New art commissions created for the next Coastival arts festival

Coastival 2017 will be held from February 17 to 19 with the theme ‘Coastival: The Unexpected’.

Central to it will be four new arts commissions, funded by the Arts Council, which will form the centrepiece to the mini festival alongside a programme of music, theatre and fine art.

Artists are being invited to push the boundaries and respond to the theme of ‘Coastival: The Unexpected – Look beyond the Obvious’.

Coastival director Wendy Holroyd said: “This is a very exciting opportunity for artists to make a big contribution to Coastival 2017.

“We’re particularly keen to see work with strong artistic content and visual presence and impact, which can engage with diverse audiences.

“We're looking for professional, practising artists or companies with an aptitude for working in community settings and a proactive, collaborative approach that will engage a wide range of participants.

“Artists can work in any art form to create new work in a location, not pre-determined by Create, in Scarborough that will engage with people and be presented at Coastival 2017 to new and existing audiences.

“Scarborough has some very obvious locations and themes – we want people to look beyond those and give us something different.

“We’re really excited about this and looking forward to seeing where artists’ imaginations can take them in answering our brief.”

There’s a fee on offer of £5,000 for the delivery of the commission and presentation of the work. The deadline for submissions is 5pm on May 31.

For a copy of the Coastival commissions brief artists should visit www.coastival.com or email wendy@create.uk.net or call 01723 384545.

Coastival 2017 returns to the mini festival format after this year’s full programme of more than 100 events. Coastival has always alternated a big festival one year with a more modest event every other year.

Thousands flocked to this February’s event bringing an out-of-season financial boost to Scarborough.

An analysis of February’s three-day arts festival shows a total of 6,230 people at the festival events over the weekend.

Estimates suggest this brought a direct economic boost of £426,781 into Scarborough. The continuing effect of that money spent through the economy – known as the induced economic impact – is estimated at around £650,549 for the Scarborough local economy.

New arts commissions featured strongly in February too.

‘Wet Sounds Scarborough’ was a music and sounds event performed in Scarborough Indoor Swimming Pool; ‘The Prison Project’ transformed the disused prison off Dean Road into an art gallery; ‘A Light to Guide’ was a lit story trail through the Spa gardens and ‘The Many Faces of Scarborough’ was an art installation, with three large translucent heads magically lit by projections.

For more information on Coastival visit www.coastival.com