Liberty 2025 Care Space: A Place to Rest
If you could design a quiet space as a creative, what would you make?
We are looking to contract an artist to create A Place to Rest, a care/quiet space responding to the need for people to move away from the bustle of Liberty Festival and stop, rest a tired or painful body, reduce (or increase) levels of stimulation and sensory input, take space, and breathe. The care space will be installed at Battersea Arts Centre for the duration of the festival, from Monday 22nd - Sunday 28th September.
Please note this role is reserved for a disabled person. By this, we mean “all people who face disableist [including audist or neurotypist] barriers”, or “people who identify themselves as disabled and/or are identified by others as disabled in society”. Read more here.
We are seeking a creative response to the idea of a quiet space, to design a space that doesn’t just meet the needs of people who want five minutes out, but immerses and holds, is beautiful and present. We are open to ideas from a wide range of disabled creatives, from visual artists to musicians to digital creators. You could have any creative background and focus the majority of your attention on any of these elements, but it should contain some quantity of each of these:
- Audio element (e.g. soundtrack, playlist, composition, ambient sound) that can be started, stopped, and volume-controlled by space users
- Visual element (e.g. lighting, projection, video) that can be started, stopped, and controlled by space users
- Tactile element (e.g. things that can be felt, touched, fiddled with, laid over and that can be moved and engaged with by space users)
- You should avoid anything small enough to be accidentally swallowed, or that could cause injury if mishandled (e.g. glass that should break). Interactive elements should be very clear and simple to use, as the space will not be staffed.
We and the venue may be able to provide some equipment and materials for the space e.g. speakers. These will need to be discussed on a case-by-case basis.
The commission will have two key elements:
- The main space: to transform the rest space at Battersea Arts Centre, which will be installed for the entire week of the Liberty Festival. If you would prefer to use a different space / install a new rest space, we are open to discussing how this might work.
- Portable rest packs: we will ask you to create a portable micro version of your rest space which can be installed at other Liberty partner venues. We anticipate there being 2-3 additional venues.
After the festival ends, we hope to create a lasting legacy for the care space, portable rest packs and the artist who produced them. Any purchased or created materials will be stored by CRIPtic Arts, and installed at future CRIPtic Arts events and shows, meaning disabled creatives and audiences can continue to benefit from A Place To Rest for years to come. The designer of the care space will receive full credit for creation at future events & continuing promotion when the space is used.
Fees
We’re offering an inclusive fee of £1,200 for creating the space & rest packs. This is to cover your time working to create the commission, and installation. We have a budget of up to £2,000 for all of the materials, equipment, transport, etc, as well as for the creation of the portable rest packs.
How to Apply
To apply please send frollowing to [javascript protected email address]:
- A pitch for how you would create this space. This should be a maximum of 1 side of A4, a 1-minute video in spoken English or BSL, or a 1-minute audio file. This should explore your artistic approach, the atmosphere you’d be creating, the audio, visual, and tactile elements, and how these would come together. Please identify any risks you think your installation could have, so we can work with you from the outset to manage them
- A draft budget
- A link to your CV & portfolio - we can review up to 3 short documents or files/up to 2 minutes of video/audio.
- Please fill in this online Demographics and Equalities form for our monitoring purposes, your data will be anonymised on receipt.
The deadline for applications is 12pm (noon) on Thursday 1 May 2025.
FAQs
I want to create this but don’t know what sort of thing you’re looking for. Where do I start?
If you know you want to do this, and you don’t know where to start, here are some ideas for you to think about:
- Colour-changing bulbs with infrared (IR) remote controllers
- Interactive projections and soundscapes that respond to touch and movement
- Soundscapes that can be controlled from a mixing deck (with a locked computer)
- Supplies for very simple crafting activities that people can dip into and out of
- Chalk, pens and colours that could decorate surfaces around the room
- Places to sit, stretch and lie down
- Art and text on the walls, ceiling, and floor that respond to the themes of the space
- Fabrics and the different textures and weights of fabric, and how they could be used for sensory input
My main commission has heavily interactive audio or visual elements that are complicated to install. How do I create a portable rest pack for this?
Where you have complicated interactive audio or visual elements, the portable rest pack might contain the same sounds or visuals, but as a single track where people can start, stop, and control volume or visual intensity from a tablet or speakers, rather than it being interactive.
Will there be an opportunity to monetise the care space / portable rest packs in the future?
We’re open to working with the artists we contract to share A Place To Rest and the portable rest packs with the rest of the arts industry. We would not do this independently or without consulting with artists. If we ever wanted to explore monetising & producing the designs commercially, this would be in partnership with the artist.
If the artist we contracted to create A Place To Rest and the portable care packs wanted to use this design with other companies without consulting CRIPtic / Wandsworth Council, that would be fine. The intellectual property of the design remains with the artist. We merely ask that partnership wording / logos are referenced on any future designs.
