Activities

Photo
Photo by Jassy Earl

PUSH+ Labs

We will run three, paid 8-day laboratories offering significant artistic, open-ended research for 15 European artists currently based in Scotland, Belgium, Ireland, Norway and Denmark. Each partner will select 3 artists based in their country to attend each Lab through an open application process who will join the host partner, Lead Artists and the PUSH+ Filmmaker Jassy Earl.

The Labs are:

Imaginate, Scotland - Home
Krokusfestival, Belgium - Failure
Scenekunstbruket, Norway - Different Bodies

PUSH+ Residencies

After each Lab all participating artists will be offered the chance to apply to take part in an associated Residency hosted by a different PUSH+ partner. This will allow production ideas and collaborations from the Lab quality time and space to develop with support, advice and feedback provided where needed.

The dates for the 2-week Residency will be advertised alongside the dates of the Lab so that all artists applying to take part in the Lab know when this will take place. Selection for the Residency will take place shortly after the Lab by the PUSH+ partners. Up to four artists will be selected on the quality of their production idea, the strength of its connection to the theme and its future potential.

The Residencies are:

Krokusfestival, Belgium - Home
The Ark, Ireland - Failure
Aaben Dans, Denmark - Different Bodies

PUSH+ Festival Presentations

In PUSH+ we wish to increase the risk taken by the project partners and their festivals/venue programmes. This requires our festivals to be at the heart of presenting more of the project to the sector and to the public through curating a programme of works in progress, public interventions and discussions to industry and public audiences.

Each of the three topics will culminate in a Festival Presentation, artists invited to take part will be given some time and space in the host country for rehearsals leading up to the presentation day.

The Festival Presentations will take place at:

Showbox Festival (Scenekunstbruket), Norway - Home
SWOP Festival (Aaben Dans), Denmark - Failure
Edinburgh International Children’s Festival (Imaginate), Scotland - Different Bodies

PUSH+ Festival Visits

There will be three Festival Visits as part of PUSH+ to share the learning around the topics and open up further discussion on an international level for artistic peers, industry colleagues and audiences. Each of the five partners will invite 2 PUSH+ artists to attend each of these Visits to reconnect – with each other, with the partner organisations, and with artists taking part in other parts of the project.

Each visit will include a programme of presentations of work including the PUSH+ Festival Presentations, discussions and networking opportunities. These Visits will be hosted within the three partner festivals, offering the buzz of an international festival, excellent networking beyond the project and a profile for PUSH+ among the attending local and international delegates.

The Festival Visits are the same hosts for the Presentations:

Showbox Festival (Scenekunstbruket), Norway - Home
SWOP Festival (Aaben Dans), Denmark - Failure
Edinburgh International Children’s Festival (Imaginate), Scotland - Different Bodies

PUSH+ International Workshop

In partnership with Bangkok International Children’s Festival (BICT Fest), PUSH+ will include a 5-day workshop exploring elements of the Different Bodies topic. Over the five days, ten artists from Europe and Thailand will work together, facilitated by a leading disabled artist to encourage more disabled artists to make work for young audiences and for the group to learn how to develop more accessible performances in a way that adds artistic interest.

Each partner will select 1 Different Bodies Lab artist to attend this workshop.

PUSH+ Symposium

Hosted by The Ark in Dublin at the end of the project in 2021, the PUSH+ Symposium will be a one-day event gathering together artists, senior policy makers, children’s advocates, educators, politicians (at both EU and national level) and journalists to reflect on the themes of the PUSH+ project: Home, Failure and Different Bodies. The PUSH+ Symposium will wrap up the ideas that have been collected during the 3-year project, provide an overview of the outcomes, celebrate the achievements and point to future European cooperation.

PUSH+ artists will be invited to attend, and present at, the Symposium. We will live stream the event and record the contributions on Soundcloud so they are accessible for those not based in Dublin.