Plenary Opening • Perform Europe Opening Event
- Welcome Welcome there friends, artists, producers, presenters, policymakers, performing arts lovers and all in between. First one, housekeeping notes. Please do not click on any links not from Perform Europe to avoid spam sites, very important. Once again, welcome, my name is Tundé Adefioye a dramaturge, essayist and lecturer. During my time as a city dramaturge in Brussels, one of my focus was on trying to help ensure pieces by-- That pieces by artists that I work with were able to tour.
But how does one ensure that when in fact some of the artists I've worked with were theater makers of color with migrant backgrounds that reflects, of course, a constantly changing Europe while at the same time those who are programming are often white middle-class and male, a conundrum. Welcome to Perform Europe's opening events, a test to understand the aforementioned issues as well as to better understand Perform Europe in general. How can we contribute and be part of the change we want to push to reality? I propose attendees to write questions in the Q and A, not in the chat, because those won't be seen. If they're not answered during the event we will answer them later by email. However, the chat is open if you wanna chat with each other. The webinar is also live streamed and recorded.
The recording will be made available at the Perform Europe platform. Well, now that we've kind of gotten the introduction out of the way, let's have a quick look at what, at what Perform Europe is. (upbeat music) - [Female Voice] Welcome to Perform Europe. Perform Europe is a Creative Europe project. It is for performing arts professionals, producers of work and presenters of work alike in all the creative Europe countries. Perform Europe is a project that will give us the performing arts sector, an opportunity to reimagine and eventually change the way we do international touring.
The way we show work, the way we travel, the way we exchange, the way we reach audiences. Through Perform Europe we will hit the road and on an 18 month journey test new touring and digital distribution models and propose a new European support scheme for the performing arts. We the Perform Europe partners, IETM, EFA, EDN, Circostrada and Idea Consult are thrilled to take this journey together with you. We thank the European Commission and the Creative Europe programme for the mandate to lead Perform Europe. - We're glad to have you all here to the opening events of the Perform Europe.
So, the day is actually split up into two parts, the informative and inspirational part and this lasts till 3:00 PM. This will set the stage for informing us about the project followed by a more interactive hands-on part with a smaller group of individuals. This group will collect ideas from the sector and policy makers formulating a sort of wishlist scheme for what sustainable and inclusive distribution could be. Both parts of the events can be followed on our livestream. Okay, let's move on. Perform Europe is embedded in the European context, an invitation to us by the European Commission to rethink touring.
Perform Europe is a service we together deliver to the European Commission. After 18 months, we aim to advise the commission on why it makes absolute sense to have a new EU scheme for the performing arts distribution and circulation. A scheme we believe, a scheme we all can believe in relating to values and visions. So, in order to give us more insights into that, I'm glad to welcome Barbara Kessler's, Barbara Gessler, sorry, who is with us, head of unit and with her team following closely art work and Perform Europe.
Barbara, please tell us more about the expectations you have for this process. - Thank you very much Tunde, for your kind introduction. I hope you can hear me. - [Tunde] Perfectly. Yes, it's always, this is always tricky, the tricky part.
So their attendance of this launch conference of Perform Europe. I'm frankly excited and happy about the journey that we are about to embark on together today. Today's event is the first combination point of what has been in the air for some years now, a wish and a need to express by you, the performing arts sector and in particular, its representative networks to support the sector and its efforts to circulate across borders. As you all know, the commission first listened to the cultural and creative sectors concerns to enable individuals, artists and professionals to work in a transnational manner, allowing them to be mobile outside their countries of residence to work on a project in another country. With (indistinct), we set up a scheme that caters for this mobility in a targeted and what figures show very successful way, but in parallel, the need to accompany this individual mobility by creating targeted possibilities for the works of these artists to be shown outside their countries of origin, in a festival may be or in any relevant forum of exchange, was always present.
As you know, the Creative Europe programs main culture action, the cooperation projects but also the platforms catered for these possibilities in a structured and partnership oriented way. This is why we are happy that the new Creative Europe program that starts this year not only has it considerably increased budget with almost more than 80% more than the current program to continue these actions and reinforce them. And to performing arts, the sector you represent here today has by large been and will certainly continue being the sector most benefiting of the culture strand of the Creative Europe program. But a deeper evaluation into the needs of the sector has shown that further action was needed to raise the level of European collaboration starting with the knowledge about what is currently being produced and an opportunity for a European audience to actually see and witness it live for preference but in these times also in a digital environment. And the times are difficult.
The latest study presented by Ernston Young and which confirms the figures forwarded by many of you over the past months, unfortunately flags the worst. In 2020, the cultural and creative economy lost approximatively 31% of its revenues. They are more affected than the tourism and automotive industries. And the most impacted cultural and creative industries are the performing arts sector with minus 90% and music with minus 76%.
But even before the crisis, the commission was aware about the relevance of cross-border distribution of performing arts works for the performing arts economy and its vital role for the sectors professional growth and artistic development and it was aware that the sector was challenged by a changing context as well, requiring you answers to help combat climate change, increased its sustainability and inclusiveness in order to remain the source of innovation and thinking outside the box that it stands for bringing critical thinking to the floor to an audience that needs to be broader and less concentrated in urban areas. It's not the least these reflections and concerns that will make this tool that will be presented to you today and on which we spent the not so small amount of 2.5 million Euros so relevant for the European Commission. And I believe for our citizens in our society it will embody the pure notion of what we like to call in our jargon, the European added value by excellence, not only by supporting and circulation, by supporting circulation and audience development for the sake of it, but because these questions you are facing are also the political priorities for this commission.
But I'm convinced that the European added value of this new tool will also notably spring from the fact that it will be developed and tested via professionals from your sector, for your sector. With the consortium that will start this endeavor, IETM, the European Festivals Association, the European Dances House Networks, Circostrada (indistinct) the European Network for Circus and Street Arts, and IDEA Consult as well as a savvy technical subcontractor, ACAIT solutions. I am certain that they are the partners with the multidisciplinary nature and the complimentary set of skills, connections, expertise and experiences to make this a meaningful instrument. Before the actual distribution tool will take the reality tests, the consortium will look into existing support schemes and make a mapping and an effort to learn from the best and hopefully avoid repeating mistakes. Needless to say, at the end of this journey, there will be lessons learned and knowing the people involved, I am certain they will not be shy to communicate them to us.
As the commission, we are asking for concrete recommendations that will help us developing our efforts further and eventually how and if this specific experience can become part and parcel of the Creative Europe program in the future and also how our cultural policy that our funding is intended to support can continue contributing to a more sustainable environment for the artists and the sector accompanying, thereby, all ongoing actions of coordinations with member States and with the EU. With my team and notably (indistinct) who has been key in the setting up of this cooperation, we wish you a very fruitful and successful afternoon and we're looking honestly forward to hearing thoughts and debates. Thank you. - Thank you, Barbara, for those insightful and sobering words, especially the numbers, but also I'm motivated, not only by the picture of Danes Baldwin behind you, but just also motivated by the fact that you all are kind of taken on this very important and pressing challenge. So Perform Europe exists for a reason, To serve artists to present their work internationally and to allow European citizens to access it. Work in the most inclusive, balanced and sustainable way possible as Barbara has already alluded to.
It also exists to take the time to think together about new ways of touring, about values and principles, the sector and the world. It's looking at sustainability, once again, balance and inclusivity are key words and concepts that Perform Europe's will reflect on to really think about what do these words mean and how do we incorporate it into the pressing situation that we currently find ourselves. With that note, I'm glad to have Eleanor Bauer with us. American dancer and choreographer Elena Bauer explores the use of a holistic approach for cross pollinations and translations between aesthetic, social and informational values and processes. She's creating, producing, touring extensively, reflects a lot about how her practices rises from and to a certain degree mirrors societal challenges.
Eleanor. - Thank you. I am very humbled and honored to address all of you in this really ambitious and urgent project of really evaluating and reconsidering what's possible within a sort of matrix of what I see as even contradictions. So, I'm gonna talk a little bit about, I mean, yeah, I'm invited as an artist here, I cannot represent the whole field by any stretch of the imagination but I'm also thinking that in this moment I also wanna thank all of you for taking the responsibility to consider these really important and large questions and just remind us that everyone is creative in the capacity to imagine solutions, to problem solve to respond to each other and to collaborate and cooperate in old and new ways. So, we don't need to just ask the artists to create the solutions or to inspire meaningful processes and debates, but all of us here in our own gathering and in our own skins and experiences embody all sorts of values and questions and solutions.
So, just on the contradictions, I want to, I'm just thinking about the contradiction between the value of mobility and the value of sustainability or the contradiction between the idea of Europe and the ambition of inclusion. I mean, there's so many, or yeah. Also, balance and scale. What's a scalable practice? Is something that I'm gonna be talking a bit about. So, wow, there's just so much to talk about.
I'm just gonna kind of, I'm gonna go through these notes, they're gonna be a little bit nonlinear. I hope to inspire some reflection, but most of all I just wanna encourage a lot of humility,(laughs) a lot of humility because I think these large questions will not and do not have quick answers. Like, there's a way in which a body like Perform Europe is a little bit, the way the arts also get positioned as, like the advertising agency of political bodies.
It's on us to sort of create the identities, to produce the identities, to perform the effects, to create experiences that affirm the values, the political values, the historical values. And I think it's a good moment in this sort of global wintering, in this huge pause that has radically interrupted the momentum of business as usual to also affirm the counterforce that's possible from the cultural sector in questioning the very historical and material values that have brought us here. I mean in Europe, as the promise of unity or unification is also built on a history of exclusion. So there's a very like multifold historical complexity that has like amalgamated into this moment where I'm actually, honestly as painful as it's been, I'm actually really grateful for what this global pandemic has done, even though we've lost a lot of money and we're all in crisis. There's a lot of people without work. It's forcing us to consider our roles and our values, our responsibilities towards each other and how we can get back to work differently.
And the longer this thing persists the more impossible as we yearn to meet again and we yearn to go to the theater again, we yearn for that social vibe and contact, it's continued absence is also an opportunity and I just wanna encourage, also on the one hand, the humility that it's gonna be difficult and it is difficult and that there is no quick fix. This is an opportunity to really do things differently. Like we won't be getting back to anything we knew before anytime soon. So to invite the real changes in who we listened to, how we think and how we feel, what are our aesthetic agencies to take this time also to study. So, especially with questions of inclusion along the entire intersectional axis of class, race, gender, ability, ethnicity, et cetera.
This is an opportunity for everybody who has been and is in a position of safety, in a position of power, has been given the gate keeping roles, has a job right now, to take this time to educate ourselves about what we've been missing. So to look at the sort of historical assumptions that have constructed Eurocentrism as a kind of whiteness, as a kind of (indistinct) or like what are all the sort of economic, whether it's the male gaze or a certain gender or an ableism, like, what are the performances we've been seeing constructed by? So, before we can even approach inclusion we have to start to name what is already present. So, why aren't the, when you say, well, we need broader audiences, we need more diverse representation on the stages, you can't just import these things if the soil is not set. So, using this metaphor of soil right now, like the soil is at rest. This is a wonderful opportunity to figure out what kind of nutrients, to you use the metaphor like agricultural metaphor, What does this soil need in this composting moment to be able to receive new kinds of seeds? And this is like really practical also. So, A, naming what is present in order to figure out how this space is constructing the absence and continuing to affirm the absence of what is not present yet.
There's a wonderful book I would encourage everyone to read. It's really simple. It's really a workbook. It's really easy. It's called "Ideas Arrangements Effects" by the Design School for Social Justice and I think they have it, there's a digital copy you can see for free on issue but they also have an extended talk on their own website, The Design School for Social Justice.
And it basically, they do a really great job of breaking down how ideas like the big isms, racism, classism, environmentalism, lisms, like isms can be huge and overwhelming sometimes in their influence. They are, that's what they are. They're ideas, they're ideas, they influence how we behave, how we act, how we move through the world, how we construct our spaces.
And they also incite very large reactions. They produce effects like they create strong emotions. And so in the triangulation of ideas, arrangements and effects, The Design School for Social Justice really shows how, how these three things can influence each other with more equanimity.
So arrangements refers to the, how the rooms are actually arranged like are the chairs in a circle or are they all facing one front? Who has the keys? Is it arranged by silence or participation? How loud is it? What are the colors of the walls? Like arrangements, like everything from the architecture to the behaviors, to the spoken and unspoken codes of conduct, all these things that constitute how we gather. This sort of choreography is if you will, of the spaces we share, the rooms we come together in. And then effects are just the felt senses in each of us. Like, how does it feel? I feel nervous.
I feel invited. I feel alienated. I feel uninspired. I feel excited. I feel curious, like all the feelings that can be produced from an arrangement, all the feelings that can be produced from an idea and how by sort of studying the effects in order to come up with different arrangements, can also push back on the ideas and shift the horizons.
But I think as much as we are in like a multi-tiered conundrum, we really have to look from all these different angles. So that's one thing that I feel this book helps a little bit break down, is the different scales of approach to something. I have to move a little bit quicker. So, and we wanna check out- So, there's something I've been thinking a lot about which is, instead of, coming back to this idea of a sort of, how does culture not get stuck in being a kind of in this promotional lens, this promotional and great like marketing style, commercial logic of exchange of our ethics, of our skills, of our potentials. I think there's a necessary shift away from saleable and provable concepts towards scalable and durable practices. So this I'm thinking, especially now, in the values of sustainability, inclusion and balance, I think it points towards the practices we've- How we've dealt with time and space in terms of scale.
Previously its very rote. There's a lot of assumptions, creation takes six weeks, cost this much money. The stage is this large.
You should fit everything in this box and then it goes in a van this size and then the (vocalizes) like the ideas of what is a saleable and provable concept keeps sort of reiterate, there's a very reiterative, habitual set of norms that have evolved over time and they're not sustainable. So this is a great opportunity to look at what is possible here and now, what we can do exactly here and now within the limitations of the present condition and how that can start to shift towards scalable and durable practices. So instead of coming up with a project idea and pitching it three years into the future and convincing everybody it's a great idea.
and then chasing after the promises you've made and then hoping to have a good tour, like there's all these ways that we deal with, and then it's provability, it's like, Well, will you be able to make the thing you promise? Will you be able to tour the square that way? There's a lot of like selling promises and speculations that kind of send us in a constant future, we're propelling ourselves towards this future with this momentum and missing, maybe the, the practice in the here and the now that is actually the seed for change. I know this is very abstract, but I think also there's something like, in performance and dance, especially, there's a curiosity that's like to do to find out. So if it's possible now, do it and then check out what are the effects? Is this working now today? Are we excited to come to work today? Are we serving- How can we serve the communities we wanna serve right now, today? And that could be as much as like looking at your overhead. Is all your budget going towards administrators and waiting for the touring to be possible again to throw some money at some dancers? Or how could we employ artists right now, in this lockdown to do things like workshops or to totally, to just be able to feel purposeful, to feel engaged, to feel present in the field instead of waiting for things to get back to normal.
And I don't have the solutions. I think leadership is really a lot about listening. This is about thinking globally, acting locally. Checking out who is around you in your immediate community right now that's suffering.
I mean, the word curation, the root of the word curation is care. So, who can we help? And I think there's, I'm sorry I get a little bit swirly around this, but compassion is like so key right now and the ability to see new solutions with clarity, with patients and to move towards sustainable, inclusive, balanced arrangements. I think we have to call upon our emotional intelligence more and more to feel the vulnerability of the critique of what has been habitual and how that has to change, to listen in to the field and the people that are calling for different types of attention.
So, yeah, if it's meaningful now, it will create new possibilities later. It will be meaningful later. So that's a little bit what I mean. And then it can, if it's possible now, it will be scalable up.
Like if a few people can get together and do a workshop then more can do it later. - Yes, kinda like the small, thinking about smaller gatherings and the importance of those kinda smaller gatherings and yeah, the local in fact. - How am I on time? Probably way over already. - Yeah, unfortunately, you're like three minutes over. - Oh, goodness. - So, I don't know if you wanna say like a few last things, because I mean, I can listen to you for like a while, but I don't know.
- It's so hard, there's so much, it's okay. I think I mostly said things. I just wanna scan through my notes really quickly to make sure that I haven't missed something. Oh, just in terms of balance.
Cause I think, well, sustainability and inclusion can feel more concrete to us as like ecological and social problems that we can get down to the nitty gritty and look at like, who's here? Who's in charge? Who's curating? Who's employed? Who's on what kinds of salaries? Like there's a more material realness to both of those things. Also sustainability, like, okay, get rid of the plastic water bottles, set up local tourings so that things stay on the road, use trains instead of planes. Like there's a thousand checklists we can brainstorm. I feel like balance is maybe a little more abstract. And I think that's because balance is at its heart and nature culture problem.
So I'm thinking about how sustainability, inclusion and balance are a little bit like tending, cultivation and weeding. So we are in the sort of (indistinct) right? There is no nature as such, there's no culture as such, but I have to quote Anna Grip, she was a dancer who was the head of the dance department at doc, the BA for a while here in Stockholm. And she would always say when people were ambitious about adding stuff to the program, like inclusion is like, we wanna bring in more people but if the budget, especially with less and less now, or, I mean, you have it. That's great to hear there's a great budget for this project but I mean, we're facing economic crisis. We're facing diminishing resources.
We have to be clever and it's scarce. The question is also, what has to go? So we can't just include without also excluding. So I think there's a very cult, there's a lot, it's gonna be difficult because it's like the question of weeding. Like, what are you going to take out? The weed is a great metaphor because what makes something a weed is it's aesthetics but it's also its relationship to the other species that are present.
More like it's invasive or overgrowth. So there's a lot of va- There's lot of cultural values in terms of like beauty also, in terms of balance. So I would just say like with the balance chapter in looking for the sort of balance of values to edge away from the idea of balance as a static point of compromise, that it will always be dynamic. It'll always have to be renegotiated. Balancing as an act of like embracing the conflict, the agonism, the contradictions and the just again that humility that's gonna constantly have to change.
(indistinct) - It's something that is influx actually, balance's something that isn't in flux and it's not something that is not how we perceive it often. I don't know if-- - I hope this wasn't too abstract and preachy. - No, I mean, I don't know for everybody else, but I'm like, "Oh, give me more." But unfortunately we don't have that much time but it's been really thought provoking when you talk about seed and soil, I keep on thinking about Octavia Butler and earth seed and you talk about space so I'm thinking about Audrey Lord and how she thinks we, she talks about how we need to find time to fill out the spaces that we wanna create into the future. So anyways, thank you so much, Eleanor. Please stay with us and be safe and keep on doing the wonderful work and most importantly wonderful thinking you're doing in terms of sending us here and thinking us through to the future.
Thank you. - Just one last thing. Sorry, on inclusion. I was just remembering there's very important stuff about just the, to be aware of the cosmologies that have constructed the things that are present and how a totally different set of values is necessary to invite different aesthetics in the room. So, just in so far as like if time, space and energy are the modernist values or like we're seeing in front and like display of virtuosity have been the values that have constructed how stage works have been seen so far, you can't just stick an astrological show in that space and expect it to work.
If something is based on community, joy and rhythm or dancing on floors that aren't made of wood or Marley, like there's everything from the materials of the room, the arrangements, to the, the very values of gathering and how and why people gathered or what are the historical inheritances of each of these works, will demand that we actually treat the spaces we have differently. It could be part of redesigned projects in this moment, blah, blah, blah, goodbye, thank you. - (laughs)Thanks again, Eleanor. So, moving from that, kind of returning from the space back to the ground, I would now like to give the floor actually to the Perform Europe team to introduce the project in detail. Like all projects, this one is embedded in a set of tools, working strands and opportunities for the sector for us to use and work with. Keeping Eleanor's words in mind, of course, it's high time to understand better how the challenges we are facing today and the visions we are embracing for international touring in the future translates in Perform Europe.
What is this consortium inviting the sector for? What are we talking about in the next 18 months? Who has a seat at the proverbial table? What ground are we on? Right? How is 2020, whether the pandemic or the black lives matter uprising shaped us as individuals, as communities? With all that in mind I give the floor to the co-initiators of Perform Europe. First to Asa Richardsdotiir, secretary general from IETM. - Thank you very much, Tunde and thank you Barbara and thank you, Eleanor. I'm gonna dive right into it because we are indeed pressed for time. I get to be the first of the Perform Europe partners to welcome you here. It's great to see so many.
We have hundreds of people in the zoom room and following the live stream. For us, this is a moment of celebration. Celebration of a very intense period of application writing last summer and two months of preparation now. But this is also a humble moment, a humble moment because we feel a huge responsibility on our shoulders to do well, to do justice and to listen.
We are very grateful to the European Commission and the Creative Europe program for trusting us with this project. We see Perform Europe as a much awaited and anticipated project which comes for sector that has, for the last part of a whole year, been shut down, not being able to do what it does best to bring to its audiences joy, happiness, magic, house realities, everything that it does live on the stage in the moment. This project can have a significant impact on how we are going to collaborate across the Creative Europe countries, how we shall work and also how we create an act as a sector. We get to do things differently now we are Perform Europe.
We get a chance to test innovative ideas and solutions. We get a chance to show in practice what we have been preaching. That is, to put environmental concerns at the center of our tours, to include all those that belong to our sector, to impress and put focus on the many beautiful regions of all the Creative Europe countries and, and this is important, at the same time seek and celebrate artistic excellence.
This project does not come about in isolation and it will not be executed in isolation. It's principles of inclusion, balance, diversity and (indistinct) are those the European Commission itself has put in the forefront and those Performing Europe has put at the core of its mission. We are, in no way, immune nor outside of today's divisions and polarizations.
We are part of it and what we do as an artistic community matters. Perform Europe gives us a chance to address inequalities and put sustainable practice at the heart of everything that we do because we must find practices that are sustainable for a long period of time for the sake of our planet but also for the health of our art sector. Last but not least, Perform Europe will gives a chance to really dive into and explore further the digital practices and means of distributing our work. COVID has taught us to live, work and practice online and Perform Europe will seek innovative artistic work which can thrive in the digital relm as well as life on stages and throughout our regions.
We are six from the project that will now, one by one, tell you more about Perform Europe. So stay with us. And I'm gonna give the word next to my colleague Joris Janssens that is gonna tell you about Perform Europe's very important first steps of research. Thank you. - Awesome.
Hello, everybody. I will very briefly introduced you to the mapping research, which we'll do together at the start of Perform Europe. And the aim of this mapping research in the first stages of the project is to gather all the information, all that we need to know in order to design the support scheme that's gonna contribute in the best possible way to more sustainable, balanced and inclusive international touring for region governed by Creative Europe.
At this moment, the solid research, this exhaustive and expensive is missing so we are going to develop it, but how are we going to do so? First, we will map the current state of affairs. We will look at the trends in international touring practices. Also weigh international touring (indistinct) and also in the way digital tools are used in the process of touring and supporting it. So it's about describing the current state of affairs but it's also about evaluating it in terms of sustainability, balance and inclusion.
Not only about mapping what's there, it's also about how we want the situation to be and how we want to transform. It's about your needs, obstacles you encounter, your wishes, dreams, and ambitions, concerning more sustainable touring. The confrontation of what is there and where we want to go will ultimately help us to design a scheme which we'll put in place later on. So how are we going to gather this information? Of course, we will read all the material which is already there and also the books that are Eleanor recommended, of course. We are putting together a network of country correspondence or antennas in all the Creative Europe regions to inform us about policy schemes that are out there, digital tools of our practices but most importantly, you all can contribute, your input is crucial. We will soon, beginning of February on the eighth, launch a large survey for all forming artists, companies, presenters, festivals in all Creative Europe countries in order to hear from you about your situations, your dreams, your ideas.
So stay tuned for this, register on our website, follow social media, read the newsletters. It's where you can give your input but also you will be able to follow on the results because we imagined Perform Europe to be one common space for learning, developing, development for understanding and the mapping is only the first step of that. And (indistinct) will develop that will be explained by my colleagues, first by Kathrin Denventer, the secretary general of EFA, the European Festival Association. She will explain to you in more detail what the Perform Europe sports scheme is going to look like, how it will work and also how you can engage. - Mapping is (indistinct) testing is god, This is what I would like to start with. And now we come to the core.
We come to you, artists, presenters and producers. We heard from our side, our invitation to you is the following, it's to test together a future scheme of a real pan-European performing arts fund. And for us, there are two sides to the same coin in our invitation. There is a thinking side and there is a doing side.
Let's start with the maybe more difficult part for me, it's the thinking side. Perform Europe will give us the opportunity to speak, to think and to list our proposals, our needs, our ideas for a future European fund that supports the sector, that gives an added value to you and to your practices. In addition to the existing schemes that happen already on the local and on the national level.
How are we doing this? We are working at the moment in this joint exercise with two elements. We work with the digital Perform Europe platform that we are setting up at the moment and secondly, we are going to have a series of zoom conferences and workshops. To start with the digital platform. We are setting this up for you, a space, as Joris was saying, to get together, to get in touch with each other, a space for collective learning, experimentation, for receiving also your applications and for matchmaking. In other words, it is our networking tour, our commonplace for collecting different profiles of your data and presenting also the archiving and archiving audio visual material of selected performances.
It's to share knowledge that we gained throughout the process. Our hotspot for communication as well. Secondly, we work a series of online workshops. We will, in addition to this platform, come together in two moments in the next month through conferences in the workshop in April and during summer time to learn together how to make touring more sustainable and inclusive. And we start already this afternoon and then later on. And this leads us to the doing side.
Some of you will prove the value of our aimed fund, meaning that we will test some of the new touring practices with the number of touring projects. (indistinct) we're giving some moments a little bit more hints on this matching and touring ideas of projects that we are going to select. As always, of course, in these selection processes, there will be an independent jury that we are going to put in place. We are going to launch the call for this jury and for jury members mid February. So from June onwards, when the platform opens, nine jury members will develop, apply and follow up the testing phase of our new sports scheme. It all is quite complex still, I know.
Perform Europe is not a fund yet, it's under full construction, but as Eleanor said, it's an invitation for us, an opportunity and even maybe a responsibility that we can collectively take to test and recommend possible criteria to the European Commission, to Barbara and to her team that reflect the needs and necessities of the sector for such a fund. Now, Pia, I hope you are with me in this space. From the European Dance House Network, I'm giving the floor to you for more details on the fund and how the funds will work. Pia if you are with me, there you are. - Thank you, Kathrin and hello, everybody.
So I have the pleasure to further explain shortly two key functions from Perform Europe, which Perform Europe is developing with the aim to stimulate or let's say, like Eleanor just mentioned, fertilize the performing arts ecosystem and plant fresh seeds for all. So these functions are designed to offer a wide range of matchmaking and networking possibilities between performing artists and companies and presenters from venues, festivals and other organizations. So, how will it work? In a first step, the Perform Europe jury will select performers and presenters who enter in a matchmaking process via the digital platform. The (indistinct) that Kathrin just talked about before will be made selection respecting the Perform Europe values. Yes, once more, sustainability, inclusivity and balance.
So these first steps is the start of possible touring partnerships which, in a second step, can develop innovative international touring plans before submitting it into the second round of applications. The second selection is a selection of touring partnerships, again, done by the same jury. So, the now selected partnerships will be awarded a touring grant with the objective to test their proposed touring plan.
The test can include real life touring as well as virtual distribution via the digital platform. So, what do we mean when we speak about networking in this scenario? Well, beyond the Perform Europe scheme, as it was just described before by my colleagues, the digital platform is designed to fulfill various needs. To inform the performing arts sector about each other in a more inclusive manner and then provide support to develop new and meaningful partnerships, collaborations and a better access to networking and therefore enlarge a scope of touring possibilities in longer terms. (indistinct) said again, in the end it's a huge collective effort of the performing arts fields to develop together and benefit from equal access, open and broaden already existing networks, partnerships and corporations in years, taking special care to work target groups which often do not take part in and benefit from cross border distribution. So for this to happen, we need your participation.
Please join the movement. And now I give the floor to my colleagues, they fund coordinator of Circostrada Network, who will tell you how cross touring, cross-border touring works in digital distribution partnership will. Thank you. - Thank you, Pia.
- [Pia] Good afternoon. - Thank you. And bonjour everyone. So picture it. It's the summer 2021, the presenters and the producers have been selected as Pia just explained, and they're finally able to create what we call a distribution partnership. This will allow them in turn to apply for a grant and the selection will be made by an independent jury as mentioned earlier by Kathrin.
But how do you create a distribution partnership? Well, of course, the artistic work should be the core element of the application, but you also need to have a very solid partnership with at least three partners in three different countries among the Creative Europe countries. And your partnerships needs to scream sustainability in a holistic way through the prism of these five values. Artistic, human, social, economic and of course, ecological values.
You also need to be able to explain how inclusive accessible your strategy is, both in terms of how you plan on reaching audiences and how you work with arts professionals. It means that you need to have a clear audience engagement plan and show also that you have a digital strategy. And what happens if your application is successful? Well, first of all, you can celebrate the good news but you can also receive a grant ranging from 10 to 20,000 euros for a distribution partnership which you will be able to use to cover any budget line of the costs incurred in touring whether it is live touring or virtual distribution. You see, we are all very much aware that cultural and artistic mobility as well as international touring have been put on hold for the past year. However, we remain convinced that real life international touring is essential and through Perform Europe we also want to explore digital opportunities which can allow us to reach a wider spectrum of audiences and experiment with new aesthetics and artistic approaches.
So, thank you for listening and let me give the mic to Elena Polivtseva, head of policy and research at IETM. She will tell us everything we need to know about the policy recommendation. Elena, the floor (indistinct) - Hello, thank you Stephan.
Hello, everyone. I will not tell you everything because I have to be brief now. So as it was said today, continue support for a performing arts circulation is absolutely vital especially today amidst the crisis. And we also believe that the dedicated EU action for performing arts circulation would be an essential break to build stronger and more cohesive Europe. That's why Perform Europe is there to pave the way for a structured and continuous support for performing arts distribution and touring.
The European Commission has given us a mandate to develop policy recommendations on how to create such a tool as part of Creative Europe, 2021-2027. Precisely in 17 months from now we will be advising the European Commission, the member States and the European parliament on how to better support inclusive and balanced and sustainable touring and distribution of the performing arts. We will also assess whether there is a need for specific actions targeting various disciplines of the performing arts.
Circus, theater, dance (indistinct) performance. So, how would it be happening and what resources would we be using while drafting those recommendations? First of all, we will hear later today from some of you during the workshop, secondly, we will embrace the outcomes of the research phase (indistinct) has told you earlier. Then we will also analyze the outcomes of the performing, Perform Europe's touring actions which are the main experimentations of this project. And last but not least, of course we will need the input of the sector itself. Basically, of you.
There will be few consultation moments, through which we hope to hear about your needs, about your insights, about your expectations and aspirations and please stay tuned for those consultation moments. So, we are very excited and happy to take this challenge and difficult huge task and we do hope for you to be with us in this way. And now I'm glad to give the floor back to IETM secretary general, Asa, to tell you about the immediate next steps of Perform Europe.
- Thank you, Lana and thank you colleagues. I hope all of you listening and watching feel you know a little bit more about Perform Europe when you enter this year at another zoom room. We really had hoped to meet you live in person but (indistinct) There's gonna be plenty more opportunities to know more and most importantly, to take part. And first of all, put in your calendars now, 8th of February, survey coming from Perform Europe.
It is going to be a hugely important tool for us to get to know your needs and desires that Joris so eloquently described earlier. Please take part. Please also, and ask all your friends, to follow our channels. We are on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn. And most importantly, if you haven't done it yet, subscribe to our newsletter on www.performeurope.eu
And right now we just put a whole lot of new information in there. Lots of new info that is there now, please check it out and stay tuned to the finished platform coming up and being released in June. I wanna all the staff and teams of all the partners of Perform Europe, you know who you are, for the immense good hard work in the last weeks in preparing this event and also the start of this project.
As I said, we are celebrating, but we are excited as well as humble regarding this responsibility and we count on you to help us. Thank you so much for being here, over to you Tunde. - Thank you, Asa. Yeah and, there have been some questions, some wonderful questions actually, that have been posed already.
What I'm gonna do is I'm going to kind of ask them or present it to the panelists, including Eleanor and Barbara, and you all can, once I asked all the questions, you all can take it as a bunch. Is that clear? All right. So, here's the first question from Cheryl Martin. Hey, Cheryl. "It sounds like Perform Europe "is for EU artists, companies and citizens. "Does the UK have any role here?" That's the first question.
Second question is, "How do Europeans, "how do European institutions become more inclusive "within their administration "as well in their decision processes "of who gets support and funding? This is from Leonard Cruz. And then the next question from Pipa Bailey, "There's a big question, "It's a big question "whether people who have been leading "and managing broken systems "are the right people to lead change?" And then the last question in this bunch from Mimi Washca is "What is the more inclusive working manner "that is being mentioned many times "in this conference?" So, who wants to start? - I'll start by saying that it's not just European Union, Creative Europe is actually a much larger region and I'll let Barbara explain that further and also take the question regarding UK. What we can tell you, that we are going to include the UK in our research part. - Yes, thank you, Asa.
I saw those questions and I thought that they were probably aiming at me. So, at the moment it looks like as the UK was part of Creative Europe when we launched the whole program, the UK artists should normally be able to, to participate and indeed Creative Europe is larger than just EU, 27. But I would like you to really check out the details once they come nearer the time. But that is also obviously part of inclusiveness even though we may be, as you well know and you have witnessed over the past days, part of some kind of relationship issues between the UK and the EU at the moment that I hope for the sake of our sector and your sector to put it like that, for culture in general and for diversity, that we will be able to overcome in a very constructive way. I saw the questions about the languages and of course I'm not totally sure I fully grasped it.
Of course, if you are engaging, we believe, in an international project, you should be able to communicate in a common language. So, I don't know if your question was rather more towards minority languages or languages not being the formal language of the country that you live in so I'm afraid I can't really, I can't really answer that question. Maybe someone else saw the question and has a better understanding of how we can answer it concretely. - I understood the question as relative to those seeking jobs having to deal with the linguistic hedge money of the places they're applying to, which keeps the the faces of those institutions sort of looking the same by nationality or ethnicity, that language is a barrier.
So, maybe one practical solution could be that some funds are considered for translation or, yeah, just thinking about when you get to the practical brainstorming tool part, like how is language barrier part of the problem? - Yes, indeed. That's a very good, I think it's a good way of thinking about this question, Eleanor. I mean, in Europe, we already have a very broad diversity of languages. So we know what we're talking about if we talk about linguistic challenges but of course that does not include languages from countries where people may live in a country but coming from somewhere else where these languages are not spoken. So we have to probably think of that but nonetheless, in the perspective of an international and cross-border cooperation, we have to bear in mind that it needs to be somehow also just very practical, also in a way.
But yeah, it's a good suggestion and we'll certainly think about it or the consult team will certainly think about it, I'm sure. - Yes and we will take all questions that haven't been answered and find a way of processing them and answering them because we have unfortunately gone over the time allocated. Tunde, I'm gonna give the word back to you. - Yeah, yeah, definitely. Yeah, and also kind of thinking about, the power that language holds.
Anyways, so, where will we be in the 18 months of this trajectory? I'm personally curious to see what comes out of this setting. How things are potentially shaken up. The work starts here and today. So we need to make sure we use the lessons of last year, once again, to create the portal that the writer (indistinct) encouraged earlier of 2020. Ae need to tear down and eradicate old systems that have not served us while we create spaces that would hold and reflect more of the individuals in our society who often exist at margins.
How can our work center them in sustainable ways? Following this launch moment, we can continue with some talks on how to imagine future touring in a way that is representing more of the individuals that we often leave out. Anyways, in 15 minutes, I invite everyone back to the live stream at 3:15, less than 15 minutes, actually, with a series of talks, so 12 minutes, that will help us better understand some factors of future touring and our work in Perform Europe. The link will be displayed on the final webinar, sorry, the final slide of the webinar, so look out for the link, and a smaller group of people will then be part of a series of breakout groups. For those who could not get a place in these groups don't worry, we got snacks for you too. They will be repeated in three weeks time on Thursday, the 18th of February.
So put that in your calendar. My work here is done. I hope you all have a beautiful day wherever you are in Europe.
Goodbye and good luck. And please do better.
2021-02-13 09:10
