Open Call: Sharjah Art Foundation Production Programme

Overview

The Sharjah Art Foundation Production Programme broadens the possibilities for the production of art in the MENASA region by supporting innovation and excellence in artistic practice through the encouragement of experimentation and risk-taking. Placing artists at the core of its mission, the foundation offers grants and professional support for the realisation of projects selected from an open call.

The past decade has seen an extraordinary rise in artistic activity throughout the Middle East, resulting in increased visibility for artists, both regionally and internationally. Within this context, Sharjah Art Foundation hopes to promote and encourage an environment of public and private patronage for the highest level of artistic endeavour. The foundation’s Production Programme furthers this goal by supporting artists in their individual attempts to create work on a scale they have perhaps not previously imagined.

Arts practitioners are invited to propose imaginative, ambitious and inspirational projects that will transform our understanding of what art is and how it can be experienced. With this initiative, we at Sharjah Art Foundation hope to engage and challenge artists, our audiences and ourselves aesthetically, intellectually, emotionally, socially and politically.

In 2020, we are offering production grants to artists working in a range of media, including sculpture, installation, time-based media, artist’s books and performance. The success of a proposal will be determined by merit rather than budget, and projects with budgets ranging from modest to ambitious will be considered. A total of $200,000 is available in this application cycle. The submission deadline is 10 January 2020, and selections will be announced in March. The selected projects will be developed and produced by the artist and Sharjah Art Foundation, with the time and place for the presentation of the completed project as agreed between the artist(s) and the foundation.

The Production Programme was launched in 2008. Over 1000 submissions have been received, 500 applications considered, and 45 projects selected for production.

This document should give you all the information you need to apply for the 2020 Production Programme. Please read it carefully before you complete the application forms. If you have any questions, please direct them to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

Eligible Applicants

We welcome visual art proposals from artists, collectives and collaborative groups. These collaborations may be between visual artists and choreographers, composers, filmmakers, writers, curators, theorists or other professionals working in fields such as science or philosophy.

Please note that you should be able to free yourself from any commitments that could hinder the production of your project within the time allowed, should it be selected.

Production Location

In keeping with the foundation’s focus on collaboration and exchange, we are looking for projects that can be produced in Sharjah with the support of our team. We will, however, take the priorities and objectives of individual projects into consideration and review proposals accordingly.

Eligible Projects

As stated above, proposals across a range of media, including sculpture, installation, time-based media, artist’s books and performance, can be submitted. While we have not set a specific theme or criteria, we are looking for work that is related in some way to the MENASA region. Relevance to the MENASA region should not be understood in a strictly literal sense, but rather as an opportunity to undertake an ambitious project with a broad philosophical or inspirational approach that is connected in some way to the MENASA context. We are seeking proposals that can engage and challenge artists and our audiences on a variety of levels, whether aesthetic, intellectual or political.

The proposal must be for a new project in the preparation phase, and its production time frame should not exceed 12 months.

Key Dates

The deadline for receipt of submissions is midnight 10 January 2020 in the UAE time zone. A selection panel composed of the foundation’s senior management and one to three external members will assess applications in January. Applicants may be contacted for further information at this time. Successful applicants will be notified by 23 March 2020. Due to the high volume of applications, we regret that we are unable to follow up with or provide any feedback to unsuccessful applicants. Names of the selection panel members will not be disclosed until the announcement of the successful applicants is made.

Grant Infromation

We will select proposals and award the production grants based on the budgets submitted with the original applications. In principle, Sharjah Art Foundation Production Grants are intended to be the primary source of funding for a project. Any additional funding requirements or funding partnerships should be discussed in advance with the foundation.

General Guidelines

We have designed the application both to guide you and help us visualise your project in the best way possible, from conception to execution. Read the application forms carefully and provide clear and precise information. If a section is not applicable to you, indicate ‘N/A’.

Please note that you are not allowed to rename, reproduce or try to unlock the forms. All forms are to be completed electronically and saved in their original format. Supporting material should be included with the forms.

Format Requirements

Application and supporting material should be ready to print and publish, and all documents should be clearly labelled. The text and optical media format requirements must be respected or your submission will not be considered.

Text and Optical Media
- Images will be accepted in JPEG and/or TIFF format only. They should all be in 300 dpi resolution and CMYK mode.
- Text documents should be provided as either Word or PDF files.
- Sound works should be submitted as audio files and/or Vimeo links.
- Time-based media should be submitted as audio files and/or Vimeo links.
- Without exception, all submitted material should have captions including author(s), title, date, medium, size/dimensions, a brief description and a credit line where applicable. A separate Captions Form should be used for each individual project.

Supporting Documents
- The applicant’s curriculum vitae should be in either Word or PDF format. All collaborators on a project should submit their CVs.
- An official letter of intent from any other funding party, if applicable, should be scanned in colour at 300 dpi and saved as a JPEG.
- The applicant/each group member must include descriptions of a minimum of three and a maximum of five previous projects. Please create a folder for each individual project as follows:
 PREVIOUS PROJECT
 CAPTIONS FORM
 RELATED MATERIAL

Submission of Application Forms

Submission of Application Forms
- Applications can be submitted by email, or files can be sent through online sharing sources such as WeTransfer, Dropbox.

- We will let you know upon receipt whether your application will be considered for assessment or not.

Reasons for not considering an application for assessment are as follows:
- We receive it after the deadline.
- You sent us a proposal without the support of the application forms, or your application forms are not correctly completed.
- You tried to reproduce or unprotect the Sharjah Art Foundation forms.
- You did not meet our format requirements.
- Your proposal has been made public.
- Your proposal has primarily commercial aims.

Application Form

Please download and fill in both the Application Forms and Captions Form. If you have a collaborator in the project, download the Collaborator Form as well.

Please email your applications to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Click here to download the application form.
click here to download the captions form.
Click here to download the collaborator form.