Call for proposal – Living Heritage: A Storytelling Toolkit

Call for proposal – Living Heritage: A Storytelling Toolkit

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Bahnar children at a community festival in Kông Lơng Khơng commune, Kbang district, Gia Lai province.
Photo: Cao Trung Vinh

Deadline: 15 Oct 2020

From British Council:

Background

A British Council programme taking place in Colombia, Kenya and Vietnam, Cultural Heritage for Inclusive Growth is an action research initiative exploring the use of cultural heritage for growth that benefits all levels of society. Cultural heritage in this context means many things, from the built environment through to cultural traditions such as music and language. Inclusive growth means working with and for all levels of society in order to reconcile the divide between economic growth, and rising poverty and inequality.

In Vietnam, the in-country Cultural Heritage for Inclusive Growth project – known as Heritage of Future Past – works with music and film heritage, in particular valuable aspects that are under-represented or at high risk of disappearing.

Music and film heritage – especially that of or representing marginalised groups, including ethnic minority groups located in remote, rural areas – are becoming increasingly less visible in Vietnam’s contemporary culture and society, against the backdrop of overwhelming economic growth. By employing innovative approaches that enable a variety of communities to contribute to and benefit from the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage, Heritage of Future Past seeks to create inclusive and sustainable growth opportunities in the heritage sector. The project is implemented across two closely-linked programming strands: Community Culture Heritage (CCH) and Film-Archive-Music Lab (FAMLAB). While activities in the former focus on the safeguarding of cultural heritage within the project’s target communities, Strand 2 reaches out to the creative industry at large – in particular to artists, creative practitioners and audiences – to serve as a catalyst for collaborative works that engage with Vietnam’s music and film heritage via contemporary pathways.

Scope of work

The British Council is looking to engage with a creative team to support our new initiative developing Living Heritage – A Storytelling Toolkit to help local communities in Ninh Thuan, Gia Lai – Kon Tum, and Ho Chi Minh City tell stories about the values of their cultural heritage. This initiative is part of the Community Cultural Heritage strand of work by Heritage of Future Past, which aims to support local communities across Vietnam to use heritage as a resource to stimulate local livelihood development and inclusive growth.

The followings are important to help you understand the work under this assignment:

1. End results will be a toolkit including everything a person needs to tell stories about their heritage; and a series of workshops to help community members to effectively use the toolkit.

2. It is essential that this toolkit will be jointly developed with local communities in the target locations. This means extensive stay, research and working with members of these communities to ensure that content of the toolkit reflects authentic knowledge of local cultural heritage and their lifeworld, and the final product is fit for use primarily by local people.

3. We envisage that this toolkit would comprise of 4 main parts:

Part 1: One set of common storytelling top tips suitable for intended users.

Part 2: Three sub-sections of well researched, well presented and culturally appropriate story content about local cultural heritage in the three target locations. These can include creative tools that users can easily integrate into their story telling or can be utilised/displayed in the communities (i.e. printed stickers for children, booklet for adults, video illustrating part or full story, etc.).

Our work with local communities in Ninh Thuan, Gia Lai – Kontum, and Ho Chi Minh City led us to experiencing and appreciating a diverse range of valuable local cultural heritage assets, one cannot be considered out of the context with the others or out of the local context. We have learned about the Cham ritual music performance in Ninh Thuan, the Gong culture of the central highlands in Gia Lai and Kontum, and Cai Luong theatre and other forms of music and performing arts native to the South of Vietnam in Ho Chi Minh City. We would recommend these heritage values be explored in their native lands and communities as an integral part of their lifeworld. We are open to discuss with interested teams/individuals to brainstorm what the final product might look like and how it would benefit the local communities we work with.

Part 3: A section of practical and locally appropriate “do’s” and “don’ts” (i.e. environmental-friendly, fair-trade, cultural authenticity, diversity of cultural expressions, ethnic minority rights).

Part 4: An adaptable storytelling format for users to develop their own heritage stories.

4. We envisage that this storytelling toolkit will be highly visual and interactive. Accompanying texts will need to come in the locally chosen language, Vietnamese and English.

5. We will be able to engage experts to advise you for the research and development of this toolkit in diverse areas such as ethnology, ethnomusicology, history, arts history, Cham culture, Central Highlands culture, Southern culture, tourism, culture and development.

Work and timeline

Research
– Nov/Dec 2020. Appx. 21 days in local communities including travel time
– Local communities in Ninh Thuan, Gia Lai – Kontum, and Ho Chi Minh City
– Expected result: Detailed brief for toolkit development

Toolkit development
– Dec 2020 /Jan 2021
– At anywhere
– Expected result: Draft toolkit 1

Testing
– Feb/Mar 2021
– Local communities/remotely
– Expected result: Feedback from communities

Finalisation
– Feb/Mar 2021
– At anywhere
– Expected result: Final toolkit

Workshop
– Feb/Mar 2021. Appx. 9 days in local communities including travel time
– Local communities
– Expected result: Final toolkit, workshops

Requirements

A creative team (two to three persons) with:

(i) advanced visual skills (photography, graphic, animation etc.) and excellent storytelling skills;

(ii) experience in working with diverse communities (including outside of urban areas)

(iii) availability to travel and work during the specified timeline.

Offer

– Professional fee. Your proposal should clearly indicate your professional fee corresponding with a work schedule for the entire assignment (i.e. daily rate x people x number of working days). Do not include other costs such as travel expenses or production expenses, i.e. printing).

– All domestic travel expenses as required by the assignment, reimbursable using actual receipts based on a work and travel schedule agreed in advance.

How to apply

Please send:
(i) your proposal (maximum two A4 pages) expressing your interest, addressing all requirements and proposing a work schedule and professional fee for this assignment;
(ii) a portfolio demonstrating your skills and past experience to [email protected] before 15 October 2020. Note that any files larger than 10MB should be sent via an internet link.

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British Council
20 Thụy Khuê
Tây Hồ, Hà Nội
Tel: 84 (0)4 8436780
Fax: 84 (0)4 8434962
Website: http://www.britishcouncil.vn

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