We are delighted to invite applications from Scottish early-mid career makers for the second Visual Arts Scotland : Inches Carr Craft Mentoring Award 2020. The award is £5000 for a maker, plus an additional £2000 for a mentor whose discipline and/or professional experience would add value to the winners practise. The purpose is to encourage and mentor makers to develop their practice to a higher level, consider innovation and introducing new materials or techniques to their existing practise.

Shortlisted artists will exhibit a work or a body of work in a dedicated section of  Visual Arts Scotland’s next Annual Exhibition at the Royal Scottish Academy, 22 December 2019 – 30 January 2020. The winner will be announced during the exhibition and will be invited to develop a new body of work in conjunction with their mentor to be exhibited at the subsequent VAS annual exhibition.

*The deadline for applications is Tuesday 1 October*

Eligibilty:

• This is a development award and is aimed at  craft makers who are looking to create a new body of work or expand their existing practise
• Applicants must have been living and working in Scotland for four or more years, and at least four years since graduating
• The award is open to makers, applied artists, and craftspeople working in any craft discipline
• Applications from printmakers, sculptors, and other non-craft disciplines will not be considered and no application fee refund will be offered

Application:

• The deadline for applications is Tuesday 1 October
• All applications must be made through the online portal and include up to six images, an artist’s statement, a statement of intent, and a short CV. Failure to complete each section of the application in full may adversely affect your application.
• You can add up to six pieces of work to your application, which will be shown at the shortlist exhibition from 22 December - 30 January. Submissions will be judged both on the written proposal, and the quality of work proposed for the exhibition.
• Within the selection of images uploaded at least one should show each piece/group in its entirety, and one should be a close up shot that demonstrates quality of making.
• The images submitted should show the actual work to be exhibited
• There is an application fee of £15, and a discounted entry fee of £10 for VAS members. Click here to join now.
• Submitted images might be reproduced in publications to accompany the exhibition so please make sure you have permission to use the image and credit photographers as necessary
• Applicants will be required to login on or after after 4 November to see if they have been preselected and will be asked to download and print their application details to be delivered with the artwork.

The Mentor:

• Applicants may suggest a preferred mentor in the application if they wish to do so, but it is not a requirement and we will work with the winner to recruit a suitable mentor if necessary.
•  If you do name a preferred mentor please explain in your application your reasons for choosing that person, explain what value you hope they could add to your practise
• If you do not have a mentor in mind please detail instead the particular area of your practise that you would like to develop, eg introducing new technology, working with a new material, expanding on existing skills...
• If a mentor was not specified at the time of application then VAS and Inches Carr will use their pool of contacts to identify a suitable mentor in line with the requirements outlined in the winner’s application
• The appointment of the mentor will be subject to approval by The Inches Carr Trust and Visual Arts Scotland. We may suggest an alternative mentor to the one you have specified in your application
• The mentor will work with the maker to develop a body of work to be exhibited at the subsequent VAS Annual Exhibition where the maker will be shown as an invited artist
• The £2000 mentoring fee should cover around six sessions where the maker and mentor meet, and also reasonable communication by email/phone in the interim periods between meetings. The fee will be paid in instalments directly to the mentor

Judging:

The panel will consider the following in drawing up the shortlist;

• A clear demonstration that the applicant has considered a new direction in their work and has an understanding of the role a mentor could play in it
• The clarity of the proposal and ability to convey potential outcomes  in a coherent and concise manner
• The quality of the work submitted and its appropriateness for inclusion in the VAS exhibition
• Applicants are encouraged to focus on a single area for development, and not to include too many varying outcomes

The decision of the Selectors on all matters is final and no correspondence will be entered into.

Terms and Conditions:

• Applicants must be resident and working in Scotland for at least four years and at least four years since graduation.
• The shortlisted artists must make the selected work available for exhibition from 16 December 2019 - 1 February 2020
• Any exhibited work that is for sale will be subject to VAS’s standard commission of 40%. The work does not have to be for sale
• The maker will be required to document the development of the project as it unfolds for monitoring purposes, and for future use by VAS online and in publications. This should take the form of excerpts of conversation between the maker and mentor, images of the work in progress, developmental sketches etc

Pricing

• Work selected for exhibition can be for sale but does not have to be.
• Commission of 40% of the sale prices is retained by VAS. It will be assumed that the stated sale price includes our commission. Please allow for this when pricing your work.

Insurance
Visual Arts Scotland  will insure artworks from the point of delivery until the stated collection date. Artists must provide the required information to complete the insurance schedule on request, failure to do so may result in the work not being included in the insurance policy.

Delivery and Collection

• Artists are responsible for the delivery of the work and any neccesary display equipment to the gallery on 16 December 2019, and collection from the gallery on 1 Feb 2020.
• All packaging materials must be removed after delivery (no gallery storage is available for this) and brought back at collection.
• Work not collected at the stated times will be subject to a daily charge of £20 and will be disposed of after one month. 

Agreement
By submitting to the exhibition you are deemed to accept and agree to the following:
The decision of the Selectors on all matters is final and no correspondence will be entered into.
I understand that The Organisers reserve the right to make such changes to the exhibition arrangements and these Terms & Conditions as may be deemed necessary by circumstances.
I authorise The Organisers to process, store, and utilise the data in my submission and agree that, if selected for exhibition, images of my work can be freely used by The Organisers, The Gallery and associated organisations for promotional and publicity purposes.
All information provided by me is true and accurate and that the work submitted is wholly of my own creation, except where a collaborator has been clearly identified and credited appropriately.
I have read and understood these terms and conditions and by submitting this application I accept and agree to observe all the Terms And Conditions therein.