Deadline: Friday 18 July 2025 at 5pm
In March 2026, A New Direction will be delivering the 11th annual I Am Festival. The I Am Festival is a yearly celebration empowering Deaf, disabled, and neurodivergent young people to explore their creativity. Over the past 10 years, the festival has provided a platform for hundreds of young people to showcase their talents, leadership, ideas, and opinions.
We are looking for expressions of interest from artists and organisations interested in exploring the theme ‘Journeys’ with the I Am Network schools and Cultural Ambassadors.
We are particularly interested in hearing from those who identify as Deaf, disabled and/or neurodivergent, and from disabled-led arts organisations.
EOIs can be sent in any format, e.g. a Word document, video, audio, to iam@anewdirection.org.uk.
If you have questions about this brief or would like to have an informal conversation about our work, please email us to arrange a time.
Brief for Artists and Organisations
Budget: Up to £4,000 including VAT (to include all resources, facilitator costs and any other materials needed to fulfil the scope of this work)
Download the Easy Read version
Commissioned organisations/artists will deliver a workshop in two schools in the lead up to the I Am Festival as well as workshops during I Am Festival 2026. This activity will be curated through planning sessions with teachers and in-school workshops with students.
The commissioned organisations/artists will also provide inspirational and hands-on opportunities for the Cultural Ambassadors through leading an interactive masterclass to share their practice and meet one of the key aims of the programme.
Brief for Artists and Organisations: Flash mob!
Budget: Up to £6,000 including VAT (to include all resources, facilitator costs and any other materials needed to fulfil the scope of this work)
Download the Easy Read version
The commissioned organisation/artist will deliver workshops in a school in the lead up to the I Am Festival as well as leading an activity during I Am Festival 2026. This activity will be curated through planning sessions with teachers and in-school workshops with students.
The commissioned organisation/artist will also provide inspirational and hands-on opportunities for the Cultural Ambassadors through leading an interactive masterclass to share their practice and meet one of the key aims of the programme.
Access
It is really important to us that there are no barriers to anyone applying for opportunities at A New Direction. Please let us know if you have any access requirements or would like to submit your application in a different format by contacting iam@anewdirection.org.uk.
If there is any additional support we could offer to enable you to participate in either the selection process or potentially working with A New Direction, please include this in your application.
