Re-imagining East Coast Narratives
Writer’s Brief, Orford Ness
We are looking for a skilled writer for a story gathering project which collaborates with the local communities in the Orford Ness area on the Suffolk Coast on a heritage, creative and walks-based exploration of their shared and different coastal heritage.
Supported by Historic England, this project aligns with a national festival called Beach of Dreams, which will take place at the Out There International Festival of Outdoor Arts and Circus in May 2025.
In partnership with Essex Book Festival and Beach of Dreams collaborators, the writer, working alongside a digital artist, will lead workshops to explore the hopes, fears, stories, and dreams of the local coastal community. These stories will be shared on digital platforms and in a stunning visual display of thousands of locally designed silk flags, made and carried by the public to inspire and bring about positive change in reflection of the past.
What is Beach of Dreams?
Beach of Dreams is an unprecedented collaboration among arts, cultural, environmental, and community organizations across the UK. It brings artists, scientists, and writers together with communities to creatively seek solutions for their local landscapes in response to the challenges posed by the climate emergency.
The festival invites participants to join a moment of reflection and action. It will tour in May 2025 with the aim of discovering more about our coastlines, ourselves, and our planet. In the months leading up to the festival, several story-gathering workshops will be conducted with local communities. Led by a writer and a digital artist, these workshops will capture stories related to our shared coastal heritage.
Great Yarmouth will be the final stop for the festival, held during the Out There International Festival of Outdoor Arts and Circus. Around 600 flags will be displayed on the beach, each featuring the stories and dreams that emerge from the various story-gathering workshops conducted over the preceding months.
Beach of Dreams is a project led by Kinetika with Orford Ness activities coordinated by Essex Book Festival.
The Writer We Are Looking For:
- Skilled and experienced in their professional practice
- A great communicator who can share their practice in practical and engaging ways
- Dynamic and well-organized
- A good collaborator, able to work closely with other professionals
- Experienced in working in an arts/heritage context, encouraging communities to respond creatively to historical and heritage themes
The Sessions:
The Beach of Dreams project will begin with research and heritage information gathering through a series of talks presented by partner organisations and reminiscence sessions. The purpose of these sessions is to explore the heritage of the historic buildings on Orford Ness.
These sessions will be designed to introduce participants to the project and begin developing their stories, influenced by the wide variety of heritage topics such as natural environment, industry, economy, cultural arts and more. The writer will be required to attend these sessions as part of their planning days.
The writer will be expected to collaborate with a digital artist throughout the project.
4x story gathering workshops will be led by the writer and digital artist to capture the stories and dreams of the participants in relation to the coastal heritage. These workshops will take place on Orford Ness and potential other local venues.
There will be 4 days for the writer to collate, edit and create additional work to support the flag making and batik workshops and potential CPD days.
Dates and Practicalities:
The writer will be expected to deliver the work from November 2024 – June 2025
The work will roughly be broken down as follows:
Story Gathering Workshops
4x Story Gathering Workshops: November
Reminiscence Sessions and Workshop Preparation
1x Workshop preparation day – November 2024
3x heritage research walks and preparation days taking place in November 2024
Writing Workshops
3x Writing Workshops at various community events
Creation Days
2x create and collate work following story gathering workshops – April 2025
Community Flag Walk and Workshops at Out There Festival 2025
2x workshops and participation at the Out There Festival 29th -31st May 2025
Fees:
15 days @ £200 per day
£3000 total
We also accept video applications, please provide us a link to your video hosted on an accessible video platform (Youtube, Vimeo etc.)
