Open call for artists to work on Changing Stories: Connecting and Collecting with Exeter’s Communities

RAMM are looking to commission a Devon or Cornwall-based artist to run a series of 7 workshops with a selection of community groups. Groups will include older people, young people, people from minority ethnic backgrounds and families. The work produced through the project is intended to bring new readings and stories to the museum, created by people with a diverse range of abilities, backgrounds and experiences. Through the workshops the artist will guide participants through making a creative outcome (e.g textile piece/pieces) and also collect stories from participants about places that are important in their lives, for example natural or man-made environments, geological elements, or landmarks. The artist will use objects from the museum as inspiration for the workshops. We are looking to commission an experienced socially engaged practitioner for this project who will work directly with groups and will build on the relationships that RAMM has begun to develop with local community organisations. The work produced by the participants will reflect the theme stories of place, which ties in with the aims of RAMM’s National Lottery Heritage Fund-funded project Changing Stories: Connecting and Collecting with Exeter’s communities. This project positions RAMM as a place-shaper, using its collection to ground people in their locality and history. This is the second community project as part of this overarching programme. The artist should be aware that: The workshops should have a strong link to process, with the opportunity for participants to learn new skills. The workshop activities should focus on the participants’ connection to significant places, landmarks and/or the natural world There should be an emphasis on creating a safe, shared space for participants in which they feel comfortable to share their thoughts and stories. The artist should encourage the feeling of a connection to others through the process. The creative activity should involve textiles in some way this can be printmaking, embroidery, sculpture, collage etc. The creative activity should be adaptable to suit a variety of participants from different backgrounds and skills levels and be accessible to people whose first language is not English. The work should be inspired by objects from RAMM’s natural history and geology collections, and objects from RAMM’s Making History (local history) gallery. The artist will facilitate discussion and sharing within the groups through an exploration of these objects. RAMM’s curatorial staff will be able to provide information on selected objects. The final work created by the participants and the stories collected will be made available for museum visitors to view through RAMM’s digital collections and new digital labels in RAMM’s Making History gallery. The project process such as video footage of workshops, will feature in a film which will be permanently added to RAMM’s Making History gallery (produced by Preston Street Films). The outcomes of the workshops should be: An artwork/series of artworks, produced by participants, which reflect conversations that have happened through the exploration of the theme. Recording/documentation of the making process. RAMM staff will support with the documentation of the project. Comments, stories and conversations from the sessions, either recorded (and transcribed) or written. These should be collated by the artist. 7 workshop sessions at RAMM May-Nov 2025 Materials budget – we have additional budget (approx. £80 per session) to cover materials for the workshops Start: May 2025 Finish: Nov 2025 Location: Royal Albert Memorial Museum and Art Gallery, Exeter For full details and to apply visit https://rammuseum.org.uk/jobs/#artist-opp-2