Republic of the Moon

1. To organise the Arts Catalyst exhibition Republic of the Moon in London, which had a highly successful showing in Liverpool in 2011, together with a dynamic new art/science events programme, aimed at exciting interest in contemporary lunar science and provoking discussion around future exploration of the Moon. The programme will reach a wide public audience who may not generally connect with science communication.

2. The Republic of the Moon exhibition features works by international established artists from the UK, Russia, USA, Spain and Germany. It aims to re-position lunar exploration as a cultural fascination. It will create a conversation about our personal relationship with the Moon in the era of advanced science and a new space age, in which robotic landers on the Moon are being planned both by private companies and emerging space nations, such as China and India. The search for lunar ice in the dark craters of the Southern hemisphere leads to speculation about future human missions to the Moon.

3. The exhibition will be accompanied by a dynamic events programme, which will include art/science talks, films, performances and workshops. The programme is being developed in collaboration with Dr Lucie Green (Mullard Space Sciences Lab, UCL) and Dr Ian Crawford (Birkbeck College and the Centre for Planetary Sciences), and will also feature contributions from Dr Kevin Fong (UCL and the Centre for Planetary Sciences) and Dr Bernard Foing (International Lunar Exploration Working Group, European Space Agency, tbc).

4. The ideas and issues raised by Republic of the Moon will be documented on video (livestreamed and embedded in a website) and through an illustrated publication, which will featured commissioned essays by science, space and arts writers, which will be available in both print form and a variety of e-formats, as well as on the website.

The exhibition and events will be publicized through e-marketing to Arts Catalyst extensive email list of 5000 people, and via our online networks and social networks (5000 twitter followers, 3000 facebook fans), and through shared marketing activities with other arts and science culture organisations. We will also produce leaflets and posters and distribute these to key arts/culture marketing points in London. We will take advertising in arts/culture magazines to reach that audience (e.g. Frieze). We will employ science and arts communication and PR agent Annabel Huxley to manage the PR.

The publication will be launched during the exhibition in London and will be available in a variety of digital formats downloadable from The Arts Catalyst's website and via QR code. In addition, full documentation of the project will be featured on The Arts Catalyst website, including live streaming, and video footage of all talks and events.

The Arts Catalyst has wide experience in reaching the arts, art/science and science communications communities both in the UK and internationally. Project documentation will be put on The Arts Catalyst's website and disseminated to a wider audience through The Arts Catalyst's extensive networks. The Director and Curator of The Arts Catalyst are regularly invited to show work and to speak at conferences and other events, nationally and internationally, and will make use of these engagements to disseminate the learning from the project to educators and communicators. Lucie Green, advisor to the project, who is also one of Arts Catalyst's trustees, will also help to disseminate the project and advise us on further networks and opportunities for dissemination.

Individual artworks from the exhibition are also likely to tour more extensively, both in the UK and internationally, in particular there are requests to show Agnes Meyer Brandis' Moon Goose Analogue and Andy Gracie's Drosophila Titanus.