Foundation for Womens Art

The Jerwood Artangel Open - a new £1 million commissioning initiative - has been set up to tap into a rich seam of unrealised artistic potential.

The Open offers an unparalleled opportunity for emerging artists in the UK to share with us ideas for exceptional projects which need a specific site, significant resources and a committed production team, including new opportunities for trainee producer.

These particularly special projects have changed the way we think and feel about our world and transformed our expectations as to what - and where - some of the most compelling work of our time might be made and experienced.

These are the kinds of bold and challenging visions which have inspired Jerwood and Artangel to collaborate on this major initiative. We are convinced there are many other great ideas out there which could make a similar impact.

We can’t second-guess in what form they are being imagined, or for what kind of place, and we have no idea how they might be brought to fruition. But we believe it’s important to find out.

The involvement of Channel 4 as a broadcast partner for The Jerwood Artangel Open will help broaden the reach and impact of the commissioned projects by providing support for television films.

Proposals can be made by practitioners of any artistic discipline, as individuals or groups, by artists on their own or together with curators or producers. The proposals can be for projects in response to any kind of non-art site or situation across the country (for example not a gallery, theatre, cinema or concert hall but more or less anywhere else) and in any medium. The invitation is genuinely open.

Three proposals will be identified from the Open call. The commissions will be developed and produced by Artangel for presentation in the UK between 2008 and 2010.

We have no preconceptions as to what the Open will bring forward. But we hope to be challenged and enthralled by ideas which dare to be different.

WHAT KINDS OF PROPOSALS CAN BE MADE?

We are looking for proposals that relate to particular sites or situations which are not habitually used for the presentation of the arts.

Proposals could be for a monumental sculptural form, a multiple-site performance, an environmental project, an ambitious moving image or new media installation or something entirely different. They can be conceived for any kind of medium or material. The life of the project could last for anything from a few minutes to a few years.

Proposals can be made by individual arts practitioners, collaborative groups or by producers or curators working with artists.

Proposals are especially encouraged from practitioners at a point in their careers where they would most benefit from this opportunity.

http://www.jerwoodartangelopen.org.uk

The Avron International Poetry Competition is open to people all over the world.

the poems entered for the competition will be divided equally between the three judges who will compile a shortlist from which they will select the six winning poems, and any others which they may wish to give special commendation.

There will be first prize of 5,000, a second prize of 2,500, a third prize of 1,000 and three prizes of £500 each. All the winning poems and any poems the judges may wish to select for special commendation will be published in a competition anthology.