SEEDED

Are you an east London-based creative practitioner, community organiser, artist, or collective?

The East Bank partners; V&A East, LCF, BBC, Sadlers Wells, and UCL, are launching a 5-month residency program that will kick off in Spring 2023. Applications can be made now until Monday 21 November.

London College of Fashion, UAL and UCL East, are looking for applications from creative practitioners, small-scale creative organisations and collectives from across east London who want to investigate themes around social practise, activism, collective memory, urbanisation and community engagement. This opportunity is for creatives who want to innovate, experiment and develop new practice, while pushing conventional boundaries of form and structure.

This year, we are looking for two residents to work with London College of Fashion, UAL and UCL East.

The host institutions offer world-leading research centres and programmes with whom practitioners can apply to be partnered with. Read more on Research at LCF and the Urban Room and Memory Workshop at UCL.

We also want to hear ideas from creatives beyond these themes: what are the vital issues in today’s world, and within your community, that you want to explore with these institutions?

As a resident with East Bank, you can expect:

• to be hosted by your institution: you will have up to 80 hours of contact time across the five-month residency, which could include desk space, time in a studio, meeting rooms, access to archives and collections, and invitations to events;
• a facilitated creative journey: you will have a point of contact at your paired institution who will facilitate your residency, and you’ll also be connected with other residents to share experiences, tools and knowledge, and come together in community;
• a process-centred approach: residencies are focused on process, research, learning, development, collaboration and relationship building, rather than a final product or pre-defined outcome;
• to receive funding of up to £5,000: to support your time, your collaborators time, and materials or resources that you might need for your residency.

Application process and criteria:

We are looking for applicants who:

• are creatives, communities and collectives;
• have ideas and vision which are relevant and related to the institutions participating;
• are located in east London in one of the four Olympic boroughs - Newham, Tower Hamlets, Waltham Forest and Hackney;
• have a proven interest in key issues in their community;
• demonstrate a commitment to collaboration with the East Bank partners.

Step 1:  To apply, visit this online portal and submit your initial expression of interest by Monday 21 November 2022. We encourage expressions of interest through a variety of media, including traditional written, informally written, image-based and video.

Questions about the application process and criteria can be explored at an online information session on Tuesday 8 November 2022 at 13.00 and repeated at 17.30. To sign up for this information session please register here.

If you need further assistance with your application, please contact culture@fashion.arts.ac.uk.

Step 2: Your application will be reviewed by a selection panel made up of members of the East Bank partnership, including staff, artists, students and practitioners, as well as local community members.

Step 3: Six shortlisted applicants will then be invited to a workshop, which will take place in-person, in east London, on Thursday 1 December 2022 to meet East Bank host organisations. Applicants will receive feedback and guidance, as well as the opportunity to ask questions, with a view to ideas being further developed. Applicants will be paid for their time at this stage of the process.

Step 4: Six shortlisted applicants are invited to make a final submission by Friday 8 December 2022. This will be a more detailed application which will include a budget and proposed timeline.

Step 5: Three applicants will be awarded a residency, to take place from January 2023, which you will plan in detail in collaboration with your host institution.

SEEDED is part of the East Bank Creative Programme launched this summer, supported by the Mayor of London, Foundation for Future London, the City of London, London Legacy Development Corporation, and the councils of Newham, Hackney, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest.