Creation of Welcome Artistic Interpretation space for Wye Valley River Festival 2020

Descriptions

We are looking for an artist/ designer/craftsperson/interpreter to create a Welcome/ Orientation/Interpretation space for the Wye Valley River Festival 2nd – 17th May 2020.The biennial Wye Valley River Festival is a confident, unpretentious arts and environment festival shaped by the landscape of the Wye Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). The Festival is inspired by nature & culture, rooted in our communities and has a strong social purpose. It is run by the Wye Valley AONB Unit and the River Festival team.We need a creative, eye-catching and thought-provoking space to act as an interface where visitors to the Wye Valley River Festival can engage with us. We see this as part artwork, part welcome desk, part interpretation, part orientation and part relaxation - a place where visitors and local people, AONB staff, artists, traders and performers can meet and exchange ideas during (and after) the Festival. We want to improve our ‘sense of place’ offer at the Festival, through this dedicated interface, that will encourage visitors to engage with the Wye Valley AONB in a deeper, more meaningful and rewarding way, helping us to tell stories from the Wye Valley and putting our environmental messages centre stage.The space must:1.Awake people’s sensibilities to the wonders of the Wye Valley2.Alert them to the concerns about our future3.Make them Aware that they are part of the solution by taking Action themselvesOur wish list:•We want the space to function as a think-tank for the future. We want to raise awareness of the threats and challenges our landscape is facing and provoke and empower people to advocate its conservation and act to save it. Can the shape reflect the stories/ issues we are trying to tell?•We want to create space for mingling, the sharing of tea made on an open heat source, the refilling of water bottles perhaps? We need to think about seating and providing tea/water in this space so people want to linger, talk to our volunteers and staff and exchange views. If seating is cushion/ bean bags can they together to form a map of the Wye Valley?•There needs to be space for activities to take place. We are considering a craftism activity. We will be looking to house an artist in the welcome space to undertake this element of our engagement. (It could be the making of a pledge to tie in with the Wye Valley AONB Citizen’s Charter, printed on fabric and worn as a scarf, an outward sign of pro- environmental values.)•The space needs to provoke people to Take Action, so we envisage giving local transition groups a platform/space at each event (eg Monmouthshire Meadows, Bee Friendly Monmouthshire), encouraging people to ‘be the change you want to see’.•We want to involve volunteers in this welcome space. They will act as ‘Agents for Change’, inviting visitors to join them on a short story walk.•We want the whole experience to engage the senses.•Your proposal should include ideas for a ‘reflective space’ perhaps located around the outside of the welcome space and made up of tree pods and hammocks where people could listen to pod casts on head seats. (The cost of producing this type of audio (bilingually) will need to be met from the budget)•We would love to see ideas for a piece of artwork which provokes/ engages/ entertains and attracts as the centre piece of this space. It could explore the threats to the AONB, raising awareness, understanding and promoting positive action. Something beautiful and yet unsettling could be created (perhaps with a school group) to embody this concern prior to the launch of the welcome space. This work could be sited at the centre of the welcome point and become a focal/talking point. Something mirroring the landscape/ reflecting the landscape (fisheye lenses or kaleidoscpes?) with a nod to the Picturesque but presenting it in an unusual way? Or reflective canvas around the outside of the space?•We would like to see ideas which give people permission to be playful and to have fun. Can we physically interpret the Wye Valley AONB with our bodies?NOTE: To register your interest in this notice and obtain any additional information please visit the Sell2Wales Web Site at https://www.sell2wales.gov.wales/Search/Search_Switch.aspx?ID=94240.