Storying Barnsley Principal Townscapes

Barnsley Council’s Cultural Development Fund team are looking to commission South Yorkshire-based artists with experience of community engagement to create the designs for ‘townscapes’ that will represent and give a flavour of the following Principal Towns of Barnsley: 

  • Royston 
  • Hoyland 
  • Wombwell 
  • Penistone 
  • Cudworth 

Following on from the pilot ‘townscape’ project for the Principal Town of Goldthorpe, we are now seeking five artists/designers to match with the remaining five Principal Towns. This paid commission will involve working with community members along with creating design/artwork, and we are looking for creative practitioners who have experience in community engagement. Alternatively if you wish to partner with someone/a group with community engagement experience to jointly deliver this commission we encourage you to apply together.  

The creative output from these commissions will form the content for a set of online platforms on the Barnsley Museums website. These digital ‘townscapes’ will allow visitors to experience different areas of Barnsley by virtually exploring images and interacting with hotspots/sections to view artworks and information. 

We are specifically looking for five artists/teams to deliver five townscape designs, with an available budget of £4,000 per town. 

The brief for the ‘Storying Barnsley Principal Townscapes’ Commission is to: 

  1. Plan and deliver a short-term programme of creative engagement activity in your matched Principal Town, to come up with ideas and initial designs co-created by the community. 
  1. Refine and deliver a set of designs/artworks that are digital (or can be digitised i.e. scanned at a high-quality resolution) that reflect the Principal Town and its residents. 
  1. On a short-term basis liaise with Barnsley Museums web designers who will be processing each townscape design into an interactive digital platform. We will need artists/designers to virtually meet and/or communicate with the web designers at least once during their commission lifespan in order to ask questions around artwork parameters and how to make sure artworks are designed to be accessible. 

We are keen to have a diverse range of visual identities for this project. We want each of the towns to be represented in a different medium where possible, for example watercolour / photography / painting / textiles to create a visually dynamic set of six townscapes that complement each other.  

We would love to hear from artists and designers from all stages, backgrounds, practices, and mediums. 

How to apply: 

Please apply for this commission by emailing storyingbarnsley@barnsley.gov.uk with the subject title ‘Digital Townscape Application’ and the following information: 

  1. A brief outline of how you would deliver this commission and a rough timeframe. 
  2. A proposed budget outline for the £4,000 available. 
  3. Examples of your work i.e. website link / portfolio / attachments 
  4. Confirmation that you live and/or work in South Yorkshire. 
  5. We are looking for a different artist/team for each town so please tell us if you have a preference for any of the towns listed above or have no preference. 

Deadlines: 

Please submit your application by Monday 26th Feb 2024. 

Projects will commence from late-March to April with final output handed over to the Cultural Development Fund team by September 2024 at the latest.

Get in touch with us via email if you have any questions storyingbarnsley@barnsley.gov.uk  

Artwork design by University of Sheffield Live Projects 2023 ‘Storying Barnsley’ student team.