Call for artists to work with community on COVID memorial for Orkney

Remembering Together, Scotland’s Covid Community Memorial

Orkney Islands Council and greenspace scotland are seeking expressions of interest from artists and creative practitioners of all disciplines for Phase 1 of Remembering Together, Scotland’s Covid Community Memorial, in Orkney. This invitation for expressions of interest opened on 16 May and will close on Monday 13 June 2022.

Remembering Together is a national programme that brings together communities and artists/creative practitioners in collective acts of reflection, remembrance, hope and healing. Managed by greenspace scotland, and supported with £4.6 million provided by the Scottish Government, memorial projects are being co-created in every local authority area of Scotland as communities work with artists/creative practitioners to honour those that have lost their lives to Covid-19 and reflect on their own experiences.

The role of the artist/creative practitioner will be to work with people in ways that are inclusive and relevant with the emphasis on co-creation. Programme partners began issuing callouts to artists and creative practitioners in January 2022, in all disciplines, for expressions of interest in phase 1 of the programme. Phase 1 is when ideas and opportunities will be developed with communities that could include not only gardens and physical structures but also work that is digital or can exist in many locations. These ideas will be realised in phase 2 of the programme, beginning later in the year.

Emma Gee, Arts Officer, Orkney Islands Council said: "Remembering Together is an opportunity for Orkney to reflect on, and creatively express, the impact of the Covid pandemic in its own way. Orkney has a strong reputation for creative consultancy and co-creational practice and this is an exciting project for an artist or artist team to lead. There is local support for the chosen artist(s) from a Delivery Panel that includes NHS Orkney, VAO, an elected Council member, The Blide Trust, The Pier, LEADER, North Isles Landscape Partnership and Orkney Islands Council Arts Development, to ensure that lesser heard voices across all Orkney’s communities have an opportunity to contribute and feel included."

Artists and communities can find out how to be part of Remembering Together: Orkney at the Remembering Together website .

The callout for artists and creative practitioners for Phase 1 will also be posted on the Creative Scotland Opportunities portal until the closing date, 13 June.

There are details on the website of Remembering Together events including online briefings for artists intending to apply to the programme.

To apply for this opportunity please send an expression of interest by email to Emma Gee, OIC Arts Officer, by 12.00 noon on Monday 13 June 2022.

More about Remembering Together, Scotland’s Covid Community Memorial

• Remembering Together: Orkney is a working collaboration between Orkney Islands Council and greenspace scotland, supported by a reference group of Orkney community organisations.
• More information about greenspace scotland can be found at www.greenspacescotland.org.uk
• Scotland’s Covid Community Memorial was announced by the First Minster in March 2021, on the anniversary of Scotland’s first national lockdown.
• Now named Remembering Together, the programme is being delivered by greenspace scotland and is supported with £4.6 million provided by the Scottish Government.
• Remembering Together will be managed in two phases. Phase 1 is a five-month period of co-creation in each local authority area between communities and the artists/creative practitioners selected following responses to an advertised brief. In phase 2, for up to nine months, the co-created ideas in each area will be realised in whatever way communities feel is the most appropriate for them.
• Local reference groups in each area are working with the greenspace scotland Remembering Together team to identify communities most impacted by Covid and to assist with access.
• A National Advisory Group has been established to work with greenspace scotland in the delivery of Remembering Together which includes LGBT Health and Wellbeing, Cruse Bereavement Care Scotland, NHS Charities Together, Age Scotland, Diversity Scotland and others.