Let Artists Be Artists 2023

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APPLICATION DEADLINE: 11.59pm, Monday 18 September 2023

Congratulations on your successful Stage 1 Expression of Interest! Welcome to Stage 2.

UPDATE: 22 August 2023

Info session recording

We held an online info session on 21 August, trying to answer people’s questions about this stage of the application process.

You can now watch the recording of the whole session on YouTube:

Frequently Asked Questions

We’ve also written out answers to some of the questions we’re being asked most frequently.

Read the Stage 2 FAQs here:

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Introduction

We received more than 300 applications altogether – well done for making it this far.

At the end of Stage 2, we’ll invite EIGHT people to a final Stage 3 interview.

How Stage 2 works

This is the detailed application stage. Stage 2 is your opportunity to convince us why you’re the exact right match for this scheme.

To progress your application, there are 7 questions we’d like you to answer. Your answers don’t need to be incredibly long or complex – but they should be compelling.

We hope these questions give you space to make a strong case to us. They’re not designed to catch you out or trip anyone up – it’s not about narrowing it down by who makes mistakes.

We want to genuinely understand what you’re like, what your passions are and how well they line up with how this opportunity is intended to work over the next 2.5 years.

So: we will be as clear as we possibly can about what we’re looking for and how you can make the strongest case.

Read the criteria

You can read the exact questions and criteria that the people doing the shortlisting will be looking at – so hopefully there’s nothing secret or surprising about the process.

Join the info session

You can also join an online info session where you can ask any questions you might have (don’t worry, we’ll keep it all anonymous so you don’t have to bump into other applicants!)

This will be recorded and shared with all applicants afterwards so don’t worry if you can’t make the exact date and time.

Complete the application form

Then, when you’re ready, just fill out the Stage 2 application form. You can edit your answers right up to the deadline in case you want to change anything.

Thanks so much for all the effort you’re putting into this process. We’re trying to keep the workload to a minimum but we know it’s still a lot and we’re really grateful to have so many brilliant applicants.

Look forward to hearing everything you’ve got to tell us!

Info session

An opportunity to chat to us and ask any questions you might have

Online, via Zoom
Monday 21 August 2023, 12pm-1pm

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The questions

These are the 7 questions you need to answer for your Stage 2 application. We know you’ve already said a bit about some of these things in your initial Expression of Interest – but your application may be read by different shortlisters this time, and you may want to change, expand on or refine your answer.

1. How would you describe the work you create?
   What sort of art forms and styles do you use?
2. What would you say is important to your practice as an artist?
   What are your values and how do you like to work?
3. How would you approach this role?
   You can include any ideas for what you would want to do and how you would want to work in this time. Please include information on how you want to base your work in Gloucester. You don’t have to have a full, detailed plan for the 2.5 years: this is about ideas and possibilities.
4. Where are you based currently and how do you propose to spend time collaborating with communities in Gloucester?
   Please remember to consider the environmental impact of your answer, too! (For instance, if it will involve a lot of travel)
5. Please tell us about your current work
   If you have specific projects or funding already confirmed, please tell us a bit about this and how you see it fitting in with the role.
6. Would you prefer the full time or part time role?
   Please let us know whether you’re more interested in the full time or part time role, or either – with a bit of explanation as to why. There’s not a ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ answer! It’s just so that we know which role you’re most interested in.
7. How would this role allow you to make a step change in your own work or practice? What difference will it make to you?
   Please tell us a bit about the change you think it might make to your practice or career.

What shortlisters will be looking for

AKA ‘how to make the strongest possible application’. Here’s an exact copy of the info we’re sending to the shortlisters – so you can see precisely how we’ll be trying to weigh up all the applications, to decide which are the best, most fitting ones to put through.

We suggest that you compare your answers with these points and check that you’re really happy with the case you’ve made before submitting your application.

If it’s useful to know, the very best responses we get tend to do 3 things:

1. address ALL the points below
2. address those points really CLEARLY (don’t expect people to read between the lines. Hit us over the head with how YOU ARE A PERFECT MATCH!)
3. address each point with real authenticity and verve and passion. We’re much more interested in whether you genuinely connect with this way of working than if you can show 100 ways you’ve done it successfully already

Info for shortlisters

The purpose of shortlisting is to understand each artist better, what they create, how they work and what they want to do and then find the best fit with this particular project. It’s not about getting people to change their work or plans to fit the process – it’s about finding the artists where this is the right thing for them, at the right time for them.

For each question, please consider the following things:

1. How would you describe the work you create?
   We’re looking for people who make exciting, innovative, remarkable contemporary performance – using forms that can fit with the sort of live events and experiences that we know how to support well.
   • does this work excite you?
   • does this artist’s work demonstrate potential for collaboration and/or community engagement?
   • does this artist’s work fit with the sort of live events and experiences that Strike A Light know how to support well?
   • does this artist demonstrate that they have something to say and/or are underheard and under-represented in the industry?
2. What is important to your practice as an artist
   It’s really key to us that the WAY the selected artists work is a good fit with the approaches we value: created in collaboration with communities, breaking down barriers to access, exciting to ‘non-arts-attenders’…
   • does this artist’s work demonstrate potential for collaboration and/or community engagement?
   • does this artist’s work fit with the sort of live events and experiences that Strike A Light know how to support well?
   • does this artist demonstrate that they have something to say and/or are underheard and under-represented in the industry?
3. How would you approach this role?
   We want to know that the artist has thought about this opportunity in particular – that they have a vision or a sense of how their work could fit with our ethos, activity and what we’re hoping to see happen in Gloucester. So
   • does this artist demonstrate that they’ve thought clearly about this opportunity specifically – do they have plausible ways to make their work viable in Gloucester?
   • can Strike A Light support this effectively?
   • are you excited by these possibilities?
   • do these plans present potential for collaboration or community engagement in Gloucester?
   • do you feel the artist could confidently self-direct this work?
4. Where are you based currently and how do you propose to spend time collaborating with communities in Gloucester?
   The artist doesn’t have to live or be based in Gloucester – but this opportunity is for artists who are excited about working with communities in Gloucester and want to focus some of their work here.
   • do this artist’s plans/approach demonstrate viable potential for collaboration and/or community engagement in Gloucester?
   • does this artist’s work fit with the sort of live events and experiences that Strike A Light know how to support well?
   • does this artist demonstrate that they’ve thought clearly about this opportunity specifically – do they have plausible ways to make their work viable in Gloucester?
5. Please tell us about your current work
   It’s useful for us to have a sense of how this opportunity fits with the artist’s current situation, career stage and plans.
   • do their current plans support the aim of 2.5 years of self-directed creative work for an artist to explore collaboration and working with communities in Gloucester?
6. Would you prefer the full time or part time role?
   • This question is not used for shortlisting – it’s just for information.
7. How would this role allow you to make a step change in your own work or practice? What difference will it make to you?
   Part of the idea of this scheme is to shift the way the industry works – so we’re interested in the change it might make to each applicant’s work, process and career.
   • does this artist demonstrate that this opportunity will allow them to do things that wouldn’t otherwise be possible, and/or make a change to their own practice that could be part of a wider precedent/change?
   • does this artist demonstrate that they have something to say and/or are underheard and under-represented in the industry?
8. Three examples of work
   • does this work excite you?
   • does this artist’s work fit with the sort of live events and experiences that Strike A Light know how to support well?
   • does this artist’s work demonstrate potential for collaboration and/or community engagement?
   • do these examples back up the artist’s responses to question 1?

Apply now

Complete the Stage 2 application form and submit it before the deadline: 11.59pm, Monday 18 September 2023.