Connected Coventry - An Arts Fund for Coventry Creatives
This Fund is an £18k funded opportunity open to creatives, makers and artists of Coventry. The call is to design an installation telling the story and ambition of #CovConnects: building a digitally included city through sharing and reusing old technology.
The background
#CovConnects and Virgin Media O2 have partnered to establish Coventry as the first device reuse city for social good and electronic waste (e-waste) reduction.
Around 14,000 residents in Coventry are completely offline (they don’t have access to the internet) and 6 in 10 are smartphone-only users living in households without a laptop or computer. Imagine how limiting this can be. In contrast, electronic waste is soaring, with UK households sitting on £10 billion of unused tech and the UK now the second largest producer of e-waste in the world (per capita).
We're working to address this problem, with support from Virgin Media O2. Founded in 2022, the #CovConnects Device bank takes technology from Coventry, for the people of Coventry. The premise is simple: take devices from local Coventry organisations and pass them on to the people in the city who need them. The device bank securely data wipes thousands of devices from the Council, NHS and University of Warwick (including smartphones, tablets and laptops). This IT is then redistributed to over 190 bespoke programmes across the city, through the voluntary sector, Council and NHS services to help people get online safely, with their own device.
We know we are only scratching the surface, with many Coventry residents still not able to engage with the online world. We are looking to further scale-up our reuse city, ensuring local tech stays local: 'From Cov, For Cov'.
The creative call
We’re asking creatives to use creativity, storytelling and reused technology to showcase the positive impact of digital inclusion or the barriers created by exclusion, through a compelling, mobile (e.g. it can be moved) art installation.
The piece should move viewers to want to support Coventry’s digital device reuse mission: it might encourage them to donate devices, to get involved, to influence their organisation to donate funding, encourage their organisation to apply for devices etc.
Learn more and register your interest
Want to learn more about the fund's requirements, desired outcomes and timeline? Visit the Connected Coventry page on the Hubbub website to view the full details and register your interest.