Make sure that you allow yourself plenty of time to select an artist, especially if you are working with young people and need to carry out appropriate police checks. Should you wish to contact an artist for a particular project you must consider the context in which they will be working and act accordingly. As a matter of principle, great caution must be exercised if children or people who are in some way vulnerable are involved in a project you are organising. The Criminal Records Bureau can provide further information regarding police checks and disclosure. Their publication, The Protection of Children Act 1999, a practical guide to the act for all organisations working with children, may be downloaded from www.crb.gov.uk/downloads/childprotect.pdf
You should allow three or four weeks between the time the brief is sent out and the deadline for submissions to allow plenty of time for the artists to respond.
There is a range of national, regional and local databases of artists. We are happy to offer advice on recruiting artists and for substantial projects can forward a brief to artists on their database.
For larger projects, it is usual for the artists to apply for the post in writing giving a CV, some examples of their work and a short description of how they would approach the project in response to the brief. It is helpful to the artists if you think about what you really need to see and are specific about what you require. It is usual to ask for a description that is only one or two sides of A4 and to specify a maximum number of images.
From these applications, you can select a small number of artists to invite to a short talk or interview. You should offer travel expenses to artists called for interview but if your project is large, you should have budgeted for this. If you ask artists to prepare something specific such as design ideas for interview, you should also be prepared to pay for their preparation time. Again ensure that you have allowed for this in your budget.
For smaller projects, you may wish to pick a small number of artists from the database and ask them to send you their CV including examples of relevant projects and some images of their work. It may also be helpful to ask for references. From these, you can make a decision about who to employ.
Although relevant community experience is important, sometimes an artist who works continually in community settings without still practising their own work may not give you the artistic edge you are looking for.
Once you have appointed an artist, it is good practice to write to the artists who have not been chosen giving some indication of the reason for your choice and return any slides, images or publications which they have sent in support of their application.