Current Vacancies & Opportunities
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Participatory Artist Residency: Imagine Lab
PARTICIPATORY ARTIST RESIDENCY
Imagine Lab: Early Years and Families
The Village Storytelling Centre is delighted to present an opportunity for an early career participatory artist to develop their practice with early years children (0-5) and their adult carers in anew 16-week residency.
The selected artist will work alongside our experienced practitioner within VSC’s community based Imagine Lab programme. Funded by Cattanach and Glasgow City Council, Imagine Lab provides early years children and their adult carers with a range of quality storytelling and arts activities. Facilitated
by an Early Years Storyteller, our workshops explore a range of themes through immersive and sensory processes.
Throughout the residency, the selected artist will explore a theme or activate a creative approach that will provide practical support & learning for families which:
- Support and encourage social skills, language development, fine motor skills, confidence and creativity within the early years children.
- Facilitates parent/carer confidence in being led by their child in play, in creativity and imagination.
- Can be replicated easily by parent and carers at home, with no or minimal cost
The residency will take place over 18 weeks from August to December 2025.
The selected artist will:
- Commit to approximately 34 days in total throughout the residency, including:
– Planning/research time.
– workshop/training delivery.
– attendance at meetings/training
-resource development
-Receive a fee/budget of £4500
– Participate in/Deliver approximately 30 x 1 hr workshops (included above) across our ongoing Imagine Lab programme (with full support of the Early Years Storyteller). - Develop a resource for parents/carers sharing the activities tested during their residency which supports parent/carer creativity at home.
- Deliver 5 outreach sessions within external agencies/venues to share the resource and learning (with practitioners and parents/carers).
VSC will provide:
- Ongoing support & mentoring from the Early Years Storyteller and wider VSC team.
- Opportunities for formal and informal training in story-led approaches.
- A small budget for materials.
- Editing and design support during resource development.
The residency will take place across the Greater Pollok area in South West Glasgow, including indoor and outdoor settings, and would ideally suit an artist based in or around the Greater Glasgow area.
We wish to hear from artists from a range of backgrounds and creative practices.
Artists should be available to deliver workshops during our existing sessions which take place on Tuesday mornings, Tuesday afternoons, and Wednesday mornings.
The residency will begin on the week commencing 4th August and end on the week commencing 8th December. (There will be no sessions during the October holidays)
How to apply:
Please submit a proposal confirming that you are available for the dates of the residency and answer the following questions:
- How would you describe your practice?
- What is it that excites you about participatory arts within early years and family settings?
- What is the theme you would like to explore or creative approach you would like to activate?
- What would you like to gain from your Early Years Artists Residency at The Village?
You may submit your proposal in writing, film or audio.
Proposals should be sent to recruitment@villagestorytelling.org.uk by 9am on Tuesday July 1st 2025.
Interviews will be held on Thursday 10th July 2025.
**Please note: Artists should be members of the PVG scheme or willing to join.
Commission Call out
2 x Full Length Storytelling Commissions Available.
Submissions Invited for The Village Storytelling Centre @ The Scottish International Storytelling Festival
Background:
As part of the Scottish International Storytelling Festival Go Local programme we are commissioning 2 full length commissions to be performed on Friday 24th October 2025. We would like these commissions to explore the themes of identity and language, celebrating the diversity of Glasgow, its people, their stories and the ways in which they communicate them. We will also showcase the best in contemporary storytelling from Scotland, the UK and beyond.
Commission Information:
We are delighted to invite proposals from Glasgow based oral storytellers / narrative performers to create new work to be presented in October this year. The performance should be between 45 minutes and 1 hour in length. We actively welcome ensemble applications including collaborations with other artforms but expect storytelling to be the predominant focus.
The Village Storytelling Festival celebrates the artform of oral storytelling, but we welcome applications which challenge the definition or add to the existing tradition. For example, we welcome applications from storytellers who use non-verbal language such as BSL or Visual Vernacular.
Proposals should actively explore the themes of identity, language and/or Glasgow. We are interested in performances that push boundaries and challenge perceptions in contemporary storytelling.
Previous commissions have included “A Circumnavigation” by Ian Stephen, “What I Know About What my Grandfather Didn’t Know” by Sonia Gardes, “I Hope Your Flowers Bloom” by Raymond Wilson and “Smoke and Sickle” by Emery Hunter.
Eligibility:
As part of our wider initiative to develop storytelling in Glasgow, the commissions will only be available to artists who are from or are based in Glasgow.
We are committed to contributing towards a more diverse arts industry. For that reason, we have ringfenced one of these commissions for people from groups that are historically under-represented in the arts, due to age, disability, ethnicity, faith or belief, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, education, socio-economic background, or those with caring responsibilities. You are welcome to let us know in your application if you identify as coming from an under-represented group.
Timings:
The performances will take place as part of a double bill on Friday 24th October 2025 at a city centre venue.
Fees:
Each full-length commission is offered a fee up to £2500. You must provide a budget and include all research, preparation, materials and performance.
Support:
We can offer mentoring and dramaturgical support. Our Artform Development Lead will discuss this with successful applicants.
In addition to this we have a staff member who will discuss any access needs and endeavour to support them. We have a separate access budget available therefore access needs should not be included in your budget.
Application Process:
Please email your proposals to opportunities@villagestorytelling.org.uk by 5pm on Friday June 27th 2025.
Please include:
– CV (no more than two pages)
– A short budget; this does not have to be detailed and we can discuss it with applicants afterwards.
– Links to/examples of work (no more than 5)
– Proposal of up to two A4 pages outlining the idea and how it meets the criteria for the chosen commission. Alternatively, you are welcome to submit a sound or video recording of no more than 5 minutes.
Additional Access Information:
If you have any access needs in responding to or delivering this commission or need to receive this brief in an alternative format, please contact naomi@villagestorytelling.org.uk or call us on 0141 882 3025.
** For any informal enquiries please contact dan@villagestorytelling.org.uk
Proposals will be considered by a panel including members of the Village team and external curators, with successful artists notified on or before 5th July 2025.
We also invite applicants to complete our Equal Opportunities Monitoring Form.
This is anonymous and not mandatory.
Emerging Voices in Storytelling
The Village Storytelling Centre (VSC) is committed to supporting the development and diversity of Oral Storytellers within Glasgow. Our vision, through this project, is to build a dynamic contemporary storytelling scene in and for Glasgow, that explores and celebrates the diversity of its people, their stories, and the way in which they communicate them. We look to provide opportunities and pathways for the development of aspiring and early career storytellers and increase platforms for them to create and perform their work.
Following two successful years of this programme, we are delighted to again offer an opportunity for three Emerging Storytellers to take part in a fully paid, 12-week placement.
Emerging Storytellers will receive structured support throughout the 12-week placement from the VSC team to hone their craft in oral storytelling and gain skills in applied methods. The placement will include:
- training in both oral performance and applied storytelling
- shadowing Village Storytellers during applied storytelling workshops with a range of participants
- attending networking events within the storytelling and wider arts network
- attending and performing at events in a range of settings, including small groups, schools and community events
They will work collaboratively and independently to develop their own performance skills and to find their own, authentic voice with ample opportunity to practice their performance skills. Ultimately, they will develop a new, contemporary oral performance (collectively or independently) that will be shared at a final event, to be curated and marketed by them, with full support and guidance from the VSC team.
*Please note application is currently close for Emerging Voices in Storytelling but next round of application will open later this year 🙂
Citizen Storytellers
We are recruiting an intergenerational network of volunteers (Citizen Storytellers) living in the Greater Pollok area, to help gather, shape and share the story of Pollok. See the flyer opposite for full details or contact colin@villagestorytelling.org.uk to register your interest!
Volunteering
We welcome expressions of interest from potential volunteers.
If you have any questions about volunteering with us, please contact us at info@villagestorytelling.org.uk.
