Summer Streets is a free music, arts & community festival held each summer in Cliffe Park, Roker, Sunderland. It celebrates local musicians, artists and communities through live music, outdoor arts, creative workshops and community activity in a welcoming seafront setting. As part of this year's festival, The Cultural Spring will take over a dedicated bell-tent space. Working with Sunderland community organisations and groups through a community decision-making panel, we will co-curate creative activity across the day. We're seeking proposals for welcoming, accessible activities that are suitable for a wide range of ages, backgrounds and abilities, with a strong emphasis on creativity, participation, collaboration and shared experience. We welcome applications from artists working across artforms including visual arts, craft, movement, performance, sound, storytelling, digital arts & socially engaged practice. We are particularly interested in activities that: The community decision-making panel is especially interested in activities exploring community cohesion and breaking down barriers through creativity and shared cultural experiences, plus activities responding to one or both of the following themes: Intergenerational - encouraging different generations to create together, share stories, skills and experiences, and explore heritage, traditions or historic crafts. International - celebrating cultures, creativity and artistic traditions from across the world, encouraging audiences to connect with global cultures through accessible creative experiences. Artists must be available between 12pm-5pm, to deliver activity for approximately 3 hours. We are looking for artists who: The community decision-making panel and their groups/service users will attend the festival and be encouraged to participate in the activities alongside wider festival audiences. Activities should therefore be suitable for intergenerational participation and accessible for all ages. Children will participate alongside families/guardians. Application deadline: 12 noon, Thursday 18th June 2026. You can return your expression of interest either as a written response (up to a maximum of 2 sides of A4) or a video sent via WeTransfer or a Dropbox link (a maximum of 5 minutes), including the reference: Summer Streets Artist Proposal in your email.Job Summary
Job Description
encourage creativity, collaboration and active participation
create opportunities for community connection and conversation
celebrate cultural exchange, shared learning and inclusivity
result in either a communal artwork and/or meaningful takeaway piece
work in a relaxed festival environment with rolling participationJob Requirements
Have experience delivering creative activity in fast-paced public or community settings
Are confident engaging a wide range of participants and ages
Can facilitate welcoming and inclusive drop-in activity
Can work flexibly within a festival environment
Activities will take place within a 75m bell-tent space, or outdoors nearby if more appropriate to the proposal. Due to the festival setting, space and equipment availability will be limited.
We can provide:
Two tables
Limited access to electricity (to be agreed in advance with the festival producer)
On-site support from The Cultural Spring staff and volunteers
An event management plan and artist information pack
On-site car parking if required
Artists will be expected to provide:
Their own materials and specialist equipment
A copy of their DBS certificate and public liability insurance
Relevant risk assessments including appropriate safeguarding procedures for working with children and vulnerable adultsJob Responsibilities
Across the festival weekend, creative workshops typically engage up to 1,000 participants. For this commission, we anticipate each activity could reach approximately 150-200 participants, and artists should consider this when planning materials and resources.
This is intended as a guide rather than a prescriptive requirement, we welcome artists to outline the number of participants they feel their activity can accommodate, as well as the proposed delivery format. The Cultural Spring team will be available to support artists with planning and delivery logistics throughout the day.
Budget
The maximum budget available for this commission is £400Useful Links
How to Apply
Meetings for shortlisted candidates: week commencing 22nd June 2026
Role commences the week beginning, 29th June 2026
Festival day: Sunday 5th July 2026
For full application requirements and questions, please download our brief.