InspiralLondon BH365 Songlines for Greenwich Project
Global Majority Artist Walk Researcher/Leader: Call for Expressions of Interest
Deadline for submissions: midnight January 12th 2025
We are looking for an artist/historian/researcher/writer/group, with some experience of researching local and buried histories, to develop and/or lead a walk which creatively interprets and celebrate Black cultural heritage and experiences in the borough of Greenwich.
The project fee is £1350, to cover 6 days (non-consecutive if necessary) with an additional £500 if you choose to create and lead a walk. There is an additional budget for materials and expenses.
Project – From May to mid-July 2025 – InspiralLondon creates Songlines as a series of interlinked walks, co-curated with local communities, as part of Greenwich’s Black History 365 celebrations.
Songlines of Greenwich connects and supports local communities to creatively interpret and celebrate Black cultural heritage and experiences. It also encourages links and connections across local groups and communities in recognising and correcting the narratives of Black history and culture by reclaiming the histories of places, of forgotten or underrepresented people.
For Songlines inspirallondon will co-create a series of performative walks that retell stories, reclaiming diverse hidden histories of places and people that includes 4 short and one longer walk event. Through this festival of performative walks, incorporating readings and story-telling, song and music, inspirallondon will celebrate other unacknowledged histories that mirror forgotten or buried retellings of the past and future. Songlines for Greenwich uses alternative research and histories, such as post-colonial histories suggested by the monumental folly of Severndroog Castle, to create a series of new song/line narratives.
Walks planned include: Distant Sound of Migration, a short walk exploring migration and other listening; a walk created with Greenwich Peninsula Ecology Park observing the migration of birds and the introduction of plants, people and customs from the Caribbean and Africa; Songlines for Greenwich, with an improvised songwriting workshop and walking exploration of Oxleas Woods near the Severndroog Castle site; Spiral Sanctuary, a gentle evening walk exploring unexpected aspects of Greenwich’s history, and celebrating the Black History and cultural diversity of Woolwich. Finally Retellings – Songlines for Greenwich – is a full day of polyphonic shared exploration of the rich complexity of post-colonial and recovered histories singing from the built/lived environment we passby and through – as 4 separate but interlinked walks along the InspiralLondon Trail from Motthingham, through Eltham to Woolwich.
More info links to some of project Community partners and research:
Greenwich Peninsula Ecology Park – https://thelandtrust.org.uk/space/greenwich-ecology-park/
Clockhouse Community Centre – https://www.clockhousecc.co.uk/about-us-our-history
Severndroog Castle – https://www.severndroogcastle.org.uk/trust
Other threads of Greenwich historic research – Naval pensioners:
https://artuk.org/discover/stories/the-neglected-history-of-black-mariners
https://ornc.org/our-history/royal-hospital/life-as-a-greenwich-pensioner/bgp-online/
Memorial of Slavery and Freedom (Deptford/Greenwich) https://www.mosaf.org.uk/
What we are looking for:
We are looking for an artist (historian/researcher) or group to contribute to co-creation of the walks for the festival. The work involves researching the hidden and buried histories of Global Majority people in Greenwich, from transitory passing-through to long-established communities, from enforced displacement to chosen settlement.
In collaboration with local communities and the InspiralLondon team, you will draw on this research to co-create imaginative and engaging walk activities around the InspiralLondon trail. There is also the option to devise and lead your own walk as part of the festival.
We are also looking for an individual or group with experience of researching local and buried histories and a keen interest in walking as a creative practice and in working with a variety of communities.
The project fee is £1350, to cover 6 days of work or equivalent, with an additional £500 if you choose to create and lead a walk. There is an additional budget for materials and expenses.
What we can provide:
- The Artist/Research fee.
- Access and support from experienced walk guides.
- Walk Guide Mentoring; including Place and People on the ground research.
- Other research, editing and writing skills.
- If needed performance skills.
Period of Work – flexible from end March to beginning June (or mid May to mid July)
Equivalent to 6 days work – we would hope you could participate or be present for a minimum of 3 of the BH365 Songlines public walks. If you can we will support you to develop/launch your own walk or to add your voice to the Songlines walks. Our longer term aim is to support more diverse participation in Inspirallondon cultural and artistic walks programme. We wish to encourage all Londoners to enjoy the trail and to be able to explore London by foot in imaginative, inspiring and illuminating ways.
Please explore our website and partner websites for links and inspiration:
And here to see past projects, our walking programme and Greenwich Culture for outline of the broad aims of BH365. Also for broad theme of reclaiming narratives see here.
To apply (send interest to contact@inspirallondon.com by the end of 12 January 2025)
We ask you to write up to max 200 words outlining your interest in project and relevant skills.
Plus please send a one page cv or equivalent summary of relevant work experience.
You are welcome to ask us questions about the project and inspirallondon by emailing contact@inspirallondon.com before January 10th.
Songlines for Greenwich is supported by Royal Borough of Greenwich BH365 grant and tfl WCGL 2025:
