Open Call 2024: The book about Public Art Agency Sweden

During 2024, we will continue the process of finding different perspectives to describe the history, present and future of the Public Art Agency, and also how the government agency has developed and supported public art since 1937. Join us on the journey and participate in the writing of history! Open Call 2024: Boken om Statens konstråd [The Book about Public Art Agency Sweden] is open for applications 6 May–2 June 2024.

We are looking for someone who wants to do an investigative and writing work that contributes to writing the history of the Public Art Agency, in a publication to be released in connection with its 90th anniversary. The commission involves an in-depth study of the Public Art Agency’s activities in a studying, reflective, surprising and also questioning way. We hope that the material will reflect our present, past and future.

Suggestions for subjects

Last year, the Open Call 2023 focused on studying and writing about art; about those who worked with it, those who experience and use it today, how art has shaped the places where it is found, how it has been written about art, and how art has been received and experienced throughout the ages. In this year’s edition, we are broadening the perspective and opening for applications based on the Public Art Agency’s collection.

The majority of the works in the Public Art Agency’s collection, which includes just over 100,000 works, can be experienced at various government workplaces, universities and colleges throughout the country as well as at Swedish embassies around the world. Here, they are arranged as a kind of exhibition or collection—a selection of works in dialogue with the businesses at which they are shown. A smaller part of the collection is in the Public Art Agency’s warehouse, where the works are restored and stored while waiting for the next exhibition location. This year there is also the opportunity to use our official archive with digital and physical material in the application. Most of the material, the Public Art Agency’s diary-recorded documents in the archive, is in Swedish.

The Public Art Agency welcomes applicants who approach the subjects from different angles and methods. As an example, we like to see writers who use working methods similar to so-called Action Research, i.e., the investigative work consists of a palette of research approaches outside the “laboratory,” and is instead carried out in practice with the help of ethnological, artistic and journalistic methods. In this way, the places, the works, the audience and on site are examined. For instance, the investigative work can consist of interviews with people connected to art, or by revisiting existing artworks as part of the investigative work.

Who can apply?

The commission is addressed to professional researchers, writers, artists and curators within or outside the art world, who are interested in and use ethnological and journalistic methods to gain new knowledge and new angles. We welcome applicants with different backgrounds and perspectives.

The selection for this Open Call is based on your having good knowledge of Swedish and/or international art history, modern and contemporary art, preferably with a focus on public art or public administration. You must be able to demonstrate your professional skills and have documented relevant experience and level of education.
An additional requirement is good knowledge of Swedish and [AT1] English. The major part of the documents in our archive are in Swedish.

The work is carried out over the equivalent of a total of three months full-time, with final delivery in the form of text or equivalent material no later than 12 November 2024.

As an applicant, you need to be able to invoice the fee in order to receive payment for the work.

How to apply

The application can be written in both Swedish and English. Attach the following documents in PDF format to the application:

• CV
• Personal letter with your perspectives
• Suggested subject/idea for the direction of the work
• Method description that clarifies your intended working methods
• Delivery method, intended material and scope
• Work samples, 1–3 relevant texts or an equivalent amount of material
• Suggestion for subject

We are not looking for a particular subject but hope for breadth and to be surprised. However, we have identified that there is a need for more knowledge about how users experience art in common spaces, what art does, readings of works linked to social issues and the spirit of the times. There is a lack of interviews with users to understand the place-making properties of art. We are looking for an external creative eye.

Possible starting points for ways of working could be based on:

• A selection of the over 2,000 permanent artworks developed in public spaces across the country.
• Studies of the roughly 100,000 works included in the Public Art Agency’s collection.
• Interviews with audience/users on site where art collections or building-related works are shown.
• The role of the artist and public art.
• What and how is art competence, or what does art competence do, in a Designed Living Environment?
• Temporary art as public art, how does it work?
• Art processes and how they have developed over the years.
•  The curatorial role and public art.
• An analysis of publications made over the years about public art developed by the Public Art Agency.
• The different roles of the audience/user.
• Paradigm shifts in public art.
• The relationship between temporary and permanent art.
• The public conversation about public art.
• Art texts about public art.
• Knowledge development in public art, what could it be?
• Analyses of material from the government archive, documents, e.g., minuted decisions, project descriptions, written art programs, cooperation agreements, etc.

Schedule

• Announcement opens 6 May 6 2024
• Application deadline 2 June 2024
• Decision will be announced 11 June 2024
• Last delivery date 12 November 2024
• Last invoicing day 18 November 2024

Practical information

The writer invoices the Public Art Agency for the work. The fee for the commission is SEK 135,000, excluding VAT.

• Estimated time refers to 3 months full-time
• The working period is carried out according to agreement and must be equal to 3 months full-time, but the work can be spread over 5 months.
• The commission will be carried out during the summer and/or autumn of 2024 and will be completed before the end of 2024.
• Applications are sent to the email address: opencall2024@statenskonstrad.se
• In the subject line of the e-mail, please write: your name and Open Call Boken om Statens konstråd.
• The application and work samples must be sent in PDF format.

Delivery and Fee

At the end of the working period, you are expected to deliver a finished document, containing material ready to be published, such as a fully written text or an equivalent amount of material with images or the like, as agreed with the editors at the Public Art Agency.
For references with footnotes: apply the Oxford system of footnotes.
In case of text delivery, guideline for scope, approx. 15,000–20,000 words.

Fee

SEK 135,000, excluding VAT by invoice (F-tax).

Contact

If you have any questions, contact Annika Enqvist, Program and Publication Manager at the Public Art Agency: annika.enqvist@statenskonstrad.se