Artist experienced in working with older people for an exciting pilot project based

in a residential care home setting – Autumn / Winter 2012/13

 City Arts Nottingham aims to develop and inspire arts participation that brings people together, stimulates change and creates stronger, healthier communities.

This aim stems from our belief that participation in the arts can enrich and transform people’s lives and we have been pioneering innovative and creative approaches for over 30 years.

 

City Arts, in partnership with Nottinghamshire County Council, is seeking to employ an experienced artist to deliver an exciting pilot project exploring creative interventions and approaches to improve the wellbeing of older people in residential care.

Aim:

The overall aim of the project is to explore creative and sustainable approaches to enhancing the wellbeing of older people in residential care in Nottinghamshire.

 

Project Objectives:

In order to achieve this we are delivering a range of activities to make this happen:

·        To organise an artist’s residency in partnership with a Nottinghamshire care home for older people.

·        To offer activity coordinators from a number of older people’s care homes one-to-one support with an artist to plan, deliver and evaluate a creative intervention in their workplace. 

·        To provide advice and guidance to a young creative apprentice who will help support the project.

·        To organise two training events for activity coordinators to offer ideas, information and prompt discussion.

·        To report and disseminate findings from the project, offering recommendations to support the development of this work across the County.

Artists Brief:

We are now seeking to employ an experienced artist to help us with aspects of the project’s delivery.

·        The artist should have experience and skills to work with staff, residents and their

families to explore together how creative ideas can enhance the care environment.

·        To use their initiative to lead the planning and delivery of creative interventions within the residential home in response to the research with staff, residents and their families. 

·        To work creatively within the constraints of a modest materials budget to develop ideas that are sustainable and can be easily replicated by other residential care environments.

·        To provide one-to-one support for four activity coordinators from different care homes to plan and deliver a creative intervention in each.

·        To offer advice and guidance to the young apprentice who will help support the project.

·        To support collecting feedback from all involved in the project and offer recommendations to feed into the project’s evaluation and support the sustainability of this work.

·        To support an event in Spring 2013 to help disseminate findings from the project.

 Hours/Days:

The project offers the artist 14 – 20 days work:

·        8-day residency - the artist must be able to work professionally and flexibly to ensure that the 8 days of the residency are used effectively and creatively in agreement with City Arts and the host residential care home.

·        2 days for planning and evaluation. City Arts will be responsible for writing and producing the report, but the artist will play a key role in collecting and communicating feedback to support the evaluation.

·        6 -12 days for one-to-one meetings with activity coordinators from up to 8 selected residential care homes (3 x ½ day sessions per home) to support the planning and evaluation of a creative intervention in each setting. (We envisage supporting between 4 and 8 homes but are currently awaiting a response from a call out before we decide how many to include in the project).

 Fees:

A fee of £1700.00 is available for the residency work plus £170 per day for the creative mentoring work with activity coordinators.

This amount covers all the costs of implementation and delivery including: artist’s fees, travel and expenses. The fee is inclusive of VAT (if relevant).

The artist will also have access to a budget of £250.00 to cover all material costs and resources. We are interested exploring how modestly funded creative ideas can help change and improve the care environment. It’s envisaged that the project will introduce activity coordinators to local Scrap Stores and other low cost options to source materials to ensure the experiences are replicable and sustainable.

Requirements:

 City Arts will request an enhanced CRB check on the successful artist(s) as this activity is classified as ‘regulated’ under the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006.  You will also be expected to have current and appropriate levels of public liability insurance cover.

 How to apply

Please send

·        A statement of interest including relevant experience and a brief explanation of how you would approach the residency (no more than 2 pages of A4).

·        Your current CV with contact details and two referees

Applications should be sent by email to jowheeler@city-arts.org.uk

Deadline: 5pm Friday 14th September 2012