Creative Cardiff are currently working in partnership with Cardiff University’s School of Pharmacy’s ‘Pharmabees’ project on ‘Greening Cathays’.
This exciting initiative, funded with support from Cardiff City Council through the Shared Prosperity Fund, aims to bring together communities by creating nature-rich urban environment which will support biodiversity, re-energize public spaces through creativity and allow diverse residents to connect with the natural world, and with each other.
‘Greening Cathays’ will achieve this through working with the local community to deliver a number of activities. This includes:
- An engagement project working with local school children to raise awareness of biodiversity and nature.
- The design and development of a ‘bee trail’, with activation at key sites within the Cathays ward and Cardiff city centre.
- Creation of a wellbeing and pollinator garden in the grounds of Cardiff Muslim Primary School on Maindy Road.
- Revitalising three existing timber-built planters on Fanny Street, and installing two new planters on Crwys Road.
- A placemaking project at Cathays Train Station to create a green, open-air ‘waiting room’.
- A pop-up, mobile exhibition (initially at Cardiff University’s Centre for Student Life) showcasing a range of related project assets and outputs.
- Working with community groups, including Keep Cathays Tidy.
- A range of under-pinning community engagement activities focussed on promoting wellbeing, social cohesion and providing opportunities for local residents to connect with nature and each other.
Commission 4 – Timber planter project
During 2020, in partnership with the Pharmabees project, Cardiff Council created three timbre framed planters along the length of Fanny Street in Cathays. These were seeded with a variety of plantlife and pollinator-friendly seed mix. The plantlife was specifically selected to create patches of rewilded ‘greenery’ in an otherwise urban environment, safeguard biodiversity and to provide food and respite for insects, birds and other wildlife.F
Further planters also exist behind the old Co-Op building on Crwys Road which are currently awaiting re-building.
Since 2020, the planters have been cared for by community volunteers who support with tidying-up the planters and monitoring the health and growth of the plants. However, over time the planters have weathered, leaving the project looking slightly unloved and worse-for-wear.
The commission will help to re-energise the planter project, and reinstate the planters as a local focal point and site of public art, engagement and wellness.
This commission will:
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Develop a unified creative art concept to link the planters.
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Reflect the local community and the nature and biodiversity themes of the Pharmabees project.
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Implement that concept across the three planters currently in-situ at Fanny Street.
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Articulate future plans for the planters awaiting re-building at Crwys Road (which will be actioned as soon as the new planters are installed).
Output: Design of nature-themed creative concept for timber framed planters. Implementation of that concept across 3 x existing planters. Creation of detail designs and plans for a further planters (pending funds to re-build).
Maximum commission value – £4K
Format:
This is an open and multi-disciplinary commissioning opportunity.
The creative medium for commissioned artists could include: visual arts, sculpture, music, video, poetry, dance, spoken and written word, textiles, installation or other creative practices. Please note that this is not an exhaustive list.
Application Process
Applicants are asked to send us a short response, addressing the following questions:
- Tell us about your creative practice (200 words)
- Tell us about your previous creative work (e.g. past commissions etc) with examples (300 words maximum).
- Tell us about your idea for this commission, and how it relates to the aims and objectives of the ‘Greening Cathays’ project, and ‘Pharmabees’ (500 words maximum).
- Explain in which format you would intend to present the work, and why?
- Give an indication of total budget (up to maximum value of the commission, and inclusive of materials).
- Please provide 2 references who we can contact to ask them about you and your work.
Applicants are welcome to submit proposals for more than one commission. However, all proposals should clearly indicate which numbered commission they are responding too.
Applications can be in written format, or short video.
Submissions might also include an illustration, a digital design, an artwork, or photography-based practice. However, these are examples, and this list is not exhaustive.
Maximum commission values include all associated costs, including material costs which should be factored into your delivery budget.
Scoring and assessment:
Applications will be considered by a panel comprising industry, organistional and community stakeholders, and a final decision made in relation to each commission opportunity.
Other considerations:
Where relevant, respondents should posses the required personal public liability insurance policies, relative to the risks of the proposed work.
Proposals must also be fully risk assessed prior to delivery, both for public and personal safety, and including compliance with the Health and Safety at Work Act (1974).
Application deadline:
Please send your applications to creativecardiff@cardiff.ac.uk with the subject line ‘Greening Cathays Artist Commission’ by 5 January in case of any questions.
Please also include the commission number that you are responding to in the subject line of your email (this commission relates to commission 4).
If you are responding to more than one commission opportunity, these should be submitted via separate emails (one per proposals).
Timeline
The ‘Greening Cathays’ project runs until end of March 2025. All project outputs and deliverables needs to finalised by this deadline.
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Activity |
Deadline |
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Deadline for submissions |
5 January 2025 |
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Assessment and selection period |
week c/ 13 January |
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Successful artists notified |
week c/ 20 January |
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Artwork completed by |
February 2025 |
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Artwork dissemination |
March 2025 |
Background
About Pharmabees:
The Universityʼs award winning Pharmabees project works to create a bee friendly city, supports the education of children of all ages and contributes to the fight against antibiotic resistant superbugs.
The project can trace its roots back to Dr Jenny Hawkins, a former student of the School of Pharmacy who in 2015 completed a PhD entitled ʻApothecary Bees: Using the bee as a tool for drug discovery.' Jenny discovered a ʻsuper honeyʼ from Tywyn in North Wales which killed hospital super-bugs and determined that this activity was due in part to specific plants which the bees visited during foraging. To recreate this super honey, the School installed bee hives on the roof of the Redwood building and surrounded the building with the Tywyn plants to provide germ killing food to the bees
Like bees swarming, this idea spread across the university campus resulting in the installation of hives on four university buildings to date. To support these extra bees, the team have planted over 1,000m2 of pollinator friendly, carbon-sequestering plants. The Pharmabees project is part of the Universityʼs Environmental Sustainability Strategy. In recognition of these efforts, the University was also awarded bee friendly status by the Welsh Assembly Government and in 2017 received a number of national awards which included sustainability awards from the Guardian and Sustain Wales.
To find out more about the work visit the Pharmabees project website.
About the Centre for the Creative Economy:
Cardiff University’s Centre for the Creative Economy creates a space for much needed research and engagement projects focused on the creative industries in Wales. Within the Centre, three specific programmes of work are being delivered, Creative Cardiff (established in 2015), Clwstwr (2018-2023) and Media Cymru (2022 – 2026).
About Creative Cardiff:
Established in 2015 with support from founding partners at Cardiff City Council, BBC Cymru Wales and Wales Millennium Centre, Creative Cardiff aims to deliver a vision of Cardiff as a connected, collaborative and inclusive capital of creativity. It does this by:
- Bringing together people from across the Cardiff Capital Region’s creative economy to share ideas, information, resources and expertise.
- Promoting creative jobs and opportunities, encouraging new ways of working through partnership and collaboration.
- Fostering a culture of innovation, openness and ambition.
- Strengthening Cardiff’s creative sector and creative city identity, and the perception and recognition of Cardiff as a ‘creative capital’ across Wales, the UK and internationally.
- Embedding the role of the city’s creative sector in supporting the economic and social wellbeing of the Cardiff Capital Region.
The network is open to anyone who works, or wants to work, in the creative industries within the Cardiff Capital Region.
