Visual Artist Residency - Borders Book Festival
Melrose, Scottish Borders 11th-18th June 2012
Application Deadline: 5pm Tuesday 15th May
Interviews tbc - but scheduled for Wednesday 23rd May 11am-2pm Melrose
Now in its 9th year the Borders Book Festival “where words come alive” is without doubt one of the cultural highlights of the region. The Festival takes place in Harmony Gardens, a National Trust Property in Melrose in the Scottish Borders.
Annually the event sees the transformation of Harmony Gardens from a tranquil oasis into a buzzing four day event featuring some of today’s most entertaining writers and personalities. This year’s festival dates are Thursday 14th – Sunday 17th June.
This year, CABN (Creative Arts Business Network) invites proposals from visual artists of all disciplines for an exciting new artists’ residency opportunity at the Book Festival. This is part of a series of ‘pathfinder’ residencies which develop new partnerships and offer opportunities for artists to work in different contexts.
The artist will be based in Harmony House, a beautiful 18th Century villa in the care of the National Trust for Scotland, and home to authors during the festival.
The brief is to “get to the heart of and be inspired by the festival”. The festival itself is well recorded through photography, so we are keen to receive proposals from artists – including lens based artists - which engage beyond this level. During the week of the festival, writers will also be staying at Harmony House, so if appropriate, there should be a chance to engage with them.
We are looking for artists at any stage in their career, with strong ideas for the creation of new work of a high quality. We will consider proposals which link with the festival in an exciting way – this may be engaging with a particular theme/aspect of the programme, with the location at Harmony House and its transformation/change of energies during the festival etc. The full festival programme can be downloaded on the Borders Book Festival website
This opportunity is open to professional Visual Artists based in Scotland. We particularly welcome applications from artists based in the South of Scotland – within the Scottish Borders and Dumfries & Galloway area.
Artists Fee: £1450 (including approx £500 for expenses)
To apply for this Residency:
Download Residency Brief 
Download Residency Application Form :
*if you require these documents in another format please contact mmorrison@scotborders.gov.uk