Host organisation: The Work Room
Project title: Moving Words: Artist-in-Residence
Project description

This is an artist in residency opportunity for a creative writer. The artist-researcher will be attached to The Work Room to develop their creative writing in response to the dance and choreography that is developed through our programme. The Work Room is an artist led organisation that supports independent choreographers and dance artists to develop their practice. Our mission is to empower artists to lead in their practice, enabling them to make high quality, pioneering dance for diverse contexts at home and abroad.

The artist-researcher will have the opportunity to observe choreographers and dance artists in creation and rehearsal periods that take place as part of our residency programme, and in the classes and workshops that we regularly host. In addition to this, the artist-researcher will be able to make use of our resource base, as having conversations with dance artists in our membership about their work.

We are open to the artist-researchers producing written in or across, any form that enhances their practice and creativity– prose, poetry, essays, spoken word. This residency should create new opportunities for the artist-researcher themselves, and through their writing allow new audiences to connect with the independent choreographers and dance artists creating as part of The Work Room.

We are committed to ensuring an expansive range of artists and dance practices are resourced and recognised. This includes continuous work towards being an an anti-ableist and anti-racist organisations, striving to bring about positive change to redress inequalities and working conditions in dance. We would be seeking the artist-researcher to be excited about this approach.

We will work with the artist-researcher on approaches to sharing and disseminating their work. We anticipate this being, at least in part, digitally, online and across social media.

Outputs
The artist-researcher should produce a number of pieces of writing during the course of the residency. We are open to the format they may choose to work in - prose, poetry, essay, spoken word, etc. We will work with the artist researcher to agree appropriate mechanisms for the sharing and distribution of their work to a wider audience.
Location

The internship would require some moments of being in The Work Room in-person to observe artists in the studio as well as spending time with our staff team and making use of our resource base.

The time developing their own creative writing response can be flexible. We can provide desk space within our office or the researcher may prefer to do this remotely.

Benefits to the researcher

The artist-researcher will gain insights into the Work Room and the creative practice of a number of choreographers and dance artists during the period of their residency.

Alongside residencies and sharings in our studio, there will be the opportunity to observe classes and workshops for the professional dance artists alongside performances by Work Room artists members. The artist-researcher will have the opportunity to focus on their own creative writing and will be encouraged to experiment and push their practice in different ways, responding to the choreographic approaches that they observe.

The opportunity of working with The Work Room will benefit the writer to engage with dance artists, and produce a body of work that isn’t only integral to their creative or professional growth but that will also see them develop their writing about dance – a critical form that can be beneficial to the wider landscape of dance in Scotland.

Key relationships

The key relationships for the artist-research will be The Work Room staff team and the independent dance artists and choreographers that we are working with at the time through our residency programme.

We have a distinctive approach of having a membership of over 260 individual dance practitioners. These members are catalysts - activating, challenging and transforming their communities through dance.

Additionally the artist-researcher will connect with the other staff and tenents within the Tramway arts centre (where we are based).

We will work with the artist-research to explore platforms and approaches to diseminating the creative wrting that they create during this internship and the audiences that they are keen for it to reach.

Timescale

Flexible

Subject areas

This opportunity would be relevant to the following subject areas:

Creative Writing; Dance; Drama & Theatre Studies; Visual Arts; Curating; Museum and Gallery Studies; Cultural Geography; Conservation of Art and Textiles; Art History; Policy, Arts Management and Creative Industries; Cultural Studies and Pop Culture; Archives; Cultural History; Media and Communication Studies; Journalism; Publishing; New Media/Web-Based Studies; Film History, Theory and Criticism; Lifewriting; Poetry; Literary and Cultural Theory.

Person specification

A1. Knowledge Base
  • Essential: Subject Knowledge; Academic literacy and numeracy.
A2. Cognitive Abilities
  • Essential: Critical thinking.
A3. Creativity
  • Essential: Inquiring minds; Intellectual insight; Innovation; Intellectual risk.
B1. Personal qualities
  • Essential: Enthusiasm; Perseverance; Integrity; Self-reflection; Responsibility.
B2. Self management
  • Essential: Preparation and prioritisation; Commitment to research; Time management.
B3. Professional & career development
  • Essential: Responsiveness to opportunities; Networking.
C1. Professional conduct
  • Essential: Ethics, principles and sustainability; Appropriate practice; Respect and confidentiality.
  • Desirable: IPR and copyright.
C2. Research management
  • Desirable:  Project planning and delivery.
D1. Working with others
  • Essential: Collegiality; Collaboration; Equality and diversity.
D2. Communication & dissemination
  • Essential: Communication methods; Communication media.
  • Desirable: Publication.
D3. Engagement & impact
  • Desirable: Public engagement.

First published: 9 October 2025

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