iniva and the Stuart Hall Foundation are pleased to announce the sixth Stuart Hall Library Artist’s Residency commencing in May 2023. This residency is a funded opportunity for an artist based in the UK to be in residence at iniva’s Stuart Hall Library over a three-month period from May to July 2023.
The selected artist will receive a total sum of £4,750 and given support to pursue their research in the library.
Professor Stuart Hall (1932 – 2014) was actively engaged in the arts throughout his life, and in particular the visual arts. He championed the establishment of iniva and chaired its board for more than a decade. Professor Stuart Hall worked closely with artists, filmmakers and photographers, writing about the visual arts, informing critical thinking and influencing public policy on arts education.
This residency is supported by Arts Council England.
Residency Brief
Building on the distinct connections between both organisations, the residency offers a visual artist the opportunity to develop their practice by excavating the ideas contained within Stuart Hall Library and iniva archives, taking the writings of Professor Stuart Hall as a starting point.
“Here the whole apparatus of ‘a history’ – periods, key figures and works, tendencies, shifts, breaks, ruptures – slip silently into place. It was an especially bold move to bring together at that point a number of key figures who both contributed to the body of work and were willing to help secure, nourish, extend and contest the terms of its ‘archiving’; for this helped to underline the intention that this should be, not an inert museum of dead works, but a ‘living archive’, whose construction must be seen as an on-going, never completed project.”
– Stuart Hall, Constituting an Archive (2001)
Reflecting on Stuart Hall’s paper “Constituting an Archive”, we are inviting an artist to respond to the concept of “the living archive” and consider the multiple ways in which an archive as a site may hold multiple narratives that are contested. ‘Constituting an archive’ is available to read in the Stuart Hall Library and online for a limited period from the Taylor & Francis website until the end of February 2023. Click here to read online.
We are particularly interested in working with an artist or artist collective whose practice is informed by perspectives on politics, identity and activism; who is interested in the language of the international and ideas around diaspora; and whose methodology may relate to notions of archiving and the archival.
We do not expect a fixed outcome of the residency and want to emphasise that the prime focus of this residency is the process of research itself. However, the artist will be expected to produce a digital output of their choice (e.g. short film, sound, blog post, animated presentation etc.) for archival purposes and to co-organise a public event which allows sharing of reflections or work in progress from the residency. Examples of outcomes from previous artist-in-residences include Ting-Ting Cheng, Squirrel Nation, Alicija Rogalska, Rosa-Johan Uddoh and Rohan Ayinde.
The form of the digital output and the event will be agreed with the artist as appropriate to their practice. The artist is expected to be in residence over a three-month period from May to July 2023, spending at least four days per month researching in the library and deliver their output and public event between September and December 2023.
As the library is in constant use, the artist will be unable to have a studio/production space on site. The residency does not include accommodation.
Residency Location
Stuart Hall Library, 16 John Islip Street, London, SW1P 4JU
Opening hours: Tuesday – Friday, 10am – 5pm
iniva’s Stuart Hall Library is a publically accessible specialist library that centres art and theory publications from the Global Majority, African, Asian, Caribbean, Polynesian, Latinx, and Diaspora perspectives. The development of the collection takes Professor Stuart Hall’s work as a guiding principle, and in keeping with this, the library collects around art, which takes issues such as race, politics and cultural identity as its theme. The library includes over 10,000 volumes such as artist books, monographs, exhibition catalogues, journals and zines as well an archive of iniva’s work and history since 1994.
The library catalogue and visiting guidelines can be viewed at www.iniva.org/library/
iniva’s archive catalogue can be viewed at www.iniva.org/library/library-and-archive-collection/
Resources and opportunities available
As well as the Stuart Hall Library and archives at iniva, the artist in residence will receive access to the following as part of the residency:
- Invitation to relevant events in iniva and SHF’s wider programmes
- Introductions to artists who have previously taken part in the residency
- Access to Stuart Hall Foundation’s Scholars and Fellows Network
- Access to iniva’s Research Network
Residency Fee
The selected artist will receive a fee of £4,050, plus up to £700 to cover materials, travel and subsistence costs in relation to the production of the event and digital output.
Criteria
Your application must meet the following criteria:
- iniva/Stuart Hall Foundation Artist Residency is open to visual artist(s) based in the UK with a proven track record of at least 5 years. Current undergraduate and MA students cannot apply. Current PhD candidates are eligible.
- Your proposed research project must respond to the residency brief. Please read the residency brief and FAQs carefully before applying.
- Explain why your research cannot be undertaken without this residency e.g. would you still be able to carry out your research proposal as a regular user of Stuart Hall Library?
- Explain how the list of resources available through this residency aids in the development of your artistic practice and the outcome
How to Apply
Please read the residency brief and FAQs carefully before applying. You will be required to submit:
- A summary of your research project (50 words maximum)
- A research proposal (250 words maximum)
- Describe how you would approach your research in Stuart Hall Library (250 words maximum)
- Statement of your interest in the specific resources and opportunities available through the residency, the host partners and our networks (100 words maximum)
- A detailed envisaged outcome of the residency (250 words maximum)
- A proposed budget outline up to £700 for your event production and digital output
- CV with at least 5 years history of practice and exhibition as a visual artist. This cannot include time as a student on a further education (FE) course or undergraduate degree. (2 pages maximum, in PDF or Word format)
- Supporting visual material relevant to your work and this proposal, which must be supplied as follows: 5 images maximum or 3 video clips (max length of all clips – 5min). Please supply images in PNG or JPEG format and video files as a link (e.g. Vimeo or Youtube). We will not be able to accept video files in any other format.
- The equality monitoring form
This form will be used for statistical purposes only. All data disclosed will comply with the SHF’s Privacy Policy (read online here), drafted in accordance with the GDPR 2018.
The deadline for applications is Sunday 12 February 2023 at 11.59pm
For further information about the residency or if there is a particular reason (such as dyslexia) that may require you to submit a postal application or if you would like to discuss other submission options please contact us at: info@stuarthallfoundation.org
Selection and shortlisting
The shortlisting and selection for this opportunity will take place in March 2023. All proposals will be viewed by representatives from iniva (Institute for International Visual Arts) and the Stuart Hall Foundation. We aim to contact all applicants by end of March, and the successful applicant will be announced in April 2023.
Image: Stuart Hall Library collection. Carlos Jiménez, 2018.