Home is Where the Art is: Series 2 - Call for Artists

The BBC is looking for "talented passionate artists" for its second series of "Home is Where the Art is" - with another 15 episodes each featuring 3 artists and/or crafts people.

Home is Where the Art is returning for a second series.

The type who can:

• work to a brief
• create something fabulous for a buyer you've never met

I'd add the type that:

• don't mind not getting paid (except a notional sum for materials) if you are not selected by the client
• don;t get a named credit in the end credits of the programme (of which more below!)

They also want to "showcase how rewarding commissioning art can be" but I guess that's more for the client than the artist.

Some of you may recall my previous posts on the first series including

• Home Is Where the Art Is - needs a makeover! in which I highlighted
• my concern about the absence of any name credit in text in the programme
• explain why it should be mandatory that all participants who are professional artists get a named credit.
• Commission an artist: 'Home is where the Art Is' (Episodes 1-5) my attempt to redress the balance on credits
• Commission an artist: 'Home is where the Art Is' (Episodes 6-10) (as above)
• Commission an artist: 'Home is where the Art Is' (Episodes 11-15) - this includes my overall conclusions about the show

My blog posts are the most comprehensive with respect to the artists featured. They include:

• website and social media links for the artists who participated in each episode
• contact details are embedded in the artist's name
• commissions details are provided if self evident

If you're interested in taking part, I suggest you 

• take a look at my posts as the episodes from the First Series are no longer available online (although doubtless will be made available again just before the Second Series is broadcast).  You'll get a sense of the variety of skills and competences involved.
• ponder on the fact that they are filming in October and November - which can be very busy months for those who are preparing/creating stock for the run-up to Christmas
• note that they especially like artists who live in the North. (Some of you will have worked out that this BBC Studios production is based in Manchester! It also means you save them money on the travel expenses budget as most of the locations of clients will also be in the north of England i.e. north of Birmingham!).
• note also you need to do a face to face interview via Skype - although some artists are suggesting that they should use Facetime instead.

If you're still interested, you can contact the BBC via artistsartshow@bbc.co.uk

If you don't hear from them by September, you've not been chosen.

The Lack of NAMED CREDITS Issue

I am becoming increasingly annoyed by the television programmes which use professional people as their "reality stars" and yet faily to give them any credit and/or pay them.

I very much RECOMMEND that artists should decline to take part if there is no formal written agreement that their name is featured in the end credits. Otherwise there is no record of you ever having taken place in the show - other than my blog posts!

Here's what I had to say in one of my blog posts as to why NAMED CREDITS are important

For all those saying that the names are said in the programme so why do they need the credits?

Well a number of reasons:

• to respect the work of professionals - just as the credits at the end of the programme respect the work of the people behind the scenes who make the programme
• two of the three are unpaid - and providing a named credit is fair exchange for the many hours given for free to make content for the BBC. Otherwise it's the equivalent of working for free for the exposure - but without the exposure in terms of a name to enable people to find you!
• the names might be said - but nobody spells them out. In the first week there are THREE artists where I had to keep replaying the segment to listen to the names again and again - and even then finally identified them using information from elsewhere in the programme (eg "Gallery Windermere paintings cattle" got one of them).
• the BBC is hypocritical and ignores its own rules when it suits it - such as making sure it gets great guests on the Graham Norton show - because they are only there to promote their latest whatever - and always do!

Sky Arts and some other production companies who are commissioned by the BBC got their act together on this issue after I named and shamed their programmes....

I will continue with the naming and shaming until such time as the BBC "gets it" and makes it routine that all professionals who feature in television programmes get a named credit at the end of the show.

The dedicated Facebook group

The original artists from Series 1 who are on Facebook have set up a dedicated Facebook Group which continues to highlight their activities - and market their art!

You can find it at Home Is Where the Art Is artists 2019

Interestingly, a number of other "arts and crafts people" also decided to make good use of the programme title and there are now a fair few pages about "Home is Where the Art is" on Facebook - but have nothing to do with the programme!

and finally......

If you get selected, make sure that your website, Facebook Page (not personal account), Twitter account and Instagram account - if you have them - are all looking good and are bang up to date BEFORE your episode is broadcast.

A number of artists wrote to me to thank me for the fact I featured their websites in my blog posts and said what a difference it made to traffic to their website - and of course more commissions!