CALLING ALL SOUTH WEST-BASED ARTIST EXPERIMENTERS!

Are you a creative, artist or designer looking for a safe space to share your ideas? Are you looking for inspiration for your next creative project? Whether or not you’re ready to embrace the name ‘artist’, if you’re making creative work or thinking about it, this event is for you. 

Counterpoints Arts and Dartington Trust invite you to submit your work (or work in progress) to be screened or performed during an artists’ sharing and networking event on Thursday, 13th October (8-10pm) at Dartington’s Great Hall in Totnes, Devon. About Us! Artists’ Scratch Showcase — curated and initiated by AWATE — is presented as part of the public programme for Counterpoints’ Pop Culture & Social Change Retreat at Dartington Hall (12-14 October). About Us! was created as a safe space to uplift and connect artistic experimenters that identify as Black, POC, and/or with lived experience of migration or displacement. 

Each selected artist will perform or present one piece or work to a public audience, including creative peers, in a ticketed sharing session. After each performance, the artists and audience will discuss any shared or contrasting themes, talk about craft, as well as networking and industry advice.

Details:

  • Open to all ‘artists’ over 18 who identify as Black, POC, and/or with lived experience of migration or displacement; and, based in the South West (Bristol, Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire).
  • ‘Artist’ is loosely defined to include writers, musicians, dancers, filmmakers, designers, architects (or anything between!). Previous Artist Showcases at Southbank Centre have included comedians, screenwriters, folk singers and performance art.
  • Artists must be available to be at Dartington Hall (Totnes) on Thursday 13th of October, 7-10pm. (All are also invited to join the Pop Culture & Social Change Retreat at Dartington during the day if interested).
  • Up to 5 artists will be selected to share their work and will be notified by Tuesday, 4th of October. The final selection of artists will be made in order to curate a sharing session where a diversity of art forms will be represented.
  • Selected artists receive £120 to cover their time and expense to present, plus travel expenses to Totnes.

New deadline: Please submit your application via this Google form by midnight on Weds 5th October at 10am. 

All applicants are welcome to attend the Showcase to discuss and feedback, whether they are selected or not, as the event provides an opportunity to network and exchange with artists across art forms.

About the event

The About Us! Artists’ Scratch Showcase is curated and initiated by AWATE, inspired by a similar platform by Counterpoints’ partners at TekstLab (Oslo) and developed by Counterpoints Arts in partnership with Southbank Centre. The South West edition — presented with Dartington Trust — is a public event held alongside Counterpoints’ Pop Culture & Social Change Retreat (12-14 October), bringing together a group of 50 change-making entertainment producers, artists, cultural innovators, activists and philanthropists committing to building long-term narrative power for Black, POC, migrant and refugee communities.

SUBMIT YOUR WORK BY 2nd OCTOBER
INFO & BOOKING FOR THE EVENT

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AWATE is a visionary rapper and producer from Eritrea. Raised in Camden, his mix of vintage sounds provided by collaborator, Turkish Dcypha, and intricate lyrics with triumphantly psychedelic melodies have had acclaim from Complex, Noisey and Spotify.

Counterpoints Arts is a leading UK organisation in the field of arts, migration and cultural change. Its mission is to support and produce the arts by and about migrants and refugees, seeking to ensure that their contributions are recognized and welcomed within British arts, history and culture. The Pop Culture and Social Change Retreat 2022 is produced through its PopChange Initiative, exploring how to harness entertainment to shift narratives about migration and displacement.

Dartington Trust, founded in 1925, is a thriving visitor destination and charity supporting learning in arts, ecology and social justice, set on a beautiful 1,200 acre estate in the South Devon countryside. Throughout its history it has drawn leading artists and thinkers including Bernard Leach, composer Igor Stravinsky, cellist Jacqueline du Pre, musician Ravi Shankar, playwright Bernard Shaw and environmental activist Vandana Shiva.