Harwell Campus is seeking expressions of interest from artists to work with us on a collection of eco-sculptures for our public spaces and pathways through the campus.

Harwell Science and Innovation Campus (www.harwellcampus.com) is a place of scientific and technological discovery and development with a long and proud legacy of scientific advancement and delivery. One of the unique features of the Campus is that it is set within beautiful natural biodiverse landscapes and as part of our masterplan we aim to enhance our community’s experience of this by creating points of interests which communicate the Campus vision, story and celebrate its place.

This is an amazing opportunity for a wood carver / artist to engage and partner with Harwell Campus to create 6 bug hotels/eco sculptures of different heights varying between 1m and 2.5m. To be situated in a tree shaded / meadow grass location at the Becquerel Ave entrance on the Landscape Corridor, which runs between Becquerel Ave and Fermi Ave.

The decorative bug hotels/eco sculptures should be functional and work with the natural habitat, supporting the links to nature and ecology as well as creating artistic and visual links with the history of the site.

The Campus is working towards a number of biodiversity and ecology aims and targets to support both natural habitats and wildlife, both which will enhance our location in an area of natural beauty but also encourage our occupiers to use these spaces as an extension of their working environment.

We would like our chosen artist to draw inspiration from both local history and natural history of Harwell Campus. Please see https://www.harwellcampus.com/history/ to see the history timeline.

Harwell Campus management team will assist the artist in locating the raw materials for this project. Fully seasoned wood from beech, willow and pine trees felled on campus is available for our chosen artist/ carver to work with (please email dawn.crawford@harwellcampus.com for a full brief with photographs)

Our chosen artist will be selected on the quality of their previous work and their approach to this project. Only then would we expect the work of art to be designed. The work of art must be bespoke, one of a kind and uniquely relate to this location.

Budget
The total budget for the project is £10,000.

We would like to commission this in 2 phases. The first phase will be a design and research phase, engaging with the community and drafting proposals for the project. The fee for this phase is £1000.

The second phase, after approval of the proposed designs, will be the commission for the making of the work for £9000.

This fee should cover all costs associated with the creation, transport fabrication, logistics and installation.

Applications
Expression of Interest should be submitted electronically to dawn.crawford@harwellcampus.com entitled “Harwell bug hotels/eco sculptures project” by 18th June 2021 and should include;

• Examples of similar projects you have work on
• An artistic statement in response to the brief and your interest in the project
• An indication of your approach and process
• Ability to deliver this project within the indicated budget and timescale.
The name and contact details of a previous commissioner should also be supplied