Atelier News #2: Festivals in unusual contexts – a lot of food for thought

Today, 15 October, was the first working day of the Atelier for Young Festival Managers in Ljubljana. In small groups of eight persons each, moderated by one mentor, we had the opportunity to go deep into our festivals’ projects and future. Furthermore, Nele Hertling (Vice-Chair Academy of Arts Berlin; Germany) and Graham Sheffield (Director Art British Council London, former Artistic Director The Barbican London- UK) gave presentations. It occurred in my group that we all feel the need to develop our festival in unusual contexts. Unusual places for the performances to catch new audiences: public spaces, squares, tents, unconventional venues. All these spaces can awake interest and provoke curiosity and attract people who don’t feel concerned by what happens in our theatres. That was for example the idea developed by Marika Goldman from the Estonian Theatre Festival, or Darja Demsar from the festival Read Beats! in Slovenia. But this opening up to new audiences can also take a strong political sense. It is the case with Wein in Ramallah, presented by Sally Quattari. The municipality develops this festival in public spaces, in the belief of its role to bring about change in the development of the community. In connexion to these unusual spaces, also new, unphysical spaces can be opened up to peoples’ voices. The monthly event “Art in the square” in Cairo, Egypt, gives a voice to independent artists and cultural professionals, in a collective called “independent cultural coalition”. Through events taking place in public spaces, the collective tries to maintain the spirit of the revolution of 25 January. An amazing project based on voluntary work and individual donation. So how can we develop our festivals and its connexion to the audiences? Beside the previous points, two important ideas emerged. In a festival each performance should be a unique experience. That’s the goal of Barbara Sartore from the Lincoln Center Festival; for every performance she looks for the best place for the public to meet the piece of art. Besides the actual space for the performance, the festival can also use new digital media to re-think its relation to its public – create new media to create new art productions, or use new media to create the atmosphere of the festival (Jonathan May, London International Festival of Theatre, UK). In the next days, we will go deeper into these ideas, and probably many more. The end of the afternoon with the presentation of Nele Hertling evoked more interesting questions, such as: you should always think about preparing the audiences and the media about the context of the work that will be presented… In the evening, Graham Sheffield gave a guest lecture. He is currently Director Arts for the British Council and responsible for leading and developing the global arts policy and programme across the Council's operations. Graham was previously Chief Executive Officer of the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority in Hong Kong, leading the development of one of the largest arts infrastructures and programming projects ever envisioned. He was Artistic Director of the Barbican from 1995-2010, leading the development of artistic vision, policy and strategy across the art forms in Europe’s largest integrated multi arts centre – music, drama, dance, cinema, spoken word and the visual arts. (Read his full CV here) In his speech, Graham Sheffield reminded the Atelier participants that we should not forget, that artists have the power to help people to understand each other, to build integrity and thus to contribute together with us to the world and the society. By Erika Hess (France), participant Atelier LJUBLJANA 2012, 15 October 2012, Ljubljana, Slovenia For further information please visit the Atelier website or contact EFA at atelier@efa-aef.eu. First impressions can be found at the Atelier Photo Gallery. Related news and links: • Atelier News #7: "Once an Atelier, always an Atelier" • Atelier News #6: in-depth discussions of the essentials of the previous days • Atelier News #5: Cultural visits, press conference, book launch, boat trip and more • Atelier News #4: "Mutual inspiration in an ideas arena" • Atelier News #3: “Bouncing ideas and streams of creations” • Atelier News #2: Festivals in unusual contexts – a lot of food for thought • Atelier News #1: “Welcome, fools, to our world” • Daily blog by participant Gemma Connell (UK) • Robyn Archer opens Atelier LJUBLJANA 2012: “We are all participants“ • Atelier for Young Festival Managers LJUBLJANA 2011 starts today: Follow online! • Public invited to opening of Atelier LJUBLJANA 2012 with Robyn Archer • Atelier LJUBLJANA 2012: intense exclusive training and high-level public events