Producers' Academy 2022

The Producers' Academy is a dedicated time to reflect, think, co-learn, encounter, and provoke the practice of the producer. With open minds and open hearts, integrity and fun, this 4-day seminar is willing to dig into the current urgencies and problematics of producing work as well as being a producer.

With approaches sometimes experimental (have you heard of the fairy purse?) or deeply technical (art(ists) still need to cross borders), we would like to explore how to practice values of cooperation and collaboration, care and solidarity, empowerment and enjoyment, tackling the questions of (self)-care, fair practices, transnational practices, as well as the nitty gritty of producing performing arts, playing with budgets, and maybe reinventing one-self.
The different subjects will be explored while talking, listening, walking or playing, using the expertise within the room as well as inspirational guests.

The Producers' Academy is aimed at international performing arts producers.

Content

Tools for the Better

arp: / Julia Reist and Katrien Reist (BE)

arp:Brussels invites participants of the Producers Academy to reflect on a conversation tool for collaborative practices in the arts that is currently in development. The prototype of 'For What it is Worth' is based on many conversations we had over the last two years, in which we discussed conditions, flaws and sources of joy or conflict within collaborations and came to the conclusion that essential elements that constitute this very often stay unspoken. The tool 'For What it is Worth' opens up the discussion around various themes that are fundamental to the perception of collaborative situations. Issues that in classical contracts are hardly ever addressed or framed in a way that does not correspond to the reality of individual situations or the conditions under which the collaboration takes place.
In the 30 min Check Ins we will exchange input, questions and suggestions regarding the use and navigation of this tool as a group. During the day, you will find us at an open desk where we welcome participants for more personal reflections. Participants are welcomed to bring their own projects / situation as a point of departure.

Kunstenfestivaldesarts

Daniel Blanga Gubbay (BE)

Daniel Blanga-Gubbay is a researcher in political philosophy and performance and has been the co-artistic director of the Kunstenfestivaldesarts for 3 years now. Reflecting on his experience, Daniel will raise the questions of How to build an artistic programme today and How to work within an institution with a history and bring it elsewhere, and will push the wider political reflexion on How to decolonize without tokenize.

Learning Trajectories

Marie Le Sourd/On the Move (FR), Chrissie Faniadis/Eunia (SE), Elena Polivtseva/IETM (BE), Anna Six and Valerie Wolters/openoffice (BE)

Professional development programmes, mentoring, peer-to-peer sessions etc in the performing arts sector have been growing in terms of formats, number and contents, in Europe and internationally for the past five years. What are their specificities? To what extent are they answering the needs of thesector? Are their formats inclusive and accessible enough? What types of contents and values are they sharing and/or strengthening?
This session with the contributions of four organisations’ representatives aims to discuss these questions based on experiences, expressions of needs and ways to better connect the learning of these programmes at European, international but also local levels.

Check-in

Yamina El Atlassi

Starting the day, connecting with each other before the main activities.

International Budgeting - lecture and exchange session

Caroline Ngorobi (KE) and Eva Wilsens (BE)

Based on a real project, this session will explore the budget of an international coproduction and how to cope with negotiating a budget when cultural differences occur.

Decolonial Tour

Collectif « Mémoire Coloniale et Lutte contre les Discriminations » (“Colonial Memory and Fight against Discrimination” Collective) (BE)

MCLCD organises tours in Brussels and around to inform the public about the construction of a decolonial citizen's conscience through history, the cultural values of Africa and by investing in public space.

Plat(e)form(e) Kunstenfestivaldesarts

Sylvia Bottiroli

With Plat(e)form(e), we will question How do we work? Promoters, artists and producers are part of the same ecology. The existing porosity between these different roles is at the heart of the rich fertility of the art sector. While displacing and recentering the figure of the producer, the Producers Academy tackles the lack of visibility of this massive groundwork to make the sector a place of care, a place of creativity, a place of transformation.

Accessibility in Arts

Kim Simpson (UK)

Kim will draw from her professional and lived experience of disability, and bring case studies to explore the concepts, language, barriers, attitudes, models and possibilities relating to disability inclusion in the performing arts. We will consider the experience of disabled audiences, artists and producers, as well as other practitioners in the arts and will locate the conversation in the wider context of  colonialism, equity and culture change. The day will encourage us to think personally, politically and aspirationally, locally and globally, and will involve engaging and practical sessions, with participants encouraged to bring their own questions into the discussion.

Walk and talk

In duos, participants are invited to walk in the city and present their projects (opportunities and obstacles) and try to help each other questioning and exchanging ideas.

Gamified toolkit workshop

Reshape Network: Values of Solidarity

Yamina El Atlassi

This game has been created as a tool to promote collaborative communication and attitudes relating to the solidarity paradigm. Its purpose is to give participants a chance to express what values are important to them in their collaboration, to understand how others think and what is important and necessary for them to work and communicate together. Because they will jointly face fictional but possible conflict scenarios during the workshop, participants have the chance to recognise and identify mechanisms that, although often invisible and opaque, cause tensions and difficulties, especially when participants come from different contexts.

Check-out

Yamina El Atlassi

A moment for a smooth transition before evening and next activities.

General conclusions and wrap-up session

Yamina El Atlassi

Let’s draw together the main conclusions of discussions and check on learnings shared during the 4 days.

Feedback session

Yamina El Atlassi

A moment for everyone to share insights, thoughts, conclusions…

Speakers

Facilitator

Yamina El Atlassi (BE) is a cultural activist based in Brussels. She aims for social changes through her various roles and engagements in the fields of arts, culture and nightlife. Advisor on inclusion, diversity and representativeness, she collaborates with officials, art institutions and artists from all disciplines. Her activities range from strategy consultation, to serving on boards and committees, presenting and facilitating at conferences, in festivals and radio programs, to artistic collaborations as a curator and performer.

Speakers

Julia and Katrien Reist (arp: )

arp: is a research and production platform that supports, develops and mediates artistic projects in close collaboration with artists and institutions. By mutualizing a broad diversity of skills and professional knowledge, we strive for sustainable practices and high quality productions, both for ourselves, the artists and the art institutions we work with. arp: functions as an agency and supportive structure for independent art workers - artists, curators, administrators, constructors, communicators, translators, writers, runners and other indispensable people, that keep the artistic field alive and - together - span an incredible field of expertise. arp: was founded as an independent, non-for profit organization by Katrien Reist and Julia Reist. They understand arp: as a flexible, horizontal and expending collaboration between a broad diversity of cultural players.

Daniel Blanga Gubbay (BE)

A researcher in political philosophy and performance and has been the coartistic director of the Kunstenfestivaldesarts for 3 years.

Marie Le Sourd (FR/BE)

Since 2012 the Secretary General of On the Move, the cultural mobility information network active in Europe and worldwide. Prior to this position, Marie Le Sourd worked in Singapore for the Asia-Europe Foundation (Cultural Department) from 1999 till 2006 and directed the French Cultural Centre in Yogyakarta-Indonesia from 2006 till 2011.

Chrissie Faniadis (SE)

A cultural policy expert, producer and strategist. She is the Founder and Director of EUNIA, the coordinating partner of Learning Trajectories, and a former facilitator of the Producers’ Academy. Currently she is Head of Section at the City of Malmö, Sweden, leading its efforts towards becoming European Capital of Culture in 2029. She is on the board of the Royal Opera House of Sweden, a frequent speaker, moderator and expert in cultural policy with a long-standing engagement on the European scene. She is based in Stockholm, Sweden.

Valerie Wolters and Anna Six from Openoffice (BE)

Openoffice is an unformal network based in Brussels created in 2019 and including Caravan Production, Hiros, workspacebrussels, ZOO/Thomas Hauert, Entropie Production, Ama Brussels. The network brings together structures from various disciplines and backgrounds from the Brussels performing arts sector. Openoffice meets on a regular basis to implement the circulation of ideas and fair practices, exchange visions and experiences and contribute to actions of solidarity in the field of contemporary live arts. It is a collaborative (networked, shared) and dynamic (sensitive to changes in the sector) network, centred on the principles of participation (as a creator of new communities), solidarity in the sector and openness to the territory.

Elena Polivtseva (BE)

Head of Policy and Research at IETM. This function entails coordinating and implementing IETM’s publications and research projects, analysis of the European Union policies, as well as development of IETM's advocacy strategy and actions at the EU level. Between 2018 and 2021, she was a member of the Board of Culture Action Europe, a cross-sectorial network advocating for culture at the EU level. Elena is also a Project Manager of Perform Europe. Besides her experience in the cultural sector, Elena worked in a multinational company, in an NGO, and an EU affairs consultancy.

Caroline Ngorobi (KE)

A theatre producer and performer based in Mombasa Kenya with over 8 years’ experience as a producer. She is a Bakanal De Afrique 2020/21 Fellow. She is the founder of Jukwaa Arts Productions- A creative greenhouse which voices social issues through creation and presentation of performing and visual arts. Her work fuses drama, movement, music, and poetry. She explores the subjects of art as education, identity, love, gender, environment, and taboos, and their intersection with emerging and popular culture. Her work is presented in both theatre and non theatre spaces, with a special love for street art. At Jukwaa Arts, she has produced, Art Cocktail (weekly show),Bahari Huru Festival 2021/22 ,Tabasamu 2020, Who Killed Change 2019, Lips that Bite 2018, Golden Tongue 2017, Lessons from the Wild 2017 among others. She holds a BA (2009) and an MA (2015) from the University of Nairobi. Caroline is keen on growing and sustaining an empowered community through arts and culture.

Eva Wilsens (BE)

A regular guest of the Producers’ Academy since the beginning, she is an expert in international productions. She has been working both as a freelance for huge projects as the coordinator of productions for the Kunstenfestivalsdesarts and les Halles de Schaerbeek, but also for companies and independent artists as in Manyone (Sarah Vanhee, Mette Edvardsen, Alma Söderberg and Juan Dominguez) and das Fräulein Kompanie (Anne-Cécile Vandalem). She is currently working as the director of the community centre De Markten, in the heart of Brussels.

Collectif « Mémoire Coloniale et Lutte contre les Discriminations » (BE)

CMCLD is a decolonial organisation in permanent fight for the construction of a decolonial society:
- that builds an objective history in which all its citizens can find themselves,
- which faces up to its colonial memory and carries out permanent work,
- freed from racism and negrophobia,
- freed from stereotypes and prejudices that lead to discrimination,
- freed from oligarchic economic exploitation leading to competition of the poor and consequently to racism,
- freed from a colonial management of society that pits citizens against each other

their website

Kim Simpson (UK)

Kim Simpson is a strategist, curator, facilitator and coach bringing a disability-led approach to the arts. She leads strategic projects that develop people, processes and practises. She is a Clore Leadership Fellow, an ISPA Global Fellow and leads Remembering Together, a national programme of Covid community memorials at greenspace scotland. Kim is passionate about the humans she meets and connects with through the arts, and loves supporting people and organisations to think differently about themselves, their communities, and the world we live in. Her lived experience as a mad, crip, neurodivergent, spoonie, queer, working-class woman deeply infuses her approach.

RESHAPE (BE)

A research and development project that brings together arts organisations from the Europe and the South Mediterranean to jointly create innovative organisational models and reflect on concrete answers to crucial challenges related to the production, distribution and presentation of contemporary art practices. The aim of RESHAPE is to imagine an alternative to the European arts ecosystem by rethinking its instruments and collaborative models, placing them in line with artistic and social innovation and the principles of fairness, solidarity, geographic balance and sustainability.

their website

Raha Rajabi (IR)

A Tehran based producer and agent. She has studied in an alternative education system and ultimately graduated from both the Mosharekati participatory school (Tehran, Iran) and the Clonlara school (Ann Arbor, USA). During the years, she has preformed in the various fields of communications, management, and costume design in theatrical groups and productions as well as participated in national and international festivals as an interpreter. Currently, she works as a producer and agent at the NH Theatre Agency and the project manager of Re-Connect Online Performance Festival. In addition to her professional activities, she collaborates with national and international artists.

To apply

Criteria of elligibility

The Producers’ Academy is open to:
- People from all nationalities
- People who have at least five years of experience as a producer in the performing arts sector*
- Producers/cultural entrepreneurs who have developed or are in the process of developing innovative way(s) to support creation in an international dimension and/or with a trans-sectorial approach (decolonisation, feminism, fair practices, climate change, accessibility etc.)
- The event will be held exclusively in English. Therefore, participants need to be able to understand, communicate and work in English.

* Producer: supervises, supports, follows an artist or a collective/company
** Performing arts: are excluded from this definition opera- and music-only related projects

If you have any question regarding your eligibility, please get in touch with Beth Gordon.

Applications

- A CV in English (maximum 2 pages including a short 5 lines' biography).
- A note relating your experience, reflections and questions as a producer as well as your expectations from the Producers’ Academy (in English) (maximum 2 pages).

Conditions

Participation is free of charge (full programme + lunches during the four days + 2 performances).

We do not take in charge travel and accommodation costs*.

* Travel support can be considered on an exceptional basis, see below.
* We can send official invitation letters to those who wish to activate ways to support their participation costs. Our partner On the Move can provide advice and guidance about available mobility support programmes for selected participants.

Bursaries

Cifas will offer 3 grants (travel and/or accommodation) to support producers from countries where little or no financial support is available for international mobility. To apply for a grant, please send a short motivation in the application form below.

For more info about other international mobilty funding, please refer to the funding guides published by On The Move.

The Producers' Academy is organised with the support of On the Move and Wallonie-Bruxelles International.