Guideline 4. Selection
Methods of selection often depend on time, budget and medium.
Click on a heading below for more information or scroll down the page to read the whole guideline.
Direct invitation
Artists are often invited to consider a commission if the client has a particular interest in their work or if the artist has a unique approach or work that it especially sympathetic to the location.
It is important to ensure that rules on competitive tendering are being met if the project is funded through public funds or grants.
Advertisement
Advertising often attracts large numbers of enquiries from a wide range of artists. It is advisable to be quite specific about project requirements when advertising.
An advertised commission is usually followed by a long-listing and short-listing exercise. This process can take between two and three months to arrive at a shortlist of artists.
Most artists use A-N Magazine to research opportunities and this is the most popular route for clients to advertise a commission.
Invited shortlist
Clients and agents commonly select from an invited shortlist of between three to five artists.
It is essential to fund artists at this stage.
Funding artists to produce initial design proposals gives the client a choice from a range of approaches and allows the artists time to focus on developing ideas.
Long listing
This is the process of selecting a number of possible artists from which to choose an appropriate shortlist.
Long listing can be done with the assistance of an arts agent or agency, artists’ database or following advertising.
Curators and agents
Working with an arts curator or agent to select artists and develop commissions can be an excellent way to approach projects that have many locations or seek a strong thematic or conceptual approach.
A client may choose to work with a curator or agent who has knowledge of a particular group of artists, experience of a similar commission or who can develop a project over several years.
Click here for a list of consultants and curators active in the North East.
