Friends, colleagues, artists,

The department that hosts the project that employs me – the Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts, at Lancaster University in the UK – is getting a new building.  This is due to open in the autumn of this year.

There is a call for artworks.  The web page below says that they must be art or design-led but this will shortly be updated to say that proposals can be art- or design-led, and could cover interactive, digital, sonic, sculptural or land-art works.

Submissions will form an exhibition in the foyer of the new building, with a selected work to go forward to commission.

Full details are at http://www.lancs.ac.uk/fass/lica/news/1044

The pictures on the building web site http://www.lancs.ac.uk/estates/projects/current_projects.htm#LICA are a little over-optimistic about the quantity of trees.  There is a very nice small wood immediately in front of the (west-facing) building and a lot more woodland to the northern side, beyond an access road – but the distant vistas are less wooded – and the architect’s impressions also omit some existing buildings adjacent to the new building.

The campus is a park-land site in a rural location with a mix of architecture dating from its first build in 1968 up to some fairly dramatic new buildings.  All the buildings at the north end are built to high eco-standards.  The LICA building is entirely timber-framed.   The only real snag for sound art pieces is the constant background noise of the motorway which runs alongside, to the east of the campus.  It’s far enough to be a constant noise, though, not individual wagons roaring past!

The proposal submission deadline is 1 October 2010, the launch will be spring 2011, the fee is £10,000.

Regards,

Lisa