fund-us

For some time now LOW PROFILE have been interested in finding alternative funding for projects. In 2010, we joined forces with another 38 artists across the UK (led by Ellie Harrison) to form the Artists Lottery Syndicate (who play the lottery each week as an analogy to how monetary success in the artworld functions). More recently, at the invitation of Project Space 11, we have been placing (mostly ill-fated) bets on underdogs (rank outsiders) in the hope that they will come up trumps.

Now, we are embarking on our biggest alternative funding strategy yet. Our aim is to secure enough money to cover our living expenses and PhD fees so that both of us can spend 3 years concentrating on a large-scale research and development project. To achieve this we need £46,000 x 2. We aim to secure half of this money through established academic funding sources (eg a studentship from a University or AHRC funding) and the other half from donations.

We have approached several university departments and have received really positive feedback about our research proposals. Unfortunately, these universities, (alongside other established academic funding sources), do not seem willing, or able, to fund two people to work collaboratively on the same project, even though its scope and reach is likely to be twice that of someone working ‘solo’ on a research project. The departments do however, feel excited about our research and have suggested that we are likely to be successful in securing ONE of the two studentships we would need.

As we work collaboratively, as a double act, it is essential that we work together on a double-joint project and we are not willing, or able, to create separate (individual) projects.

When Hannah was studying for her MA, she was asked to write down (to make a list of) the things that she was responsible for within the work that we had produced as LOW PROFILE. The institution wanted her to define and separate whose ideas were whose, who had done what and what work was identifiably hers. We realised at this point that a list like this would be disastrous to a/our collaboration – undermining what we had built by introducing greed, individual possession and ego.

In 2006, we wrote a series of 59 letters to doubleacts (some living, some dead) as a way to examine, challenge, question and make public our interest in collaborative practices.

Now, we are returning to our list of doubleacts with another type of question and a favour to ask. This time, we are approaching wealthy doubleacts to ask for financial support for our research project. We hope, that as practitioners who may also have faced some of the difficulties we have, they would like to ‘give something back’ and support another duo in the pursuit of excellence!

As these doubleacts have achieved success by working together (as a two) in other fields, we hope that they can see why we are fighting passionately to be ‘allowed’ to do this in an academic framework too.

We have been working together as a ‘doubleact’ for over 8 years. During this period we have experienced the massive benefits of working as a two.
o We are able to test ideas out on each other.
o We sustain momentum and energy for our practice by keeping each other going.
o We ensure criticality and rigour in our practice by working in a questioning, discursive and dialogue driven way.
o We act as a support structure for each other.
o We constantly share ideas, skills, knowledge, stories, memories and insights.
o Together we have two voices and two bodies, allowing us to make work which reflects this twoness.

We have also experienced some downsides to a collaborative way of working.
o Some people are inherently suspicious of ‘doubleacts’. They assume, and sometimes ask us to explain, how we work together and why, who comes up with all the ideas and whether or not we are lovers.
o We almost always have to split the fee normally designated for one artist in two. Earning half as much as other artists billed at the same event/platform/project.

It is the issue of fair financial support that we continue to struggle with.

Alternative funding routes

Ambitious and hopeful

We are in this together

Doubleacts

BUILD YOUR OWN is a large-scale 3 year research project initiated by LOW PROFILE

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BUILD YOUR OWN... is about always looking for an alternative.

To support our 3 year project, we need to raise 2 x £46,000 in 12 months. We are attempting to do this in 2 parallel ways. We will raise £46,000 from conventional routes (funding bodies, research boards and organisations) and a further £46,000 from individual patrons.

Taking the ‘theatre angel’ movement as inspiration (alongside our longstanding interest in ‘twoness’), we (LOW PROFILE) are going to approach successful doubleacts to tell them about our quest and to ask for support in financing the project.

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If you are a doubleact or an arts organisation/institution/funding body who would like to fund us or find out more about us or the project, please get in touch!

Money Raised via Doubleact Patrons

Funding Target : £46,000

£0 raised so far
0% of target
0 Doubleact Patrons so far

Money Raised via Conventional Routes

Funding Target : £46,000

£0 raised so far
0% of target
0 Research Project Funders so far

DO YOU KNOW A DOUBLEACT?
OR KNOW SOMEONE WHO KNOWS SOMEONE WHO KNOWS A DOUBLEACT?

Do you have a friend, who is friends with someone, whose cousin is Ant McPartlin?

Do you live in a village where the house up the hill belongs to Jennifer Saunders?

Are you David Mitchell’s flat mate?

Did you once go out with a boy, who also kissed a girl whose brother is Steven Merchant?

Do you walk Julian Barratt’s dogs?

If the answer to any of these questions is YES?

Please get in touch!!

REWARDS FOR DOUBLEACT PATRONS
We would like to offer something in exchange for the generous donations that doubleacts might offer us.
We have developed a ‘reward’ scheme based on what we can offer in return!

For £100 - £500
1. LOW PROFILE will post you a copy of their book ‘Worth the Trip’, commissioned by Newlyn Art Gallery and The Exchange, Penzance.
2. LOW PROFILE will send you a ‘mix bag’ selection of ephemera works that they have made over the years, including hand made bookworks, badges and postcards.
For £500
1. LOW PROFILE will come to your house (or venue of choice) and give an artist talk about their practice.
2. LOW PROFILE will post you a copy of their book ‘Worth the Trip’, commissioned by Newlyn Art Gallery and The Exchange, Penzance.
For £1000
1. LOW PROFILE will make you your own, bespoke amulet ("an object that protects a person from trouble"). See: rachel100days.blogspot.com for examples.
2. LOW PROFILE will post you a copy of their book ‘Worth the Trip’, commissioned by Newlyn Art Gallery and The Exchange, Penzance.
3. LOW PROFILE will send you a ‘mix bag’ selection of ephemera works that they have made over the years, including hand made bookworks, badges and postcards.
4. LOW PROFILE will come to your house (or venue of choice) and give an artist talk about their practice.
For £2000
1. LOW PROFILE will come to your party/event and present one of the following x3 performances (see: www.we-are-low-profile.co.uk for more info):
o DRY RUN part 6: I would.. (an indoor performance lasting 1-2 hours)
o Low Profile presents: A Lesson in Love (a performance lasting 1-2 hours that can happen inside or outside)
o Low Profile presents: One of Us (an indoor performance that works well at social gatherings and lasts for any period of time, up to 2 hours).
2. Or you can choose to have the option of selecting the rewards listen under £1000 plus an additional x1 bespoke amulet made for a friend.
For £3000
1. LOW PROFILE will come to your party/event and act as compeers’/hosts/Masters of Ceremony. They have previous experience in these roles; compeering Bristol's Live Open Platform (BLOP), Arnolfini, Bristol (2010) and acting as Master of Ceremonies (involving commentating a 10 pin bowling match, amongst other performative interventions) for artists Jenny Hunt and Christopher Bond’s wedding (April 2011).
2. Or you can choose to have the option of selecting the rewards listen under £1000 plus an additional x1 bespoke amulet made for a friend.
3. Or you can choose to have the option of selecting the rewards listen under £2000 plus
For £4000
1. LOW PROFILE will come to your party/event and present one of the following x4 performances (see: www.we-are-low-profile.co.uk for more info):
o ** DRY RUN part 2: How to save your skin when disaster strikes without warning (an indoor, 12 hour durational performance)
o DRY RUN part 6: I would.. (an indoor performance lasting 1-2 hours)
o Low Profile presents: A Lesson in Love (a performance lasting 1-2 hours that can happen inside or outside)
o Low Profile presents: One of Us (an indoor performance that works well at social gatherings and lasts for any period of time, up to 2 hours).
2. Or you can choose to have the option of selecting the rewards listen under £1000 plus an additional x1 bespoke amulet made for a friend.
3. Or you can choose to have the option of selecting the rewards listen under £2000 plus
4. Or you can choose to have the option of selecting the rewards listen under £3000 plus
For £5000 or more
1. You can select a mixture of x5 of the rewards listed above, choose from: x1 performance, x1 artist talk, up to x5 mix bags of selected ephemera, up to x5 copies of the publication ‘worth the trip, up to x5 bespoke amulets and x1 master of ceremony/compeer hire.

Other possible rewards:
LOW PROFILE are happy to discuss other options for ‘rewards’ if none of the above sound that exciting!
We also hold specialist knowledge in, and are able to run workshops/give lectures/have chats about the following subjects:
Artist led activity (DIY arts practice), surviving as an artist, setting up and running arts events/festivals, artist made ephemera (bookworks, badges, zines etc), how to make use of your ‘leftover’ ideas, curating exhibitions and working as a ‘two’ (twoness).