Partners

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PUSH Steering Group, Edinburgh - photo by Geraldine Heaney

PUSH is centred on the collective thinking of five European organisations who have high respect for each other and an established relationship built through long term collaboration. 

PUSH will take that connection further, opening up these networks to artists in each country, exploring topics together and initiating new ideas and artistic work with a longer term view to seed future co-productions and collaborations for audiences.  

PUSH is managed by a Steering Group of Fiona Ferguson (Imaginate), Pamela Walker (Imaginate), Gerhard Verfaillie (CCHA), Aideen Howard (The Ark), Pernille Møller Taasinge (Aaben Dans) and Ådne Sekkelsten (Norsk Scenekunstbruk).

With local roots and its own venue Scenen i Laboratoriet, Aaben Dans cooperates and tours extensively both nationally and internationally.

Aaben Dans produces at least two performances a year catering for all age groups. We challenge what dance and theatre can and should be. We create performances within traditional frameworks while exploring new formats in city and landscape involving professionals and local citizens in the creation of new productions and projects.

We keep our work fresh and inspiring by inviting guest performers, often working across different art forms. We are committed to reaching new and diverse audiences through high quality work offering excellent and unusual experiences. We want to make work that is both accessible and avant-garde.

In addition to its own productions Aaben Dans hosts international residencies (Aabent Laboratorium) for up-and-coming dance artists, and every second year produces and curates SWOP, an international dance festival for the young audiences.

Aaben Dans offers a considerable expertise in communication and facilitation which builds bridges between audiences and the many functions and expressions of a theatre. We run dance projects in schools, in cross-generational settings as well as workshops for adults and business communities.

www.aabendans.dk
www.swopfestival.dk

Cultural Centre Hasselt is one of the largest in Belgium/Flanders with 4 venues, rehearsal space, 4 exhibition rooms, a conference hall and several meeting rooms. The centre presents a high quality program of theatre, dance, classical and contemporary music for all audiences (including schools) as well as different art exhibitions. CCH also stimulates the socio-cultural debate working intensively with different partners in the region, in Belgium and internationally. We have one permanent artist-in-residence and offer workspace to companies and individual artists. In cross-border collaboration with Maastricht, we also co-produce shows for young audiences and are working on an international project about new technologies and performing arts with European partners in Liège, Eupen, Maastricht and Aachen.

Cultural Centre Hasselt also organises the annual international arts festival for young audiences, Krokusfestival in February. The festival presents a range of new performances (including our own productions), introduces new artists and focuses on artists' development. Krokusfestival presents a lot of dance performances for young audiences and is the international meeting place for TYA in Flanders. Krokusfestival is part of Assitej, collaborates with different European partners and is developing a trans-European collaboration.

www.ccha.be
http://krokusfestival.cchasselt.be

Imaginate is the national organisation in Scotland, which promotes, develops and celebrates theatre and dance for children and young people. 

We want more children in Scotland to experience work that is deeply engaging, innovative and inspiring. We believe that all children deserve the opportunity to develop their creativity, emotional intelligence and reach their true potential.

We want more high quality children’s work made in Scotland, and so support artists with a year-round programme of creative development. This includes a mix of events, training, residencies, mentoring and special projects.

We celebrate the best of children’s theatre and dance from around the world by producing Edinburgh International Children's Festival which showcases performances that delight and inspire the young and young-at-heart. The festival is also one of the best places for programmers from all over the world to see work of the very highest standard and for artists to meet, see, discuss work and take part in professional development activities.

www.imaginate.org.uk

The Norwegian Network for Performing arts is the largest distributor of performing arts for a young audience in Norway. It is a national promotion system, established in 194. We promote over 2,500 shows yearly, to an audience of 270,000 young people. We present a varied range of innovative contemporary performances, both Norwegian and International. We want to contribute to the further development and strengthening of performing arts for children and young people, and create forums where ideas and forums provide common references for further experience and performing arts discussions. We place great emphasis on networking, discussions and presentations of future projects.

Showbox, our festival for performing arts for a young audience, takes place every year in December at several venues in Oslo. The festival is our main forum for lectures, seminars, discussions and networking, in addition to being an open festival to the audience in Oslo.

The festival was established in 2005, and since then Showbox has become the largest performing arts festival for children and young people in Norway.

www.scenekunstbruket.no
www.showbox.no

Established in 1995, The Ark is a dedicated cultural centre for children. We believe in a child’s right to discover and love art in a society where art and culture are valued and enrich all our lives.

Specifically, we commission, produce and present work for, by and about children, from the ages of two to twelve years old.  We do so in our architecturally award-winning home in the heart of Dublin’s Temple Bar as well as off-site and on tour in Ireland and abroad. We encourage and resource Ireland’s artists to make outstanding art for children through properly supported and remunerated commissions, productions and professional development.

We work in partnership with others as artistic collaborators and regularly share our resources and knowledge with artists, educators and all those interested in child-centred arts practice. We also work with other like-minded organisations to advance children’s rights to art and culture as part of their learning and development.

One of our longest partnerships is with Dublin Theatre Festival, where The Ark curates the Theatre for Children season that is presented by both organisations during the annual festival. This will form part of the PUSH project in 2017.

www.ark.ie
www.dublintheatrefestival.com