Shoeburyness Commission: Call for Proposals

About this call

Essex Cultural Diversity Project, with the Cart & Wagon Shed run by Shoebury Coastal CIC, invites proposals for a participatory project responding to the history of Shoeburyness, near Southend in Essex, United Kingdom, where the Proof and Experimental Establishment tested ordnance for over a century. The project should collect and bring to life historical and contemporary stories of local people and places, reflecting on the language of military testing through themes of community, heritage and care; proposals on the role of women at the site are also of interest. It should engage no fewer than 150 individuals, connect with at least three community groups in the area and deliver at least six workshops, and run January to September 2027, with the final work presented at the Cart & Wagon Shed in summer 2027.

Who can apply

• Open to applicants of any nationality
• Medium: Mixed Media / Installation / Video / Performance / Writing
• Entry fee: See official site
• Open to creative practitioners in any media and at any career level, as individuals, collectives or companies (including visual and digital artists, writers, performers, musicians and dancers). Applicants must be registered as self-employed, as they are responsible for paying their own taxes. Funded organisations (venues, galleries, museums, local authorities, NPOs and similar) are not usually supported as lead applicants. ECDP does not tend to support large-scale site-specific work or public art (it can be considered with a clear and strong proposal with technical evidence), relocated existing work or repeats of an existing project, and does not support projects with little or no community participation. Email jo@essexcdp.com by midnight on 24 November: an outline of the artistic concept, project title, intended participants and any groups you may like to work with, and community engagement process (no more than 600 words); how your practice and project explores or promotes diversity (no more than 200 words); a bio, artist statement with examples of previous work, PDF portfolio, CV or links; a basic budget outline for the £10,000 and a short timeline with key milestones (4 to 6 lines suggested for each); and a completed Commission Monitoring Form. Written, verbal, video (no longer than 10 minutes) and audio proposals, or a recorded Zoom call, are accepted. Interviews in the week commencing 7 December 2026. The budget must cover all project costs (fees, expenses, travel, participant recruitment, events, materials) and is paid in instalments at the start, middle and end, the last on receipt of a final evaluation report; projects only partly funded by the budget are not usually selected. The appointed practitioner meets the commissioners regularly, tracks outcomes and writes a final report. The page does not mention an application fee.