry programme is made up of mostly new projects which reimagine notions of belonging. These artworks challenge categorisations, resist fixed interpretations, and redefine the ways we connect with, and express, our ever-changing identities. Major new commissions -produced across FACT’s Exhibitions and Learning teams- include works by Larry Achiampong & David Blandy, Yarli Allison, Korakrit Arunanondchai, Zinzi Minott, Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley, Larissa Sansour and Soren Lind, Ebun Sodipo and Rae-Yen Song.

The Jerwood Arts / FACT Fellowship will be part of this programme, but conversations with our fellows naturally steer our thematic focus as it develops for the following year. As part of the open call selection process, we will invite our 2022 Curator in Residence, Carrie Chan, to be part of the final panel.

Fellows will take part in a hybrid residency to research and develop their initial proposal. This will involve short stays in Liverpool, with chances to meet the wider team and engage with our artistic network as well as use our physical resources.

During this time, fellows will receive bespoke training, mentoring, crits, and production/research input from the team at FACT, the other fellows, and an invited selection of our wider collaborators consisting of artists, curators and researchers. FACT will work with individual Fellows to ensure those invited not only support the production of any work for FACT, but also the artists’ practice in general. Fellows are able to nominate their own preferred mentors or specialist support, or ask FACT for specific recommendations from our wider network.

Fellows will then present a final or work-in-progress version of the new work at FACT. We would ask fellows to be available to come to FACT for at least 3-5 days for the installation and/or presentation of their work. Fellows will also be contacted at the end of the residency for an evaluation.

• Deadline for applications: Wednesday 5 January 2022 at midnight GMT

• Selection, announcement and follow-up: Complete end of January 2022

• Hybrid Residency: Approx. 10 weeks between February 2022 - July 2022 (with some flexibility)

• Sharing of projects at FACT, Liverpool and/or on FACT’s online channels: Between July - October 2022

• Evaluation: Late 2022

We are flexible around when, and how, time is spent at FACT: the residency is hybrid in consideration of the other commitments fellows may have. However, the opportunity has been designed to give fellows enough resources to have the space to be focused mostly on the development of their proposals, engaging in exchanges with FACT and other artists, giving priority as far as possible to the residency during this period.

• Fee of £4,000 paid directly to the fellow, to cover approximately 40 working days across 20 weeks.

• Production budget (covering both residency and final outcome) of £3,000

• Additional travel expenses available for research visits and final presentations of work, managed by FACT

• If fellows invite other practitioners to develop a work or project, their fees should be paid from the above totals

• Additionally, we have a discretionary budget to address any specific access requirements, to ensure the residency is flexible and it’s outcomes are as inclusive as possible

Candidates should complete this online form by midnight on Wednesday 5 January 2022. If you require any access support for your application, or have any queries, please email us on residency@fact.co.uk or call FACT on 0151 707 4444.

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The form will request the following:

• CV, portfolio, or website / social media link

• Monitoring Information

• A proposal of no more than 750 words in writing, or 4 minutes recording (audio or video will both be accepted). You can also include up to 10 images, links and digital content. The proposal should:
  
  1. Give an overview of your work and how this Fellowship would benefit the development of your practice in relation to digital technologies and platforms.
  
  2. Outline a project you would like to develop during the residency that responds to FACT’s Radical Ancestry programme, indicating how you may use the production budget. Project proposals should be for new works or areas of research rather than completing existing or ongoing projects.

If you require more information to submit a proposal, please do get in touch. You can contact us at residency@fact.co.uk or, by phone on 0151 707 4444.

The Jerwood Arts / FACT Fellowship emerged from our ongoing commitment to nurturing a diverse new generation of artists, film-makers, creative technologists and critical thinkers. We aim to champion artistic, cultural and disruptive uses of new media and technology, and further art’s engagement with scientific knowledge. As a cultural organisation in the process of transforming the way it works, this initiative responds to three key institutional aims:

• To expand FACT’s thinking by developing new ideas and perspectives, broadening the scope of our programme and audiences.

• To provide opportunities for artists, curators and cultural activists from backgrounds which are currently underrepresented or under-supported within the arts sector (including, but not limited to under-represented Global Majority backgrounds, LGBTQ+ identities, gender identities, low socioeconomic backgrounds, those with disabilities and/or caring responsibilities).

• To ground our programme in contemporary arts research and practice, reflecting current discourses and experimenting with new models of working with artists.