International Institute of Community Commissioned Art

Open position for art commissioners at IICCA

International Institute of Community Commissioned Art (IICCA) co-founded by BETHLEN THEATER (HU), Art Transparent (PL), and New Theater Institute of Latvia (LV) is looking for associates to join its board of art commissioners. 

The position requires a 2-year long part time commitment (2023-2025) to an international collaboration which consists of selecting and awarding artists to create site specific, locally relevant artworks. IICCA will provide the necessary training and budget as well as professional guidance throughout the process. 

The aim of the program is to democratize the art funding and commissioning practices in local municipalities and other organizations in charge of culture, as well as empower local communities to support their cultural needs.

IICCA is seeking three local community members to undertake professional training, international travel and community building exercises in order to commission an artwork that will benefit Brochów district (Wrocław). 

Art Commissioners will engage in an art commissioning process starting with the joint training in September 2023 and conclude in a project conference in early 2025. Over this period art commissioners will collectively choose one artist to receive a commission up to €10,000. This program is ideal for culture lovers, art champions and/or passionate community members who wish to contribute to their local community through an art commissioning process. 

Successful candidates will:

  • attend a 4-day training in Budapest (Hungary) between September 30-October 1, 2023. These travels, accommodation and subsistence costs will be covered by the program. 
  • co-curate an open call for artists, inviting artists to imagine a new work for Brochów (Wrocław)
  • select three artists to receive a €1,000-stipend to prepare a project proposal for the Brochów (Wrocław)
  • select one artist among the preselected three to receive an art commission up to €10,000 commission (this includes artist fee, production costs, etc.) 
  • participate in discussions about culture, art and commissioning in their local community. These could be public consultations and informal sharings of the process. 
  • support and advise the selected artist as they build their commissioned projects for the local area. 
  • participate in a series of commissioning artist selection panels, art salons, as well as the culminating world premieres of the projects during the duration of the project.
  • Earn a stipend up to €2,500 over the period of one year and a half starting in the moment they are selected and ending in the closing conference in Riga in early 2025.
  • Participate in the following international travels:
    • Budapest (Hungary), September 28-October 1, 2023: Art Commissioners Joint Training
    • Wroclaw (Poland), June 2024: Survival Art Review visit
    • Riga (Latvia), early 2025: Closing Conference
  • 2,500€ as an honorarium for the whole duration of the project
  • Three international travels (Flights, Accommodation & Food covered by the program) 
  • Training to learn new skills in art commissioning and mentorship throughout the process
  • New network of colleagues, communities and FRIENDS
  • Participation in a the democratization of art commissioning in the local community 
  • New artwork made for you community 
  • New Perspectives, job experience and skills set
  • Wanting to put art in your neighborhood and be part of the process
  • Individuals born after political transformation (1989 Poland and Hungary; 1991 Latvia)
  • Over 18 years old at the time of deadline
  • Engagement in the community of Brochów, Wrocław (live, work or/and love)
  • Working knowledge of English (speaking and writing) as the communication with international partners will be in English
  • Passion for culture (no formal education or working experience required)
  • Willing and able to work with different people
  • Available for meeting, training, traveling and working according to the calendar listed below and future program dates yet to be decided
  • Organisation skills
  • Knowledge of the community and the neighborhood
  • Ambition to impact your community and neighborhood
  • Passion for the project
  • Willingness to bring your own perspective
  • Demonstrated commitment for the duration of the project
  • Working knowledge of English will be verified during interviews with selected applicants

Application Deadline: June 2023

Selection announcement: July 2023

Art Commissioners Joint Training in Budapest: September 28 – October 1, 2023

Open Call for Artists Launch: By the End of 2023

Art Commissioning Process: Throughout 2024

Visit to Survival Festival in Poland: June 2024

Closing Conference: Early 2025

With pleasure, we would like to inform you that the following candidates have been selected to participate in the project “Democratising art commissioning by involving local communities” (DemArt) as art commissioners:

Arleta Gosławska – photographer, intermedial artist. Lives and creates in Wrocław. She is a member of MIGAWKA group in Przedmieście Oławskie. Arleta graduated from the University of Fine Arts in Poznań, specializing in Intermedia Photography. Her art is rooted in everyday life, characterized by conceptualism and minimalism, it delves into themes related to humanity, nature and the essence of existence. Arleta’s creations often take physical, tangible form such as books, objects or installations. Observing and meditating on the mundane and everyday life serve as the primary inspiration for her projects. As a result, her art pays tribute to the significance of the seemingly trivial aspects of life.

Malgorzata (Gosza) Tutko – vocalist, song-writer, music teacher, doula. On a daily basis, she conducts music classes for infants and toddlers according to Professor E.E. Gordon’s method, leads ensembles and vocal workshops for adults, prepares women for childbirth during the “Creative Birth” classes, works with women as a doula and sings at various concerts and artistic events. Privately, she is a mother of two sons and a wife.

 

Hubert Sulima  was born in Bielawa, Poland in 1989 into a working-class family. Sulima works in the fields of theater, performance, dramaturgy and writing. In 2017, he graduated from the National Academy of Theatre Arts in Krakow. He co-created a number of performances, which were praised for their search for new theatrical qualities, languages and topics, as well as for their “extraordinary sensitivity towards characters, actors and viewers”. In 2020 and 2021 he was nominated (together with director Jędrzej Piaskowski) for one of the most important Polish art awards “Paszport Polityki”. In 2020 Sulima was awarded the scholarship by Nowy Teatr in Warsaw “for outstandingly talented young artists”.

Since 2022 he is a lecturer at the National Academy of Theatre Arts in Wroclaw, where he lives.

 

Thank you for all the submissions, and congratulations to the chosen ones!

Organized by the International Institute of Community-Commissioned Art and funded by Creative Europe in collaboration with Art Transparent, New Theatre Institute of Latvia, Bethlen Theater.

Project “Democratising art commissioning by involving local communities” (DemArt) co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.

 

The task entitled “DemArt Lower Silesia – Ordering Art by the Community in the Local Public Space” is co-financed by the Self-Government of Lower Silesian Voivodeship.

/fot. M. Kujda