Rochdale Creates Outdoor Gallery - Call Out for Submissions!

Are you an artist looking for opportunities to showcase your creativity? 

Culture Coop and Rochdale Development Agency, working together as part of borough-wide initiative ‘Rochdale Creates’ have launched a call out for submissions for a new temporary outdoor gallery in Rochdale Town Centre! 

Around 15 artworks will be selected, and will be prominently displayed on a large section of hoarding (temporary wall) on Drake Street in Rochdale Town Centre. 

Artists with a connection to Rochdale Borough are being asked to ‘Showcase your Creativity’ and submit digital files, which could include scans of drawings or paintings, photography, digital art, or well photographed ceramics, textiles or sculpture. 

Artist Opportunity: Showcase your Creativity 

This is an open call out for artists to submit their work to be displayed as a part of a new Outdoor Gallery. The final artworks will be selected by a panel of Cultural Pioneers (aka community participants) from across the Borough, facilitated by Culture Coop. During the panel session, the Cultural Pioneers will not only be asked to select their favourite artworks but also consider the one that hold the most relevance to the Borough. 

Artworks will be curated as part of a single large scale graphic that will be applied to the gallery wall, with space around each image to allow them to stand out. Each piece displayed will have a QR code linking to the artist profile on Rochdale Creates to help promote the gallery and your creative practice. All artists will be required to have created a directory profile on Rochdale Creates, as a condition of payment. 

The People’s Outdoor Gallery will exhibit work for a minimum of twelve months. 

Each artist is welcomed to submit a maximum of 2 artworks for the selection panel to select from. The final designs from the chosen artworks will be provided print ready in PDF /AI/EPS FILE format by midnight 23rd February 2025. The design will then be reproduced, resized and placed onto the site hoardings in vinyl. 

Artist/Practitioner fee: £350 [VAT not applicable] per artwork selected. This includes material costs and all other expenses involved. 

We cannot accept physical pieces (i.e., painting, sculpture), only digital versions (scans / photography). 

This artist fee gives licence to the Rochdale Development Agency and Culture Co-Op to use the digital asset for the gallery and for current and future marketing.

Selected works will need to be sent in at least 300dpi, and CMYK format. 

Who can apply? 

Artform: 

We welcome applications from artists of all disciplines where the work can align with the two-dimensional hoarding lay out and can be digitised to be printed to scale. (Please see the dimensions below.) Disciplines can include, but are not limited to; digital illustration, drawing, painting, photography, graphic design, sculpture (if able to be photographed), or prints.

New or existing work that can be transferred to the required format is welcomed. Proposals that include a mock-up or sketch of a proposed new design idea will also be considered if the final image can be completed within the timetable set out below and within the fee offered.

We strongly welcome artists of all ages, backgrounds, identities, and artforms. The Rochdale Creates Outdoor Gallery would like to celebrate local, regional, and national creativity side by side, so we encourage artists from the Rochdale borough and further afield to apply for this exhibiting opportunity with us.

Priority Applicants 

• Rochdale Borough Artists and Creatives 
• Regional Artists 
• Local Residents 
• People with connection to Rochdale 

Application Process: 

To be considered for this exhibition, please provide the following information below in the following link: Showcase your Creativity - Artist Opportunity:

1. Artist Name and Contact Details. 

2. Postcode or basic information of where you are based: local, regional, national. This is so that we can fulfil our ambitions of a diverse selection of works. 

3. A short description about the proposed artwork (80 words maximum) 

4. A short description of your overall practice/artist statement (150 words maximum) 

5. Links/References: Links to any relevant material showcasing your practice

6. Images of your proposed works (1-2 images per artist only)

If you have any questions, difficulties in the application, or access needs, please contact us via email: info@theculturecoop.org and we will try to accommodate.

Timeline 

Deadline for submissions: February 23rd 

Decision made on selected artworks: February 27th 

Installation of exhibition: March 24th – 29th 

Exhibition launch of the Gallery: April (exact date TBC) 

Culture Coop 

The Culture Co-op is the Arts Council’s Creative People and Places programme for Rochdale Borough. Our aim is to bring high quality activities and events to communities where engagement with arts and culture is below the national average. 

Our long-term ambition is to ensure communities across the Borough decide what counts as art and culture, where it happens, who makes it, and who experiences it. 

As part of the Culture Co-op’s programme, we have been working with residents to co-produce new ‘Outdoor Galleries’, including co-designing murals, co-producing participatory photography projects, and co-curating outdoor art exhibitions on temporary walls. 

Click here to visit the Culture Coop page on Rochdale Creates for more information. 

Funding 

The Rochdale Outdoor Gallery is being delivered by Culture Coop, and has been funded by Rochdale Borough Council, Rochdale Development Agency, The UK Shared Prosperity Fund, and DCMS’s Cultural Development Fund, administered by Arts Council England.