The Library of Performing Rights, Call for Proposals

Submission deadline 20 November 2017

Call for proposals for a new commissioned performance based work responding to The Library of Performing Rights. The call is currently closed and information about the open call for 2019 will be announced soon.

The Live Art Development Agency (LADA), the artist Lois Weaver, the artist and researcher Elena Marchevska of South Bank University, and the Study Room In Exile in Liverpool are inviting proposals for a new performative or performance-based work that will respond to The Library of Performing Rights, and generate new resources for the benefit of artists, activists and academics working in the fields of human rights, social and environmental justice.

The commission should be realised between January and July 2018.

The commission award is £2,500 (inclusive of fees, taxes, travel/accommodation, and production expenses).

Background and context

The Library of Performing Rights (LPR) was originally created in 2006 (by Lois Weaver of Queen Mary University London in collaboration with LADA) for Performance Studies international (PSi)12: Performing Rights, as a unique resource containing publications, videos, DVDs, CD-ROMs, brochures, digital and web-based initiatives that examined the intersection between performance and human rights. Materials were submitted by artists, activists and academics from around the world.

Since PSi12, LPR has been housed in LADA’s Study Room as a distinct collection of materials, has been presented in Vienna and Glasgow as part of LADA’s Performing Rights programmes, and has been installed in Rio De Janeiro and Montreal in curatorial initiatives led by Andrew Mitchelson and Lois Weaver.

From August 2017, the LPR has been reimagined and reactivated by LADA, Lois Weaver, Elena Marchevska and the Study Room In Exile, as a concept or approach to research and practice, rather than a distinct collection. It is available as a place of action, a place of knowledge exchange, a repository of experience, and a context that others can use to support and advance their own work both at LADA and elsewhere.

The LPR is now being developed, including:

• the integration of LPR titles into LADA’s wider Study Room holdings, and the addition of existing Study Room holdings that engage with issues of ‘rights’ into the concept of the LPR. All related titles are now catalogued and branded as Library of Performing Rights resources
• a guide through LPR titles in relation to their relevance to the 30 Articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
• the creation of LPR Touring Boxes as temporary installations for festivals, organisations, artists and other public events
• an annual LPR-themed DIY project
• annual LPR Open Days in LADA’s Study Room and the Study Room In Exile: opportunities for debate, knowledge exchange, and the research and discussion of new materials
• an annual commission inviting artists to respond to the LPR

The Library of Performing Rights: Commission

The commissioned work will involve three core elements:

1. A live performance or performative presentation

2. The generation of an item to be included in the LPR

3. The dispersal of ideas or knowledge

The successful proposal will consider all three of these elements.

1. Live performance/performative presentation

A new live performance or performative presentation that in some way responds to the concept and content of The Library of Performing Rights, and that advances approaches to, understandings of, and practices related to issues of human rights, social and environmental justice.

In 2017/18, the first year of the new LPR Commissions, the commission will also form part of LADA’s current Restock, Rethink, Reflect 4 programme on Live Art and Privilege, and we particularly encourage proposals that address issues of cultural privilege, class and/or under-representation.

The commissioned work can take any form (performance, performance-installation, public intervention or action, illustrated presentation) and may involve collaborations with other artists and/or activists.

All aspects of the creation, production and presentation of the work, including collaborators’ fees and all taxes/expenses, must be included within the commission award of £2,500.

The commissioned work will be presented in/at/near LADA’s new space in Mansford Street, East London by July 2018 at the latest.

2. The generation of an item to be included in the LPR

The commission will generate a new item for the LPR, either through documentation of the performance or presentation or through the creation of an object or publication as part of the commissioned work.

3. The dispersal of ideas or knowledge

The commission should have the capacity for knowledge exchange in ways that will benefit artists, activists and academics working in the fields of human rights, social and environmental justice. This may happen through live actions/interventions/events, print, online, or by other means. The Study Room in Exile in Liverpool will be a radical repository or receptacle for the dispersed resource and we welcome commission proposals which suggest other key repositories.

One, or all, of the three elements of the commission (above) will be presented or profiled at the annual LPR Open Days in London and Liverpool (dates tbc). The £2,500 commission award is inclusive of travel and accommodation costs for those London and Liverpool Open Days.

Eligibility

To be eligible for the LPR commissions artists should identify as working with/within Live Art. For more information about how we define Live Art, more information here.

Applicants can be resident anywhere in the UK, but must have been based in the UK for a minimum of five years, and have been practicing professionally within the arts for a minimum of five years.

If you are unsure about your eligibility please call LADA to discuss it with us in advance.

Proposals

We encourage, and will prioritise, proposals which are bold, creative and set out to advance approaches to, understandings of, and practices related to issues of human rights, social and environmental justice.

Deadline for applications: 20 November 2017

Proposals should include the following information:

• Name and contact details.
• Brief background information including recent/current artistic work and relationship to Live Art.
• Relationship of practice to issues of human rights and/or social and environment justice.
• Details of proposed work including content, form, location/context.
• How the proposed work addresses issues of cultural privilege, class and/or under-representation.
• How the proposed work will generate an item for the LPR.
• How the proposed work will address dispersal of ideas or knowledge.
• Timescale for the proposed commission, including the live element, generation of LPR item, and dispersal.
• An indication of how you will allocate the £2,500 budget.

Selection

The commissioned artists will be selected by representatives of LADA and the Study Room in Exile, along with Lois Weaver and Elena Marchevska.

The Library of Performing Rights 2017/18 commission is supported by South Bank University, the Study Room in Exile, and through LADA’s contribution to the Collaborative Arts Partnership Programme (CAPP), an EU-funded research project looking at collaborative practices within socially engaged contexts. The commission also forms part of our collaborative project Restock, Rethink, Reflect Four on Live Art and Priviliege (2016-18).