Freelance Heritage Museum Exhibition Designer Kingston upon Thames, England
Job description
ROLE: Freelance Exhibition Designer or Pop-up Display Designer
TIMESCALE: April 2023 – February 2024
LOCATION: Kingston Upon Thames
METHOD OF WORKING: Remote, but sessions of in person training and meeting attendance required
DEADLINE TO APPLY: 9am 11th April 2023
INTERVIEWS: w/c 16th April
STARTING DATE: end April 2023
FEE: £7500 total fee (plus VAT), supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund
There is additional budget available for the build of displays, pop-ups and showcases. There may be additional budget for extra training of young people and volunteers involved in the project if a proposal is made which can be led by the Museum Designer.
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ABOUT CREATIVE YOUTH:
Creative Youth is a charity based in Kingston, London. As the name implies, it was born out of an ambition to encourage and celebrate the creativity of young people – which we define as ages 5 to 26. Creative Youth is currently at an exciting period of transition of growth, as we look towards opening our new creative space - currently known as FUSEBOX – in March 2023. We are currently developing five areas of creative activity within the charity:
1) FUSE International - an annual arts festival formerly known as International Youth Arts Festival. FUSE International takes place in venues including Rose Theatre, Market Square, Kingston University, Kingston College and much more.
2) Creative Talent Programme - providing year-round support to emerging young artists entering into the creative industries.
3) Young People Skills Development Programme - a year-round programme focused on developing young people’s experience within the arts, including work experience, internships and volunteering.
4) Creative Youth Connects - local and community projects, including all work with schools and youth groups. This is where the AMP Kingston project sits.
5) FUSEBOX - we are opening a new creative and community space on Kingston’s riverside in the March 2023.
ABOUT AMP KINGSTON:
With young people, this project is an exploration of Kingston’s music heritage from the 1960s – 1990s. This heritage will be identified, recorded and accessed in a range of interactive, sustainable ways. Through uncovering this heritage, AMP not only explores some of the most iconic musical acts of the late twentieth century, but celebrates pop fashion, costumes, album artwork, band posters and more.
Three themes have been identified:
● Art - the rise of artwork in branding and logos for music artists.
● Music - the musicians and artists themselves but also the promoters who
enabled their performances to be seen
● Pop Fashion - the influence of pop fashion in relation to the creation of
musical personas and identities.
These will be presented and recorded through a series of exhibitions, pop-ups, young person-led creative interpretation and programming. The form of these will be decided and shaped by the young people involved but could include gigs, fashion shows, exhibitions etc. We will build an online resource where the heritage can be housed digitally, a submission to local archives and an online toolkit for young people to use to interpret the heritage.
Led by Creative Youth, but delivered in partnership with the AMP youth board for the project; known as the Heritage Collective. Other key partners include: Kingston Musuem, Kingston History Centre, Kingston University, Kingston College, Anstee Bridge, Achieving for Children (Piper Active Youth Club) and The Community Brain.
FREELANCE BRIEF:
Seeking applications from a Freelance Designer to work in a very collaborative way with the AMP team and Heritage Collective Youth board. The AMP team want to develop a series of creative interpretation displays and pop-ups working with young people. This will be to deliver the National Heritage Lottery Fund and Arts Council England supported AMP Kingston: Art, Music and Pop Fashion project.
The successful consultant will be willing to listen, train and work collaboratively with the Heritage Youth Collective and AMP team. Taking on the young people’s ideas and working with the AMP team to deliver creative responses to the AMP research and oral history interviews. They will take the content and research considering new ways to present and share research to encourage engagement with the public.
The consultant may come from different have had previous experience in festival pop-up displays, Museum exhibitions or touring pop-ups.
Key deliverables:
● Work with the AMP team and Heritage Collective to support a refresh or to add in additional display elements to the recent Kingston Museum Bowie exhibition which is opening on 30th March. The design work for this will be carried out between April and July 2023. The display will close mid September 2023.
● To train the AMP team and Heritage Collective current exhibition and display techniques in creating small scale displays. Support the design and development of a panel celebrating the AMP project in FUSEBOX.
● Support the design and development of a unique pop-up display or showcase of the research and artist interventions at the July FUSE International Festival at Kingston.
● Work with the team to design and print the panels for a touring pop-up exhibition to tout at local venues between end of November 2023 to end of February 2024.
● Have an awareness of website design knowledge or be willing to comment on the design of web pages bringing together all the elements of the AMP project. All web design, content and research will be provided externally to this contract.
● Be flexible and willing to meet in person or at times online to with our Heritage Collective youth board and AMP team.
● Ensure that the project is delivered in accordance with the project deliverable and funder aims and objectives.
● Be willing to work with the wider team with the Heritage Collective Youth Board, AMP team, evaluation consultant and content consultant.
● Show previous experience in delivering National Heritage Lottery Fund supported projects or similar exhibition or pop-up display projects.
● There is resource budget to pay for the refresh of the exhibition, Festival showcase and touring pop-up. This budget is small and separate to the design consultant fee.
Project Managed by:
Programme Manager of AMP Kingston; Art, Music and Pop Fashion
Key relationships include: AMP Researcher, AMP Project Manager and AMP trainee project manager.
HOW TO APPLY:
Please provide a CV and a tender document responding to the brief including any images of previous experience outlining your response to the brief and how your experience will effectively support this delivery. Please indicate how many days you can offer based on the tender fee. Key time periods for the project are April to July and Sept to November.
We are willing to work in new and exciting ways so please think creatively when preparing the brief. We are keen to encourage you to share creative methods of displays and exhibitions to see ideas and past experience coming through on the tender. We are especially interested in any experience in projects that have been lead or delivered or involved young people. Key to this tender is a willingness to share ideas with the Heritage Collective Youth board and work collaboratively with the AMP team.
Tender responses should be sent to [email protected] by 9am on 11th April 2023. Interviews will take place on the w/c 16th April, likely 18th or 19th April but some flexibility offered.
The Freelance consultant is responsible for their own tax implications and should state their understanding of this within the tender brief.
PROJECT DETAIL AND HERITAGE THEMES:
AMP Kingston is focusing on the rich and varied music heritage of Kingston borough from the 1960’s to the 1990’s, placing young people at the front and centre when it comes to the shaping, planning, delivery and engagement of this project. This time period was full of charismatic and entertaining advances in artwork, music and pop fashion. This includes the psychedelic album artwork cover for Pink Floyd’s Piper at the Gates of Dawn, which they played tracks from during their gig at Kingston Poly in 1967 and the rise of the producer/manager role such as Tony Defries which saw bands and musicians being programmed into the gig circuit across South West London, including Kingston and of course, David Bowie’s first performance as Ziggy Stardust at the Toby Jug pub in Hook, which took the notion of using fashion and costuming to create a musical persona.
AMP Kingston is a response to continued interest in music heritage, within the borough and beyond. Due to the nature of live music, much of its history is anecdotal in form and therefore can be difficult to access and use; we will make use of Oral Histories to record this heritage.
The music heritage we will explore will be focused around three key themes;
● Artwork - Kingston is home to the prolific Kingston Art School and this has had a profound effect on the number of creative people residing in the borough. There is a long standing relationship between art and music, with the branding of musicians becoming synonymous with their success, which is something we would like to explore further. For example, the hot lips logo of the Rolling Stones which has become an iconic representation of the band, reflecting both their musical style and their attitudes.
● Music - Live Performance and Promotion: Outside of some further, more detailed heritage uncovering on live music in the 60’s and 70’s, the 80’s and 90’s bring with it the possibility to uncover heritage in a number of exciting new music genre’s including Punk, New Wave, Folk and Electronic music. In addition to this, we are keen to uncover heritage surrounding the role of the promoter/manager/booker and how this pivotal stepping stone between the musicians and venues was breached and how some of this history could help to breach the current challenges faced by both musicians and venues in terms of live music history having a legacy.
● Pop Fashion - Outside of Ziggy Stardust and Bowie’s creation of another worldly persona for his music, there are a number of inherent, interesting links between fashion and music. The rise of the Punk movement was particularly prominent throughout Kingston in the later 1970’s and 1980’s, with bands such as Siouxsie and the Banshees and The Vibrators performing in the borough and their identities through clothing, hair, make up and accessories forming a key part of their personas. Between the 60’s and early 90’s, the New Romantic movement is also a key consideration when looking at music and fashion.
Job Type: Freelance
Salary: £7,500.00 per year
Benefits:
- Flexitime
- Work from home
Schedule:
- Flexitime
Experience:
- exhibition design: 5 years (required)
Work Location: Hybrid remote in Kingston Upon Thames
Application deadline: 11/04/2023
Expected start date: 24/04/2023
