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Overview
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Oxford’s Christmas Light Festival is a long running festive event, previously attracting over 100,000 people as audiences and participants across the festival weekend.

‘Undiscovered Oxford’, the 10th annual Christmas Light Festival from 16 to 18 November 2018, presents our streets and buildings in a new light as commissioned artworks and presentations colonise the city for this special weekend. Some of the town’s most iconic buildings open their doors for free festive events while musicians, dancers and choirs appear on stages and in pop-up locations all over the city centre. Exciting light installations illuminate the proceedings as the festival is launched by the ever-popular lantern parade winding its way through the streets with its artist inspired luminous creations.
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Invitation to Artists
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OVADA and Christmas Light Festival would like to commission an artist to design and produce a number of light cube structures containing and showcasing artworks or designs that reflect the festival theme of Undiscovered Oxford.

The commissioned artist(s) will design and make artwork to go inside 5 pre-made acrylic cubes (50cmx50cmx50cm) which will be given to the artists at the start of the project. The fee will need to cover the cost of design, making and all materials (excluding the pre-fabricated cubes). Once created the cubes will be the property of Christmas Light Festival but credit will be attributed to the artist whenever the cubes are displayed in public. The content within the cubes should be a high-quality make suitable for display in public outdoor and indoor spaces and can be designed using any media.

We are looking for an artist(s), collaborative group or company with some experience of creating installations in public spaces to apply to this brief. The artist or company will also have an interest in creating outdoor or site-specific artwork. The cubes should be:

- Illuminated (powered by battery,preferably rechargeable lasting 6hrs).
- Of high quality, to be used year on year if required.
- Durable and suitable for outdoor use.
- Have a consideration for the surrounding environment in which they will be installed.
- Showcase content with interpretations of the theme ‘Undiscovered Oxford.’
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Budget
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Up to £2,500 to include all planning, delivery, travel, materials, fabrication, installation and evaluation. The appointed individual(s) will contracted on a freelance basis and will be responsible for all Tax and National Insurance contributions.
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Submission Requirements
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We are not expecting to receive a proposal for a specific work/design at this stage and instead wish to hear about the process you would undertake in order to reach that point and any initial ideas you may have about the brief/theme, approaches to working with light or the festival in general.

Please submit a proposal no longer than 3 x A4 pages, which must also include the following:

- Your skills and experience relevant to this project with particular reference to the above criteria.
- Information about your current practice.
- Indicative budget breakdown.
- Initial thoughts of how the project might engage with community groups in future years.
- The names and contact details of 2 Referees, with a description of their relationship to you.

You should also attach up to 8 images (max 1MB each) of your work or relevant projects. Alternatively you may provide a web link to photos and videos of your work.
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Selection Process
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The Artist(s) or company will be shortlisted using the following criteria:

- Experience of creating work for public spaces and/or working on outdoor projects.
- Reputation in chosen art form, with a track record of high quality artistic practice.
- Experience of partnership working within and beyond the arts sector.
- Experience of managing budgets and working to deadlines.
- Understanding of the pilot process with ideas on translating this into working with community groups in the future.

Shortlisted artist(s) will be invited to discuss their ideas further at interview with representatives from OVADA and Christmas Light Festival. This will be held w/c 8th October 2018 in Oxford City Centre.

DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS: 5th October 2018 at 12 noon.
- Proposals should be sent by email to: info@ovada.org.uk

For FULL details of the brief please see our website via this link - http://www.ovada.org.uk/clf-2018/

Image credit: Hannah Wilmshurst