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Keswick – Crow Park – Derwent Water North Lakes, CA12 5DJ

Trust New Art: Socially engaged artist residency Artists’ Brief:

The view down Derwent Water and Borrowdale from Crow Park Summary of initial ideas and themes: Crow Park was one of the original c1750 of Thomas West’s Lake District “Viewing Stations” and still boasts classic panoramic 360 views across the town towards Skiddaw and Blencathra, and across Derwent water to Catbells, Newlands and the Jaws of Borrowdale. 125 years ago the local vicar in Keswick, Hardwicke Rawnsley, along with his wife and other local people campaigned to secure the Lakes for a much wider constituency of people to enjoy: the vision was that the Lakes were a “national property”, and led to the creation of a “National” Trust, eventually a National Park in the Lakes and finally a “World” Heritage Site. What has been the impact of this vision on the local community, and especially on how they feel about the places on their doorstep, their home turf? And how can we ensure that they remain at the heart of this landscape in terms of feeling a stake in its use, enjoyment, protection, and plans for its future. What we want to achieve: We want to work with artists alongside community consultation to explore what people need from the places we care for NOW and in the future, and how that is different (if it is) from why they came into our care in the first place. In collaboration with our audiences, local partners and arts organisations we will creatively explore alternative visions of the future of this area and test ideas at Crow Park through events and installations working within the leave no physical trace philosophy.

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Call for submissions DEADLINE: Sunday 10th November 2019 The North Lakes team want to work with an artist, or artist collective who work in socially engaged practice to develop an artistic programme for July – October 2020 that helps audiences explore the relationship between the people of Keswick and the landscape of the Lake District, with a particular focus on Crow Park and Derwent Water. This brief describes the context in which we see it working and gives details of how to apply. On behalf of the nation, the National Trust, looks after, conserves and promotes access and engagement with Crow Park, the lake and almost the entire view from Crow Park (looking south). About the National Trust

The National Trust is a conservation charity founded in 1895 by three people who saw the importance of our nation’s heritage and open spaces, and wanted to preserve them for everyone to enjoy. Nearly 125 years later, these values are still at the heart of everything the charity does. Entirely independent of Government, the National Trust looks after more than 250,000 hectares of countryside, 780 miles of coastline and hundreds of special places across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. More than 26 million people visit every year, and together with 5.2 million members and over 61,000 volunteers, they help to support the charity in its work to care for special places for ever, for everyone.

1. Context

Crow Park is a deeply significant location with many layers of meaning and resonance. It was chosen to host the official UNESCO plaque when the Lake District was designated as a World Heritage Site in 2017. Crow Park’s location, between the town of Keswick (population 5,000) and the lake creates a green ‘buffer zone’ between the town and the open countryside. It is used by dog walkers and local sports clubs as a recreation space. However, many visitors to Keswick are unaware that there’s a lake just ½ mile from the market square (a 20th century by-pass road effectively cuts the town off from the lake). Keswick used to sport the name of Keswick-upon-Derwentwater. We’re interested in exploring whether Crow Park could play a role in re-connecting the town to its lake. Historical relevance The park was an oak woodland until the mid 1700s when the trees were felled by the then landowners to raise income for the Greenwich Hospital for injured sailors. This action prompted what is possibly England’s first written expression of environmental protest:

“Oct 4 – I walked to Crow Park, now a rough pasture, once a glade of ancient oaks, whose large roots still remain on the ground but nothing has sprung from them.

If one single tree had remained this would have been an unparalleled spot;” Thomas Gray, 1769

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Felling the trees revealed the incredible view, which helped to inspire the fledgling Picturesque movement, and Crow Park became established as a ‘Viewing Station’ or recommended viewpoint in early guidebooks to the Lakes.

“Of all the lakes in these romantic regions, the lake we are now examining, seems to be most generally admired. It was once admirably characterized by an ingenious person who, on his first seeing it, cryed out Here is beauty indeed – Beauty lying in the lap of Horrour [horror]! We do not often find a happier illustration. Nothing conveys an idea of beauty more strongly than the lake; nor of horrour, than the mountains;” William Gilpin, 1772

In the 19th century, the local vicar at Crosthwaite church in Keswick was an active campaigner to defend public access to open spaces, inspired by Wordsworth and Ruskin. He protested against mining railways in the Lake District, founded the Keswick School of Industrial Arts to provide year-round income for farm labourers, instigated mass trespasses along nearby footpaths closed by private landowners and then co-founded the National Trust to protect open spaces for public benefit. Rawnsley was perceived by local residents as being an explosive activist force in the local community:

“Ah doot yon’s the most active volcano in Europe” Keswick resident pointing at Rawnsley’s vicarage, late 19th century

In this way, the landscape seen from Crow Park has both a significance to the people who live in the town, and also a significance as ‘a kind of national property’ as Wordsworth described the Lake District, and part of ‘a national gallery of natural pictures’ as Rawnsley described the National Trust, and now it’s recognised to be part of the heritage that belongs to humanity across the globe. The Lake District’s role as the birthplace of the modern conservation movement is one of the three ‘Outstanding Universal Values’ recognised by the World Heritage Site inscription We hope to engage with the local resident audience and to explore with them what the area means to them, and how they feel about its national and international significance. A creative arts project provides a new opportunity to explore this. We are looking for artists who are focused on socially engaged practice and who are interested in making work in relation to open air sites. Trust New Art helps to grow people’s love of our special places by using contemporary arts to explore and express ‘Spirit of Place’. It is supported by partnerships with Arts Council England. The programme helps to build new and repeat audiences for the arts and our properties and follows the Trust’s approach to programming. It provides commissioning and career opportunities to both emerging and established artists and has become recognised in the arts sector as a mark of quality. In 2020 there are eight TNA projects in the North region exploring different aspects of Art and Environment, Nature and Culture.

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2. The project

The Unesco World Heritage Site plaque at Crow Park, Keswick, © National Trust Images, John Malley 2.1 Our aims in launching this project are to:

1. Use a socially engaged approach to explore the interconnectivity of people and place. 2. Commission contemporary work that responds to place and explores the tensions between:

a what this landscape means to the people who live here and b what it means to a global community following the Lake District’s (and local hero Rawnsley’s) role in inspiring

a global conservation movement. 3. Facilitate inspiring and dynamic experiences that bring the heritage of this outdoor site to life using experiences that

are in keeping with the philosophy of ‘leave no permanent trace’ and our conservation principles. 4. Facilitate community engagement and promote active participation of local residents at Crow Park.

Why we’re doing this in 2020:

• 2020 is the 125th anniversary of the National Trust was founded to protect special places for the benefit of the nation • 2020 is also the centenary of National Trust founder and local campaigner Canon Rawnsley. Through this project we

would like to explore ideas about how we could mark the centenary. 2.2 We’d like to deliver these aims through the following objectives:

• To commission, plan and deliver on site arts activity between July - October 2020. • To have a virtual hub for the project to signpost audiences to the project, which will include documentation of the

project and its processes • All activities will be free or low cost, and designed to be inclusive

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2.3 Themes These have been identified by the partners as possible starting points for the artists to develop the ideas, however the subject matter is for the artist to decide:

• What places mean to people • Living in a World Heritage Site • The centenary of local ‘volcano’ Canon Hardwick Rawnsley

3. Project Structure & People 3.1 Project team members: Tom Burditt, General Manager North Lakes – Client for this project. Jessie Binns, Visitor Experience & Engagement Manager – Project Manager for this project Sophie Badrick, Visitor Experience Officer, Crow Park – Project team Cathy Newbery, Contemporary Arts Consultant, North – Project sponsor this project Clare Perry, Visitor Experience Consultant, North – project team Kerry Morgan, Derwent Riverlands Project Community Engagement Officer – can input as required Roy Henderson, Area Ranger for Borrowdale and Newlands Valley – project team 3.2 Permissions & maintenance Please note that Crow Park is an outdoor site with no covered or indoor space and no visitor facilities. The neighbouring car park, toilets and cafés are all owned by different organisations. Permissions would be required for events. Crow Park has a public right of way that cannot be closed without special consent, and is grazed by a flock of Herdwick sheep. Neighbouring residents and businesses must be identified, contacted and informed ahead of any events. We can support the successful applicant with all these things. 3.3 Copyright and ownership of artwork This is dependent of the types of work commissioned. It is assumed that all works will be owned by the artists. 3.4 Documentation National Trust will commission photographers and videographers to document the project, but we request that artists also ensure that all stages of the process are captured (in any format they choose) for sharing amongst partners and occasionally externally

3.5 Evaluation & Reporting We want to evaluate the process as well as the presentation of the project, and in order to support this we requests that artists:

• Support the project team in capturing the process for sharing (images/text/sound/video)

• Provide a monthly informal update (email) circulated to all key partners outlining progress and related information

• Provide a mechanism for the participants to give feedback on their experience of participating

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3.6 Audiences, stakeholders and partners Public participation in the commissions central to this commission, which is why we are seeking artist whose work is in the field of socially engaged practice. Keswick has a very active civic society. We’ve been doing some work community mapping this year, and the artist(s) would have access to that existing work, but we really want them to explore and make their own contacts as well. The National Trust already holds relationships with the following stakeholders: Theatre by the Lake, Sustainable Keswick, St Herbert’s Primary School, Keswick Town Council, Keswick Museum and Art Gallery

4. Timeline and Process 4.1 Timeline 2019–

10th November – Closing date for expressions of interest (midnight)

20th November – shortlisting of artists

29th November – Interview workshops held – please hold this date in your diary

December – contracting artist

2020 ‐

Jan – community mapping work with National Trust project team and stakeholders to identify participants

March – Activity on site begins, forming links with community groups

July – 4‐5 July is Derwent Water Regatta, a large public event run on Crow Park by the National Trust (approx. 10,000 people attended in 2019). We’d like some artistic programming from this project at the event.

September - October – artistic programming

November – Evaluation & reporting

December – Project ends

2021 – January – February – Debrief and evaluation 4.2 Application Process We are looking for artists whose work is in socially engaged practice and who have experience of working in response to landscape. We cannot accept applications from students. We are looking for artists who are happy to communicate about their work at different levels. We are open to artists working across media, and welcome expressions of interest from performance/live artists as well as the visual artists. We are open to a variety of artistic outcomes: for example but not exclusively physical and digital work, publications, performance, events.

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Your submission should be sent by EMAIL ONLY to Jessie Binns jessie.binns@nationaltrust.org.uk by midnight on Sunday 10th November. Please do not send original material, this cannot be returned. Your submission should be formatted as PDF / Word document, containing: 1. An outline of your interest in the project, and initial ideas for your potential approach - up to 1 side of A4

2. A statement detailing your experience of relevant projects including socially engaged practice

3. Up to 6 images of your work/links* to other media.

4. A completed equal opportunities form (this will be sent and collated separately to your submission) *Please provide hyperlinks to online files or a Dropbox containing the files. Time-based media should be limited to up to four clips of no longer than 5 minutes; images should be no larger than 1600 x 1200 pixels. Information submitted in other formats will not be accepted. From the submission we will shortlist up to 3 applicants, based on the following criteria:

• Quality of previous work • Experience of participatory projects • Relevance of practice • General response to the brief

The shortlisted artists or teams will be invited to interview on 29th November, to run a workshop with community members to present their ideas and to demonstrate their ways of working in more detail for which we will pay a fee of up to £300 towards travel & expenses. We will not be able to provide feedback to artists that don’t make it past the expression of interest stage. 4.3 Budget Up to £23,000 is available for the project. This is to include artist fee, materials and travel & expenses, and VAT. Please be advised that access to a car is desirable as it is a rural location with limited public transport.

EXPENDITURE Budget Item Artistic Spending ‐ Artist Fees Artist Fee £9,000.00 Artistic spending ‐ other arts related costs of delivering the activity Artist travel grant & accomodation £2,000.00 Artist production budget £5,500.00 Community Engagement workshops & venue costs £2,500.00 Contingency to be negotiated £4,000.00 Subtotal £23,000.00

National Trust and partners will support the project through marketing and publicity

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5. Sourcing artists Artists & art forms We are open to all art forms and how these might connect to the experiences of being outdoors. We have discussed walks, poetry, music, choirs, digital work, swimming, dance, projection, social media, fire and light events and stargazing. We welcome expressions of interest from artists regionally and nationally, artists working alone or collaboratively. If selected artists see potential in bringing other artists into the project to deliver specific elements we are open to supporting this. We are especially interested in artists who want to work with people and groups to develop projects. We are keen for there to be heavy steer towards mass audience participation. We are an equal opportunities employer and are working with the Arts Council of England’s Creative Case for Diversity. For more information about the project, of if you have any queries please contact Jessie Binns, jessie.binns@nationaltrust.org.uk tel 07909 962 955 Once artists have been appointed the Jessie will arrange to meet them and take them on site visits around the location. Jessie will then support throughout the research and development period making contacts with any relevant specialists through the stakeholders.

6. Supporting information The map below shows the location of Crow Park. All land in the care of the National Trust is highlighted in magenta.

This project is part of Trust New Art, the National Trust’s programme of contemporary arts.