Freelance Artist Educator/Facilitator for Place to Place

Salary range: £6,000-£8,550 Closing date: 25 April 2025

Closing Date: 9am Friday 25th April 2025

Key Dates:

May: Research, development and planning linking the theme, schools, area and Museum (planning, writing and adapting to each setting) (4 days)

June and July: session delivery and production (15 days)

July and August: evaluation (1 day)

Location: March and Wisbech in the Cambridgeshire Fens

Fee and expenses: The total fee for artist, or artists, is £6,000 (£300 day rate). A production and materials budget of up to £2,000 is available and a travel budget of up to £550 can be claimed in addition to this fee.

About the project

Place to Place is a pilot collaboration between the Fitzwilliam Museum, two secondary schools and one school that provides education for young people with a wide range of learning difficulties in the Cambridgeshire Fenland towns of March and Wisbech.

Place to Place aims to engage the young people in these schools to the theme of migration in the past, present and future. Together we want to deliver an inspirational creative activity that explores how our communities and places are shaped by migration socially, geographically, and emotionally.

In developing and delivering this project, we will collectively explore how themes of place, movement and belonging connect the local - Fenland - to the global, locating these connections creatively across subjects in schools and with the Fitzwilliam Museum’s collections and exhibitions.

The theme of ‘migration’ is deliberately open, and we are open to all proposals as to how to deliver this brief in alignment with the Museum’s mission, to use art, objects, spaces and experiences to inspire reflection, connection and creativity.

In this pilot you will work with the whole year group of year 7s in two of the secondary schools (around nine form intake); these will likely be a structured around working with class size groups for one or two lessons. There will be the possibility of setting tasks to be completed outside of the time you are on site. In the other secondary school for young people with learning difficulties, you will need to consider how to work effectively with a range of abilities.

The output of the workshops should be produced as a work to be displayed in each of the schools.

Alongside delivery in this academic year, you will play a key role in helping to define how we approach real-world and globally relevant themes with schools in the future, contributing towards our ambition to develop school partnerships that support the development of future skills for teachers and young people across the region.

What you will do:

• You will be joining a project team to develop and deliver this pilot activity. You will be responsible for:
• Spending time researching the theme and developing ideas in close collaboration with the Fitzwilliam Museum and the partner schools.
• Ensure that the proposed idea is deliverable within the time, resources and spaces available in the schools.
• Lead the delivery of a series of workshops / sessions in each school, involving the pupils in generating ideas, content and/or elements or the final artwork.
• Lead production of three final artworks which clearly demonstrate the input from participants, to be installed, one in each school. This could be an artwork for permanent or temporary display. It could be a singular work that is reproduced for each school; a distinctive work for each school or an artwork that is in dialogue with the other schools.
• Ensure teachers are equipped to contribute and develop pedagogical practice as a result of participation in this work, alongside staff at the Museum.
• Contribute to the evaluation of the pilot and development of the model for future delivery.
• Contribute to marketing the project, by working with the Museum and partners to provide copy and media interviews.
• You will work to our Expectations of Service detailed below.

Who should apply?

• We welcome applications from an artist or group of artists who have a socially engaged practice.
• You will ideally have experience of working in partnership with museums, galleries, heritage sites or place-based collaborations.
• You will ideally have experience of working in partnership with schools and with students and teachers.
• You will be able to demonstrate relevant experience of working in SEND settings or how you would support this crucial element of the activity.
• You will most likely work in a visual-art, craft or digital practice however we are interested to hear from other approaches. Please remember that the output of the activity is intended to be displayed within school settings, mostly likely as 2D wall mounted work(s).
• You will have knowledge of or interest in the theme of migration and journeys and/or of the Fenland area.
• You will be able to design an accessible and inclusive workshop concept in collaboration with multiple stakeholders.
• We are particularly interested in applications from artists who have connections to the local to the area, and/or those who have lived experience related to migration.
• You will need access to a car and have the ability to travel independently to the towns of March and Wisbech.
• You must be willing to be subject to an enhanced DBS check.

How we will work with you:

• You will work closely with Rosanna Evans, Learning Associate: Young People and Schools who will be the Project Manager and your key point of contact.
• The wider Fitzwilliam Museum team will work together with you through the ideation and development of this pilot. We have deep expertise of using collections and the past to inspire learning and engagement and can utilise this in support you to develop your ideas.
• The Fitzwilliam Museum will lead the development of the project and framework for future delivery.
• Although you will have direct contact with the schools, the Fitzwilliam Team will manage the relationships with the school partnerships and can support logistical arrangements.
• School partners will provide background regarding the school, the pupils you will be working with and connections to curriculum and communities.
• An evaluator will work on the project helping us to refine the model and the future of this approach.

Our ambitions for the young participants:

Whilst we recognise that this is a short pilot, we will be ambitious in aiming to develop the following capabilities in young people:

• Critical thinking and meaning making: in this activity we hope to draw out cross-curricula connections (art, history, OHSE etc) enabling pupils.
• Creativity: in this activity we expect that this will be delivered through the practice of developing ideas and the process of making.
• Communication: through engaging in conversation about issues and ideas stimulated by the theme.
• Collaboration: within schools through creation of a shared enterprise (towards a single collaborative artwork or exhibition).
• Agency: developing self-confidence through a sense of achievement; and the provision of choice through the process.
• The school partners aim to support participants to be inspired and ambitious about their future. They see benefit from providing access to professionals working in creative and cultural sectors and from the Museum. Collectively, we aim to create a ‘wow moment’.

Expectations of services:

• The Fitzwilliam Museum expects everyone working with us to adhere to our Safeguarding and Health and Safety policies and procedures, as well as our Code of Conduct.
• We expect all sessions to be carried out in a safe and inclusive way that prioritizes the participants’ safety and ability to take part in the activity.
• We expect everyone delivering an activity to be present before the session starts to set up as required, and to remain during the whole duration of the session. If a facilitator needs to leave the session for an urgent reason, a museum member of staff must be notified before leaving.
• We expect everyone who has delivered an activity to leave spaces in good shape for other groups and visitors to continue to use them.
• The Fitzwilliam Museum will endeavour to support everyone working with us as deemed necessary to the best of our ability.
• All materials used must be free of harmful or toxic substances, be allergen free, and importantly they must be washable or possible to disinfect them, to keep them clean for the large number of people interacting with them.
• Any materials purchased or otherwise obtained for the project must align with our Planet Friendly Purchasing Guidelines.
• No liquids, inks, crayons, or glitter to be used in the galleries.

How to apply for this opportunity:

Please answer the following questions.

1. Tell us about what appeals to you about this brief (up to 300 words or up to 2-minutes video)

2. Please tell us about you and your work, highlighting relevant past projects and activities that are relevant to this brief. We particularly want to know about your work with young people in secondary and SEND schools; your approach to co-creation and how you have worked with museums, heritage or on place specific activities. (up to 400 words or up to 4 minute of video)

3. Your thoughts on how you would approach delivering the activity. We are not expecting to hear fully formed ideas at this stage, simply provide some initial descriptions for your approach and the potential activities you would apply and what the produced work might be (up to 300 words up to 2 minutes of video)

4. Please tell us anything further about you or your ideas that you think we should know at this stage. (200 words up to 2 minutes of video)

5. With your application please confirm that you would be willing to undertake an enhanced DBS check and that you have the ability to travel to March and Wisbech Cambridgeshire.

6. Please submit a CV (if you have one) and three links to previous projects that you believe demonstrate practice relevant to this brief.

Interviews

We will be carrying out interviews for this role on Thursday 8th May, which will be held online using Teams.

Should you have any questions about the project, please contact Rosanna Evans, rfe22@cam.ac.uk

More About Us

The Fitzwilliam Museum is widely considered the world’s outstanding university art collection. We care for works of art and material culture from Europe, Egypt and Asia of exceptional international importance, works that connect people across cultures and time. Founded in 1816 ‘for the increase of learning’, the Fitzwilliam has long been both a great public cultural asset and an extraordinary scholarly resource – local, regional, national and global.

Our vision

The Fitzwilliam Museum: opening up the past to transform our futures.

Our mission

We work with art, objects, spaces and experiences to inspire reflection, connection and creativity.

The work of the Fitzwilliam Museum’s learning team is underpinned by four pillars: Creating Opportunity; Society & Identity; Health & Wellbeing and Environment and our expectation is that these concepts will have relevance to this work.