Artist Commission: Mimesis in Action

Lyth Arts Centre; Manchester; On-site; GBP 60,000 - 80,000; Part time

Job summary

A cultural institution in the UK is seeking a Caithness-based artist for a commission titled 'Mimesis in Action'. The artist will explore ecological and social futures through their work. The commission includes a fee of £6000 and a materials budget of £1500, culminating in an exhibition at the institution in March 2026. Interested candidates should engage deeply with local narratives and landscapes.

Qualifications

• Must be a Caithness-based artist.
• Ability to respond creatively to the themes of ecological and social futures.
• Experience in creating work that engages community narratives.

Responsibilities

• Create new work responding to research about local landscapes.
• Participate in public programmes including workshops and exhibitions.

Job description

Artist Commission: Mimesis in Action

Lyth Arts Centre

Deadline: 07 December 2025 at 23:55

A new commission for a Caithness artist to respond to 'Mimesis in Action', a research project exploring how communities imagine ecological and social futures in landscapes shaped by nuclear sites.

• Artist Commission: Mimesis in Action
• Deadline to apply: 7 December 2025
• Fee: £6000 (25 days) plus £1500 materials budget
• Exhibition: March 2026 at Lyth Arts Centre

Lyth Arts Centre (LAC) is partnering with the University of Manchester on Mimesis in Action: Nuclear Decommissioning as Conceptual Playground for Societal and Ecological Future‑Making, a research project led by Dr Petra Tjitske Kalshoven and funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council.

The project explores how communities imagine and plan for ecological and societal futures in places connected to nuclear decommissioning. Caithness, home to the Dounreay nuclear site, is one of four case‑study regions across the UK and Europe.

The University of Manchester's Mimesis in Action project is particularly interested in how people imagine potential futures; both human and more‑than‑human. Through ethnographic fieldwork, local workshops, and exhibitions, the research explores the stories that animate places like Caithness and how these narratives reflect the hopes, fears, and assumptions that shape how communities plan for and care for future living environments connected to nuclear sites.

We're looking for a Caithness‑based artist to create new work that will respond to the research and how local landscapes, stories and ecologies shape our ideas of time, preservation and regeneration.

The commission will form part of a wider public programme including workshops, an exhibition and a symposium at Lyth Arts Centre in March 2026.

Location: Highland

TAGGED:

• Crafts
• Dance
• Design
• Film
• Music
• Theatre
• Traditional Arts
• Visual Arts
• Literature and Publishing
• Participatory Practice