Lancaster Arts is partnering with Art Beats Festival to commission new work exploring the theme of Flight for inclusion in the 2024 Art Beats festival, taking place at Lancaster University, on 23-25 August 2024. This is an exciting opportunity to create new work as part of an emerging international arts festival between Lancaster University and Sunway University in Malaysia.

Proposals will engage with any aspect or interpretation of the theme of flight, from the literal to the metaphorical. This commission forms part of Lancaster Arts’ annual programme exploring the theme (for more information about annual themes and how we are thinking about Flight, see here), and will be supported by the Lancaster Arts team including curators, producers and technicians. Alongside creating new work for sharing in the Peter Scott Gallery during the festival, the commissioned artist will deliver an in-person masterclass in Lancaster for students from Lancaster University and Sunway University in the week prior to the festival’s opening.

Lancaster Arts is a contemporary combined arts organisation and part of the National Portfolio of Arts Council England. We welcome artists working across a range of art forms – and frequently the artists we work with will have a practice that does not fit neatly into one art form or another. Much of our programme involves artists working with people to inform the development of work, for example in this project by José García Oliva. Our commitment to social and environmental justice threads throughout our programme in many different ways.

For this commission, we are looking at work that could be shared in a gallery space (approx. 140m2) over the duration of the 3-day festival. Applications are welcomed from individuals or collectives.

The deadline for proposals is midnight on Sunday 17 March 2024.

For more information, visit Lancaster Arts