Connected Coventry: A Tech Reuse Arts Fund from Virgin Media O2

Connected Coventry

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 fourteen thousand 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).

Coventry City Council is working to address this problem, with support from Virgin Media O2. Founded in 2022, the #CovConnects Device bank (run by Coventry City Council) 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. 

Desired outcomes of the Fund

The created installation will have or demonstrate:

• Emotional resonance: reflect lived experiences of digital inclusion and/or exclusion
• Local relevance: a strong Coventry focus - From Cov, For Cov
• Clarity of impact: highlights how reusing tech improves lives
• E-waste focus: include old tech as core to the creation or creative process and can be recycled should the piece be discontinued 

The requirements for the installation

The Fund amount: £18,000

This must include creatives fees, production costs, insurance, materials, any additional contractors brought in and any potential build-space hire required.

Deliverables:

• The installation must be standalone  
• To be weatherproof so that it can stay outside over a period of weeks during the summer (IP44 certified)
• To be transported in a long-wheel based van (ideally luton van) to enable touring at a later date
• Stand out during daylight and darkness! Illumination will be expected in some form and the venues hosting the piece will have power supplies (or you can use batteries or solar power)

The judging criteria:

• Has the artist involved real stories of local people? This could be to highlight the positives or utilise the negatives of relevant scenarios to help audiences understand the local situation and the importance of what #CovConnects aims to achieve.
• Has the artist used features that bring a strong Coventry feel? E.g. through images, architecture, voices, maps, histories, habits, or icons.
• Does the artist highlight how being/not being digitally included impacts local lives?
• Does the piece involve the use of old tech within the installation? E.g. second-hand or vintage cameras used for photography, tape recorders used for recordings, ‘waste’ is remodelled and reimagined into something beautiful.
• Has the artist fulfilled the deliverables requirements? (listed above)

Timeline

• Expression of Interest opens: 19th February 2026
• Drop-in sessions with Hubbub and #CovConnects to ask questions: 19-26th February 2026
• Fund goes live: 26th February 2026
• Fund closes: midnight on 26th March 2026
• Creative(s) selected by judging panel: 10th April 2026
• Build time: 10th April - July 1st 2026
• Installation picked-up to go to outdoor space: ~2nd July 2026 (if required)
• Installation in situ, potentially various places in Coventry: TBC  

This funding call is the start of outreach to the arts and creative sector in Coventry to build awareness of #CovConnects and our reuse ambition. We have a long way to go and more ideas to build, so if this Fund is not for you, keep your eyes peeled for other opportunities.