Call for sound artist: £6K public realm audio commission
Apply now for a £6,000 audio art commission responding to the Walking as One mosaic installation in North Kensington.
We’re looking for an artist experienced in delivering sound-based, socially engaged, and co-created artworks for a public realm commission. With a fee of £6,000, the commissioned artist will create an original sound work in response to Walking as One and mentor a small cohort of local people to develop their own contributions. Together, this collection of audio artworks will form an interpretation of, and companion to, the mosaic installation.
Download the easy read version of this open call here.
Scroll down to read our FAQs which offer full details on the opportunity, eligibility and application process.
Key information
Deadline to apply
Tuesday 10 June 2025, 10am
Apply here
Fee
£6,000, plus a resource budget of £2,000
Delivery dates
Starts July 2025 and ends spring 2026
Contact for access support
recruitment@acava.org
Download easy read version
Summary
- Walking as One: Audio Commission (working title), asks the commissioned artist to respond to the Walking as One installation, within the context of their own artistic practice.
- The commissioned artist will also train and mentor a cohort of three local people (Community Creatives) to produce their own sound-based response to the installation.
- The commission fee is £6,000, plus a resource budget of £2,000. We expect the commission to be completed by Spring 2026.
- The commissioned artist will be supported by ACAVA’s Social Practice team throughout the delivery, and will have access to equipment, materials and sessional use of Studio 1, the community studio at Blechynden St Studios (W10 6RJ).
- The Social Practice team will lead on the recruitment of the Community Creatives in collaboration with the commissioned artist.
- The audio works will be hosted on our website for a minimum of five years and will be incorporated into a second edition of the Walking as One printed map illustrated by Peter Morey. The audio works will be accessible to the public via the ACAVA website, supported by outdoor signage along the installation route.
About Walking as One
Walking as One is an installation co-created by over 90 local people with the guidance of local artists and partners. The installation is part of the Grenfell Memorial Community Mosaic, initiated by ACAVA and Al-Manaar Muslim Cultural Heritage Centre to support community recovery following the Grenfell Tower Fire.
The artwork consists of permanently installed mosaics that follow the route of the Grenfell Silent Walk. The installation depicts the word ‘Justice’ in the different community languages spoken in the Tower and includes the green heart synonymous with Grenfell and 72 gold flecks for each life lost.
The communal artwork was installed to mark the fifth anniversary of the fire and commemorates the tragedy by documenting the Silent Walk and its significance to local and wider communities and the history of North Kensington.
The Brief
Walking as One: Audio Commission (working title)
Intent: To create a community centred, forwarding-looking audio response to the Walking as One street installation. We ask that the commissioned artist considers the languages represented, the diversity of the local community, and the rich tradition of social justice campaigning in North Kensington.
Location: North Kensington, with access to equipment, materials and sessional use of ACAVA’s community studio at 51 Blechynden St, London, W10 6RJ. Studio 1 can be booked for half or full day use, for both delivery of the Community Creatives training programme and the development of the artist’s own sound-based art work.
Fee: £6,000. This fee is based on a flat day rate of £300 per day, for an estimated 20 days’ work. We will agree a payment schedule with the commissioned artist that supports the artist’s cashflow and reflects the project delivery requirements. This fee is informed by the latest pay guidelines set by a-n and Artists Union England.
There is an additional resource budget of £2000, held by ACAVA, for materials, additional equipment, sessional refreshments, and access costs.
Timeline
Dates: June 2025 – April 2026
Deliverables
Part One: a new sound-based art work (approx. 50% of the commission)
- Research and Development (approx. July – September 2025), which could include:
- Advice and guidance from the consultant curator, providing local insight, context and resources.
- Access to archival materials from the development of the mosaics, including images from ACAVA Shoots photographers.
- Creation of a new sound-based artwork to form part of the collection (October 2025 – March 2026). Artwork to be publicly accessed via ACAVA’s website, the Walking as One map and street signage.
- Participate in evaluation processes throughout delivery.
Part Two: Training & Mentorship for Community Creatives (approx. 50% of the commission)
- Collaborate with ACAVA’s Social Practice Team on the recruitment of three Community Creatives (ACAVA will facilitate the process).
- Design and deliver an accessible training programme (approx. 8 – 12 hours of group sessions) for the cohort of Community Creatives. Activities could include:
- Expanding participants’ ideas of sound art.
- Learning recording techniques.
- Gaining skills in audio editing.
- Exploring interview and community-based ethics.
- Collaboration and feedback between projects.
- Provide 1:1 mentorship to Community Creatives (an additional approx. 8 hours per participant, Jan – April 2026)
- Delivery of Community Creatives’ sound-based artworks in a format agreed with ACAVA, to be publicly accessed via ACAVA’s website, the Walking as One map and street signage (April 2026).
- Attend a launch event (Spring 2026).
- Participate in evaluation processes throughout delivery.
Artist Specification
Essential
- Experience in delivering sound-based artwork as part of a professional creative practice. This could include: sound art, music, radio projects, soundscapes, interview projects, creative oral history projects etc.
- Experience working with communities through co-creation and/or supporting the artistic work of community participants.
- Strong ethical considerations of working in sensitive contexts, including a working understanding of trauma-informed practice and approaches.
- Facilitation skills, in planning and delivering workshops.
- An authentic understanding of the contemporary North Kensington context.
- Willing to undergo a DBS check or already in possession of DBS certificate and registered with the update service.
Desirable
- A connection to North Kensington. This could be through family history, living in the area or nearby, working locally, or actively supporting the community’s work in seeking justice following the Grenfell Tower fire.
- Experience in delivering creative projects with communities in response to injustice, during/post-crises.
We do not require the commissioned artist to have any formal qualifications or training. We are looking for demonstrable experience with the ability to deliver the brief.
Part of the resource budget can be used to support access needs for both the commissioned artist and Community Creatives. We are not able to reimburse travel expenses for the commissioned artist; please keep this in mind if you are based outside of London.
Audio Commission Team
Isabella Niven, Head of Social Practice, ACAVA (she/her)
Isabella has led ACAVA’s community engagement since 2011 and is committed to fostering cultural democracy by facilitating meaningful collaboration between communities and artists. Working with colleagues and partners she advocates for the development of ethical and equitable commissioning practices that support inclusive and authentic cultural participation. She has a particular interest in the role engaging in creativity can play in promoting good health and social wellbeing.
Maxi Himpe, Project Co-ordinator, ACAVA, and independent artist (they/them)
Maxi Himpe is a performance director, writer and interdisciplinary artist. They have worked with venues like the Southbank Centre, the Barbican, Hoxton Hall, Projekt Europa, Siobhan Davies Studio, Thames Festival, Almeida Theatre, and Oakland Theater Project, and completed Residencies with Hugo Burge Foundation and B&R Productions. They are a Trustee at Greenwich Docklands International Festival and have a decade of experience in facilitation and community-responsive work. They have worked at ACAVA for over two years on the Social Practice team, supporting the delivery of Flourish and the recruitment of the Barham Park AiR ’24-25.
Lisa Nash, Consultant Curator (she/her)
A resident of North Kensington, Lisa is an independent socially-engaged artist-curator. Whilst working for ACAVA as Curator of Social Practice, she established and curated the Grenfell Memorial Community Mosaic, including the Walking as One installation and map. Lisa will be co-presenting ‘Memorialising Grenfell: Listening to the Silence, Capturing the Anger’ as part of the Spontaneous Memorials international conference at the University of Manchester in June 2025.
This team will make up the selection panel.
How to apply
Please complete the Jotform, accessing this link: https://form.jotform.com/251204844893360
The Jotform includes:
- 5 application questions. We will accept video, audio or text-based responses. Audio/video responses can be up to 6 minutes long in total for all questions. We will assess applications based on the Artist Specification, so please consider this in your answers.
- 1. Please tell us about your practice. (200 words)
- 2. Why are you interested in this opportunity? (100 words)
- 3. Describe one sound-based artwork you have made. How would your experience on that project serve this brief? (200 words)
- 4. Describe up to 3 detailed examples of your experience in community-based work, facilitation, or sensitive place-based contexts (350 words).
- 5. Do you have a connection to North Kensington? If yes, please expand. (50 words)
- A link to upload CV (max. 2 pages of A4).
- Example of previous work OR link to relevant website.
- Contact Information
- Link to Equal Opportunities Monitoring Form (optional).
- Please provide contact details of 2 referees.
We are only accepting applications via Jotform for this opportunity. If you require access support to complete the application, please email recruitment@acava.org for assistance.
Applications will be shortlisted based on how the artist is suited to the commission and meets the artist specification. The artist’s C.V. and application question responses will inform the decision.
We commit to offering feedback as best practice for all applications, if this is useful to artists, and is requested. We can offer this in the format you prefer after we notify you. Please bear with us in this process, we want all our feedback to be carefully considered and useful.
Dates
Deadline: Please apply by 10am on Tuesday 10 June 2025.
Interviews: Interviews will be held in person during the week beginning 30 June 2025 at our office in Blechynden Street (W10 6RJ).
Start date: July 2025 (please scroll up to see Gantt chart for more detailed breakdown).
Download easy read version
FAQs
Yes, absolutely! We realise people have many ways into sound-based or co-created work and may come from other artistic fields. We encourage anyone who fits the criteria to apply.
You can apply but we would like you to demonstrate in your application how you would connect authentically with the community or how your experiences in other communities would translate well into this project. We will also support artists and connect them to relevant resources/partners to learn more about our work and the community. That said, we actively encourage applicants with an existing connection to the area.
Please let us know in the application form if you have access needs. If you need support prior to applying, please contact recruitment@acava.org.
We are open to any forms. You may create multiple shorter pieces or one long piece. We have budgeted for an R&D period in which the commissioned artist can explore what forms they’d like to work in and what themes they’d like to address (language, community, social justice). The technical requirements of your work will be agreed with ACAVA during this R&D period.
Check out this page on our website for more information about the piece.
During the interview process, we may ask applicants how they would sensitively work with the North Kensington community, which has experienced many complex challenges in the wake of the Grenfell Tower Fire. ACAVA uses a trauma-informed approach in all our Social Practice programming, and we would want to know how you would or have in the past used tools and strategies to safeguard community participants and the audiences who will engage with your work.
The work is funded by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Culture Team through Section 106 funding. A Section 106 (S106) agreement is a legally binding contract, also known as a planning obligation, between a local planning authority and a developer. These agreements are used to mitigate the impact of a development on the local area, such as infrastructure, services, and community facilities.
We are open to applications from artists that consider themselves early-career, mid-career or established artists, so long as they can demonstrate they fit the Artist Specification criteria and are comfortable with the fee compared with their practice experience.
Please contact recruitment@acava.org. We will endeavour to respond within a week. If you email us any later than 3 June 2025, we cannot promise that we will get back to you in time for the deadline.
We are open to discussing the terms of licensing with the artist and will build a mutually agreeable clause into the contract.
ACAVA takes a trauma-informed approach to all we do. This commission entails wellbeing support from planning to completion, through our Resource Budget.
We welcome applicants who are based outside of London. However, we will expect applicants to demonstrate an authentic understanding of the contemporary North Kensington context, and we cannot reimburse travel expenses for the commissioned artist.
Please consider applying to the Community Creatives cohort! Recruitment for Community Creatives will begin this Summer and will be open to residents with diverse levels of experience and skills.
