Events
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Taking part in one of the many large science festivals or events has many advantages. Although for many creatives taking part will mean that you have to be ready to organise and deliver your own exhibit. This could require you to secure a venue, funding, insurance, staffing and complete risk assessments, but don't worry we can take you through it! Please see Getting Started and Organising an Event for advice
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Advantages:
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- Science festivals tend to be very well attended and by being part of an organised programme of events, your event will be promoted for you (they may also ask you to help with promotion through social media posts)
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- Science based events often try to target hard to reach demographics and will offer you a chance to also access these groups. This can include exhibiting within more unusual venues such as shopping centres, churches, community centres as well as having online content.
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- Science festivals often use large and prestigious venues, taking part can sometimes enable less established artists a chance to exhibit within them.
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- Some festivals and event will offer open calls, these can vary from asking artists to submit a piece of work, to artists submitting the plan for a whole exhibit that they plan to organise and deliver themselves.
Even if a festival does not have an open call then it can still be worth approaching them with a proposal.
- Events organisers can often offer support, this can include finding venues, references for funding or advice
- Funding bodies recognise the benefits of being part of larger event and this will help your application
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Festivals and Events
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The good news is that there a large number of science events taking places all over the UK throughout the year.
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And there's a couple of easy places to get started, including The UK Science Festivals Network this organisation exists to help support grown the field of science festivals within the UK and has this handy list:
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https://sciencefestivals.uk/list-all-members/
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Please note, while this list contains many of the science festival organisations across the UK, it is not comprehensive for Scotland.
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Thankfully Edinburgh University has a rather comprehensive list which they update each year:
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https://www.ed.ac.uk/files/atoms/files/scottish-science-festivals.pdf
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In addition to this then there are many events, which although they do not describe themselves as being science events, they appreciate the value that art/science exhibits can offer for public engagement and will welcome proposals
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Here is a short list, which we will be adding to within the near future:
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Glasgow Cathedral Festival (GFC) - 'Glasgow Cathedral Festival brings music, art and education to the dramatic setting of Glasgow’s medieval cathedral. Now in its sixth season, the festival is becoming an established part of the city’s cultural landscape' A diverse festival, GFC welcomes artists getting in touch with new and interesting proposals, including art/science/data cross over exhibits.
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Deer Shed - Music festival (Yorkshire)- This family friendly event features out door public art and performances. Open calls announced via website and newsletter:
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https://deershedfestival.com/science/
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Light up the North - A programme of light festivals that place across various cities in Northern England- Open calls announced via website and newsletter:
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https://lightupthenorth.com/newsletter/
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WOMAD world music festival (Wiltshire)- This family friendly festival incorporates outdoor art, education and performance as part of it's programme. Artists submission call will for 2024 will open on September.
As well as open call WOMAD features a Physics Pavilion which is provided with support from IOP, please see Organisations
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SPECTRA art/science festival (Aberdeen)- Can be contacted via https://www.curatedplace.com/
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https://www.spectrafestival.co.uk/
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There are also many venues which have their own programme of events. Please visit our venues page for more information
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Further afield
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And there is no need to restrict yourself just to the UK, many events abroad will accept applications. Although you might find that taking part means securing funding for travel
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Here is a very short list that we will be adding to in future:
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Altofest - Naples. This art festival takes place within the home of residents across the city. Artists can apply each year as part of their annual call out and will be offered a production fee of €1000 + up to 100 euros presenting proofs of production expenditure.
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https://www.teatringestazione.com/altofest/about-altofest-2022/
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Art of Neuroscience - Please visit our submission portal: submit.aon.nin.nl to register and upload your submissions for the Art of Neuroscience competition 2023. The deadline for this year’s competition is scheduled for Monday, May 1st 2023.
We invite anyone with an interest in the brain, nervous system, philosophy of mind, cognition and perception to submit work around these themes in the form of art installations, drawings, digital media, renderings, movies, poems, interactive art and other forms of expression.
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SIGGRAPH - Computer conference (America, Vancouver)- 'the premier conference for computer graphics and interactive techniques worldwide' This event has an annual open call for art work to be displayed at the event. Please note exhibitors need to find their own funding streams to facilitate participation. Open call for 2023 yet to be announced.
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https://s2022.siggraph.org/submit-to-siggraph/
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