engage is the UK's leading professional organisation supporting gallery education and promoting access to the visual arts through professional development, projects, research, dissemination and advocacy. We aim to develop innovative practice in gallery education, supporting the cultural sector and encouraging all sections of the community to benefit from visual art galleries.

INTERPRETATIONS GALLERY-BASED INTERPRETATION METHODS

"Examining the potential of interpretation methods to develop new and existing audiences for contemporary visual art."

Call for Project Proposals

engage Scotland, with funding from Scottish Arts Council’s Audience Development and Equalities departments, is delighted to invite proposals for an ambitious and challenging initiative entitled, “INTERPRETATIONS”. The aim of the project is to investigate the question, “How can we use interpretation to increase access to contemporary art, and to address perceived barriers?”

Up to five gallery-based projects will be selected from the proposals submitted. This is an exciting opportunity for organisations, of any size and location in Scotland, involved in the presentation of contemporary visual art to shape a piece of national research from gallery-based interpretation projects. Potential themes may include

• Interactivity (& People)
• Space
• Language

INTERPRETATIONS is designed to address the following aims:

• to provide opportunities for gallery staff to look creatively at methods of gallery-based interpretation and to experiment with new approaches to address barriers to access
• to promote and develop good practice and innovation in interpretation methods for contemporary art through five action research case-studies
• to articulate a model/s of interpretation practice that could be adopted in a variety of gallery contexts using common characteristics and themes identified across the case-studies
• to further embed principles of diversity/equality into gallery interpretation practice through attention to equality in the selection, implementation and evaluation process of the selected projects
• to develop research capacity within the area of gallery interpretation and audience development for contemporary art through a formal research framework

Successful projects will benefit from:

• Grant of £5750 to support each participating venue with project costs
• Staff development opportunities in action research methods through dedicated training days
• Support networking of peers engaged in similar projects through planned network events
• Dissemination of the gallery-based projects through
• engage Scotland’s national conference (planned September 2008)
• engage UK’s events as appropriate
• project webpages within engage website
• an INTERPRETATIONS publication

Application Process

Stage One
Submission deadline: 12 noon, Monday 9th July 2007
Outline proposal (200 words max) describing

• the project idea
• how this project supports the project aims
• what the anticipated outputs and outcomes might be

Proposals (with full contact details) should be submitted as an email attachment (Word document) to m.michael@gsa.ac.uk  no later than 12 noon, Monday 9th July 2007.

The selection committee will then provide feedback and invite up to ten proposals to further develop their project ideas into Stage Two submissions. Stage Two proposals notified by 13th July 2007.

Stage Two
Submission deadline: Friday 3rd August 2007
Detailed proposals addressing specific areas of project management, timeframes & budgets; personnel; aims & outcomes; implementation & evaluation strategies; dissemination plans. A Stage Two application form will be provided.

Stage Three
Up to five proposals will be selected to form the core of INTERPRETATIONS.
Successful proposals will be notified at the end of August 2007.

Eligibility

Membership of engage Scotland is not a criterion for submission but successful projects would be expected to be/become members.

Galleries/Museums/Venues from any location in Scotland who exhibit a programme of contemporary art are eligible to apply. The selection committee will consider the spread of gallery contexts (local authority / artist-led / independent / university) and locations (city / suburban / rural / remote etc) represented in the successful proposals.

Joint applications will be considered (eg from an artist and a gallery, or a hub of venues) but the lead applicant must be a gallery/museum/venue where contemporary art is exhibited and the project must be located in the physical context of the gallery.

Guidance Notes

Background Information
The development of INTERPRETATIONS has been informed by the findings of an initial engage Scotland scoping project undertaken by Dr Heather Lynch, “Mapping Interpretation Practices in Contemporary Art”. The report can be downloaded from www.engagescotland.org.uk and highlights potential barriers to developing intellectual access to contemporary art. INTERPRETATIONS is interested in developing interpretation practices in relation to the following three themes:
• Interactivity (& People)
• Space
• Language

Audience Development
There are many exciting projects and research studies going on across the whole of the United Kingdom that focus of various aspects of gallery interpretation and audience development. INTERPRETATIONS is concerned with gallery-based projects that focus on methods and strategies of interpretation appropriate to a generic audience. Within this best practice the issues of diversity and equality will also be clearly addressed. Applicants are advised that projects directed to a particular target audience must demonstrate how the findings of that project could be applicable to the widest possible audience (appropriate to the location of the gallery).

The selection committee will look favourably upon those proposals that are crossdisciplinary involving a partnership approach between curators / interpretation staff / front of house staff / education staff and artists. We are particularly interested in proposals that use artists, not necessarily exhibiting artist(s), in the development and delivery of interpretation methods.

However, proposals that are aimed at audiences from the formal education sector are unlikely to be funded. Equally, outreach proposals would not meet the key criterion of being based within the gallery.

Timings
Projects should be planned to take place between October 2007 and May 2008 (including evaluation).
A series of Training and Networking Events are planned to commence September 2007. All successful projects must be represented at each of these events.

Costs
Stage Two proposals should be realistic about costs and should plan for artists’ fees and travel costs, artists’ materials, access costs, refreshments, and documentation etc (as appropriate to individual proposals). However, galleries are encouraged to locate other sources of funding in order to support more ambitious proposals.
Details of this should be provided in the Stage Two application.

Selection Committee
The selection committee will be drawn from the INTERPRETATIONS Advisory Group who share a range of expertise across the fields of contemporary art, interpretation & audience development, curatorial practice and research.

Further Information: Sarah Yearsley engage Scotland Coordinator scotland@engage.org.uk Maureen K Michael Researcher m.michael@gsa.ac.uk