Are you interested in working with archives as part of your creative practice? Do you want to develop new ways of using local and lesser-known stories to share the global history of the Holocaust? Would you like to gain experience in navigating challenging subject matter in your work? Are you interested in how artistic practices can create spaces for critical exploration and nuanced conversations around current and past events? Do you work with difficult histories and would like to be supported in a collective learning environment? Are you interested in exploring questions of how we remember atrocity?

The Memorial Gestures Residency Programme will support three artists with self-directed research into Holocaust Centre North’s Archive and its survivor community. Holocaust Centre North is a museum based in Huddersfield which tells the story of Jewish survivors of the Nazi genocide who rebuilt their lives in the North of England.

We care for the collections of over 150+ Jewish refugees and families. 

The Iby Knill Bursaries will support 3x artists with £4800 over the course of an 8-month remote residency.

Artists are invited to explore our collection by responding to stories and themes they feel have contemporary relevance.

We are looking to award one bursary to an emerging artist based in the North of England, as well as to one international artist.

Holocaust Centre North welcomes applications from artists across disciplines.

Please note that an additional open call (to be published in August 2024) will solicit work for a temporary exhibition of moving image work dealing with the themes of this open call.

Understanding care and ethical practice is fundamental to our work.

We are interested in hearing from applicants who have a history of working with communities, young people, elderly adults, and vulnerable people. (This experience can be informal or formal!)

For more info, sign up for our drop-in sessions on July 7th  & August 12th.

About Us:

Holocaust Centre North works to ensure that the atrocities of the Nazi genocide are never forgotten.

We are home to an exhibition, learning programme and archive, all of which tell the stories of Jewish survivors of the Holocaust who rebuilt their lives in the North of England.

Founded in the mid-1990s by survivors with the aim of providing friendship and community support, we have had a permanent home on the University of Huddersfield campus since 2018.

In our archive you will find traces of pre-war Jewish life & culture, forced displacement/migration, child refugees, trauma/intergenerational trauma, memory/post-memory, loss, internment, forced labour, survival & liberation, childhood & youth, diasporic identities, and making a new life in the North of England.

We believe these traces of the past can help us to understand and amplify contemporary struggles and experiences.

Our archival collection includes photographs, letters, legal documents, artefacts, textiles, ephemera & postcards,as well as an extensive collection of video & audio testimony with Holocaust survivors and their families.

Our understanding of the Holocaust is constantly evolving. At Holocaust Centre North we believe that the Holocaust must be understood alongside other historical and contemporary events and conflicts.

We encourage ongoing conversations about its meaning and legacy. We are committed to fostering a culture of care when talking about difficult and traumatic histories.

Our aim as a centre is to actively contribute to the prevention of genocide and to combat the oppression of minoritised groups. This is what championing diversity and promoting inclusion means to us.

We also know that all voices need to be part of the conversation, which is why we hope this opportunity will be considered as widely as possible by like-minded, socially engaged artists.

We recognise and value the benefits of a diverse workforce, and therefore welcome applications from people of all backgrounds.

We are committed to the Disability Confident Scheme and undertake to shortlist and interview all applicants declaring a disability who meet the criteria.

If you want to be considered under this scheme, please include a note in your expression of interest.
Commitments and Expectations

Holocaust Centre North will provide artists with:

·      £400x4 (research phase) + £800x4 (production/installation phase) = £4800

·      £1000 material budget for production of final work

·      £500 research travel

·      £250 workshop fee (development & delivery)

·      artist talks with relevant practitioners

·      tutorials with relevant practitioners

·      2x Open Studio/Work in Progress event (digital or in-person)

·      use of research facilities at Holocaust Centre North & University of Huddersfield (library services)

·      some technical support through the University (Art & Design Department)

Holocaust Centre North expects artists to commit to:

·      a minimum of 12 hours/week committed to research or

 development of work

·      a finalised piece/body of work

·      active participation in training and collective learning programme

·      development and delivery of a creative workshop in relation to their practice

·      2 x short blog posts (initial introduction & reflection towards end)

·      regularly contribute visual content and info for the Holpcaust Centre North’s social media through the Curator of Contemporary Practices

·      contribution of written and visual material, as well as curatorial input for the reflective publication GESTURES III

·      contribution of visual material for advertising purposes prior to final exhibition

An exhibition of the artists' work and research will be displayed at Holocaust Centre North or an alternative suitable venue, accompanied by a publication and public programming.

Artists are also invited to contribute any research to the Gestures Almanac, an accumulative publication which will be expanded upon with every iteration of the residency programme.

Artists are asked to invoice the Holocaust Centre North monthly, including a summary of their material expenses and travel. 

Structure (summary)

Guided research - October & November (paid at £400/month):
Consisting of a series of workshops with historians, artists, Holocaust educators, archivists, oral historians.

Independent research – December & January (paid at £400/month):
Working alongside the Holocaust Centre North collections team, artists will conduct individual and self-directed research based on their chosen topics/fields of interest. Preliminary research will be presented at an Open Studio and summarised in a blog post at the end of January.

Production Phase – February-April (paid at £800/month):
Artists will continue researching and developing research outcomes. Work (in part/in progress) will be presented at an Open Studio at the end of April, concluding the residency part of this programme.

Exhibition Phase – May/June (paid at £800/month):
Artists will be available to direct and facilitate the installation of their research outcomes. Work will be presented in a group show in June concluding the residency part of this programme.

Dates/Timeline:

Please note that dates in bold are fixed. Any other workshop & research dates for the residency are preliminary, given for the purpose of indicating an overview of the programme. Dates will be subject to change depending on artist/staff availability.

Dates

July 30th - Drop In Session 1 - online

August 12th - Drop In Session 2 - online

August 20th, 9 am  - Application Deadline

September 2nd - Shortlisted candidates hear back (interview confirmation)

September 9-12th - Interview dates (exact times tbc)

October 3rd - Residencies start with an Introduction Meeting

October 7th-11th - 1-2-1 meetings - artists and Curator

October 17th - Workshop #1 – Introduction to Holocaust History & Contemporary Antisemitism

October 24th - Group discussion

October 31st - Workshop #2 – Testimony & Co-production with Holocaust Survivors

November 14th - Workshop #3 – Jewish life, religion and aesthetics

November 21st - Film Screening

November 28th - Workshop #4 – Artist Talk: Working with Holocaust History

December 3rd -5th - Workshop #5 – Introduction to Holocaust Centre North Archive & Testimony Session (In person at Holocaust Centre North)

December 5th - Independent Research Phase starts

December 19th - Group discussion

January 9th - Research Day 1 - Artists present initial interests to curator and group

January 30th - Open Studio – Research (online/public), Blog completed by the beginning of February

February, March & April - Production Phase starts (Up to 6 group crits – 1 artist presenting research, work, question or idea per session (2 each))

April 24th  - Open Studio – Research Output (internal Holocaust Centre North staff)

May 1st - Open Studio – Research Output (public)

May 5th - (submission of exhibition text, install design, etc.)

May 7th - 1-2-1’s for exhibition planning

May 8 & 9th - Discussion, feedback & next steps

June 1st - 4th - Exhibition install

June 5th 2025 - EXHIBITION opening

June 29th - EXHIBITION closing

STRUCTURE (expanded)

Memorial Gestures artist residencies are process-based, meaning we value the journey as much as the finished work.

As outlined above, residencies are divided between a research phase (guided and independent), a production phase, and an exhibiting phase.

The fee and length of this residency reflects the belief that gradual and sustained research on such a complex topic is more productive than a shorter, intensive residency would be.

It is also Holocaust Centre North’s wish to make this opportunity inclusive to practitioners that have other ongoing professional or private engagements.

In the first two months of the residencies, Holocaust Centre North will provide some training (e.g. object handling with our Archivist) as well as offering a structure for collective learning through workshops on more general questions in this field.

This will include discussions on ethical practice when working with genocide survivors and vulnerable people, contemporary antisemitism, and Jewish culture/religion/aesthetics.

The workshops will involve conversations around questions such as: What does it mean to be working with and displaying traumatic histories? How is working with original archival material different to using secondary material? Why is co-creation or working with survivors as (last) direct witnesses important — and what can it entail?

In parallel to and following on from these five workshops in November and December, the artists’ research is expected to be mostly self-directed from mid-December onwards.

They will work alongside the collections team to explore Holocaust Centre North’s Archive and are expected to share their research with other artists and curator during one group crit in January.

Research will also be presented in a public open studio event at the end of January and shared in a blog at the beginning of February.

Following on from this, artist will work to develop a final piece of from their research (February-April). Holocaust Centre North will tailor support to the chosen artists’ individual needs, research and chosen methodologies during this time.

Support may include planning their research trips, organising artist talks with relevant practitioners and 1-on-1 tutorials, as well as hosting group crits (presentations of work) with the other resident artists.

Based at the University of Huddersfield, Holocaust Centre North is part of an international, academic community.

Our close relationship with a range of departments will help us facilitate research relationships between university researchers and artists where requested. The curator will also work to facilitate the artists’ use of university facilities where it is requested.

The initial (research & production) phase of the residency will conclude in the beginning of May with a second Open Studio and a blog post reflecting on the research.

In June, research outcomes will be exhibited at Sunny Bank Mills alongside work created in the previous two instalments of Memorial Gestures.

Mental Health & Awareness

You are being invited to understand, translate and care for other people’s life stories. All of them contain pain and loss, but also courage, kindness and fierce resilience.

Undertaking research into this topic is not an easy task and can be traumatising and retraumatising.

As a staff team we understand this well and talk about the emotional difficulties involved in our work and the impact it can have on our own mental health. Several of Holocaust Centre North’s staff have undergone Mental Health First Aid Training and will be there to support artists.

The care and respect we give to each item in our collection — or to each survivor we support — extends to the way we treat each other as a staff team.

We understand that every person comes from a unique set of circumstances, from an individual background, and with a particular experience of the world and that this diversity shapes our human relationships.

We believe awareness and sensibility for this diversity is key to ensuring we care for each other well and can best support each other.

APPLICATION STRUCTURE:

Expression of Interest, Portfolio, CV, Reference
Candidates will be ranked in points [out of 16]: [6] expression of interest, [7] portfolio, [3] CV

NOTE: Please get in touch with us if you would like to receive this open call in an alternative format.