Celebrating UEFA Women's EURO 2022 Stage one call-out for artists and creative practitioners
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Celebrating UEFA Women’s EURO 2022 Stage one call-out for artists and creative practitioners
Introduction
In July 2022, England will stage the UEFA Women’s EURO. It will use the inspiration and
reach of football to deliver long-lasting social and cultural changes, particularly for
women and girls. Starting 6 July, the tournament will last 26 days, during which time
there will be 31 matches, played by 16 national teams, in nine Host Cities, watched live by
750,000 people. More on the tournament, including schedule and locations, on:
https://www.uefa.com/womenseuro/
As part of an Arts Council England and UK Sport funded research and development period,
we are now looking for artists who would be available and may like to work on an aligned
cultural programme next year. This will be the first cultural programme initiated and led
by The FA and will include arts and heritage projects in each of the nine Host Cities.
This is a stage one call-out for Expressions of Interest. The full artist brief is still being
developed and is subject to the completion of an on-going consultation with young
people and football fans. When the brief is complete, it will be sent to up to 10 artists who
will be invited to submit a stage two application. This stage of application will be
supported by a £700 fee and will need to be completed between 30 June – 12 July, with
interviews on 16 July. The actual final creation and presentation of the work is subject to
successful fundraising, confirmation of which may come as late as early 2022.
Background
The FA is the national governing body of football in England. We are responsible for
overseeing all aspects of the amateur and professional game. Our new strategy for 2020-
2024 will positively impact every community across the country. We work with national
and local authorities on the delivery of professional football together with leagues and
clubs, and for the grassroots game. Working with local authorities, we safely deliver
international matches and tournaments.
We believe football is a game for all. It promotes health and wellbeing, and the power of
teamwork. We engage daily with 14 million elite and grassroots participants; with
professional, community and education providers; and with millions of fans who support
our club and international teams. Football touches a diverse audience; we strive to
provide a game that is welcoming and suitable for all. Two of our six major strategic
objectives are equality objectives.
Responding to a request from Host Cities, The FA seeks to shape a national level high
profile cultural programme for the UEFA Women’s EURO 2022. Partners see this as an
opportunity to deliver a step change for their cities and communities, particularly women
and girls. It will support post-pandemic recovery: attracting inward investment; boosting
visitor economy; supporting a weakened creative sector; repopulating public spaces;
rebuilding confidence to attend/participate in events.
2
UEFA Women’s EURO 2022 is an unmissable opportunity for audience development and
cultivating cultural leadership at a local level. It will be staged in a number of cities who
do not normally host major events and cultural programmes of national significance.
Geographic equity is key to our work and this programme will help us further the
opportunity for local authority partners. A national programme will support local cultural
ambitions and skill development. It will help build local engagement, four Host Cities are
in areas of low or lower engagement.
Planning to date
Last year, The FA spoke with culture and sports leads from each Host City to understand
their interest in collaborating on a national programme. In January 2021, the FA
appointed a creative consultant, Caterina Loriggio, to help guide the process. Since then,
Caterina has consulted with all Host Cities, with partner organisations and museums, as
well as with funding bodies. From this work we have set key objectives for the programme
to underpin the process.
These are:
Health and wellbeing;
Inclusion;
Cultural participation and community building;
Place (profile, civic pride, building local identity);
Supporting young people;
Cultural leadership.
At the end of April, we received confirmation of Arts Council England and UK Sport funding
to support a period of research and development which started in May. This work has
focussed on developing a national network across our Host City partners, on
presentations and thought pieces from artists and heritage professionals, and an on-going
consultation with young people, fans, and players of women’s football.
As part of that R&D programme, we are now accepting Expressions of Interest from artists
who would like to be considered for an invitation to apply for the opportunity to lead a
commissioned project with communities and cultural groups in all our Host Cities.
Next steps
Once the artist/s have been appointed, we will complete our R&D evaluation and submit
an Expression of Interest to Arts Council England to apply for National Activities funding.
If this is successful, we will be submitting an application to them in October. There will be
a small fee available for the appointed artists to support this application process, building
up their ideas further and developing a full working budget.
3Stage one expression of interest from artists
At this stage we have not fully developed our ideas for what the arts programme will look
like and are very keen that this, to some degree, is left open for creative interpretation.
However, following consultation with Host City partners, and first findings of our fan
consultation, we think we may be looking for two commissioned pieces:
1) Focussed on engaging and telling the stories of the fans and their home cities
and/or nations. We want to create an inclusive, lively and authentic experience on
or through our city streets, this should also be a welcome ‘space’ for local families
and communities to join. It should celebrate the joy of being a fan, as well as
‘define’ what being a fan might be. This could possibly focus on ‘Fan Marches’
(name tbc) from the city centre to the stadium at the start of each game. We know
our fans like the DIY culture of the fan experience, this includes making and
collecting objects, flags, and banners. They also like the idea of being visible,
taking up space, making a noise; so these elements may inform the approach to
the commission. It should be noted that more than 50% of fans of women’s
football are men and boys and there is strong support for women’s football from
the LGBTQI+ community.
2) Focussed on engaging local communities and developing civic pride in the Host
Cities. This will be developed with a strong element of community participation,
particularly from young people. The piece should reflect the key objectives
outlined above, including a mechanism for including and developing locally based
artists. It should link directly to football, possibly to the history of the women’s
game. Early feedback from young people has shown that they want to make a
statement about equality in football.
Both commissions need to have large to medium scale outputs in each Host City (10 per
commission).
We expect to be able to raise circa £750,000 - £800,000 total (including all production
personnel and costs) for these commissions and have yet to decide how this will be
divided. We are not opposed to, and in fact are interested, from hearing from artists, or a
group of artists, who feel they can deliver one project which covers both these areas of
activity.
We are happy to hear from artists from any discipline, though it is expected final outcomes
will be presented outdoors.
Partners and the fans are inspired by the history of women’s football and its link to social
and political activism and the development of women’s rights. Both the fans and young
people have stressed that diversity and inclusion are important to them. All partners are
4interested to see, through the commissioned artists, innovative approaches to how
women are represented in the public realm.
We want to ensure the process and outcome is a lot of fun, bringing joy to audiences and
participants.
The successful candidates must:
• Be excited about the UEFA Women’s EURO 2022.
• Have a proven track record of excellent and dynamic work combined with socially
engaged practice.
• Have experience of delivering at this scale and within similar budgets.
• Have a proven track record of working on and delivering successful community
projects.
• Be able to demonstrate confidence, vision, and creative aptitude for developing
inclusive arts activities within a wide range of communities.
• Be articulate and have good communication skills. Be confident in being able to
inspire and explain artistic ideas to a lay audience of individual stakeholders,
committees, and external agencies (e.g., participating communities, fans, players,
academics, interest groups).
• Be able to provide all relevant information for and support a large Arts Council
England bid.
• Be able to manage and sustain a community arts programme over a period of at
least eight months, hopefully longer.
• Be able to provide evidence of successfully working to deadlines and having good
time management skills.
• Be able to provide examples of experience of working productively with corporate
clients and/or large public institutions.
• Be available for the dates of the tournament, with sufficient lead in time to deliver
their proposal. Be flexible regarding a possible late decision on funding.
• Be committed to inclusive practice.
• Be UK based.
We would particularly like to hear from:
• Artists/creative practitioners based in one of our Host Cities (for London and
Manchester we would especially welcome applications from the relevant boroughs
- Brent, Ealing, Hounslow, Manchester, Trafford, Wigan and Leigh).
• Female artists or female-led companies. Or consortiums/ collaborations
incorporating significant female leadership. This includes those who define
themselves as female and NGC artists.
• Artists or companies with a strong track record in inclusive practice.
5Applications
To apply, please email Caterina.Loriggio@theFA.com before 10am on Thursday 24 June,
with Commission EOI in the subject line, with the following incorporated as one
document:
• Up to two sides of A4 explaining your interest in the opportunity and how you meet
the criteria. You may express an interest for a particular commission, or suggest if
you would like to combine as one project.
• Two brief case studies, max three A4 sides total, highlighting similar projects that
you have worked on in the past. This must include detail of the budget you
worked within. You are encouraged to include images (up to 3mb).
• Optional: A CV, max two sides of A4.
If you will need access support at the invitation to apply stage, please include a final sheet
detailing your requirements and we will try our best to support these.
If you have questions or would like to know more, Caterina will be hosting a Zoom
discussion at 2.30pm on 22 June. If you would like to register for that, please email
Caterina, with EOI Zoom in the subject line, before 10am on 22 June and include your
questions. If you will need access support for this, please email requirements before 1pm
on 16 June, we will do our best to support these.
We are sorry but there will not be capacity for email or telephone conversations at this
stage of the process. Likewise, we will not be able to get back to each artist that applies. If
you have not been invited for the next stage by 1 July 2021, please understand that you
have not been successful at this stage.
Thank you for your interest in UEFA Women’s EURO 2022 and all luck with your
application.
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