How do I make a proposal to the institution?
Where to start? The obvious way is to look at websites to find out contact details of who to approach, however this is not always visible. For my project I want to aim high as I don’t want my work to be lost in a fringe event. Although I love the independence of making performances in public spaces they have no legacy or are not marketed/documented in the right way to allow this to happen. I feel working with a large institution will offer research benefits, resources and potential links into other events. I have started sending emails to my wish list of institutions I would like to work with. At the start of the process it was quite depressing with being sent back generic emails and no crystal clear process of how an artist is meant to make a proposal. It seems that the local artist has to simply wait around and hope that someone might notice your work. I was most shocked by a response from someone in marketing from Manchester International Festival who was quite rude and unhelpful. I had a better response from the Gallery of Costume, although they are programmed up to 2016. The most helpful contacts have been at MOSI who have a specific application form to fill in, with particular deadlines for the work to be reviewed throughout the year. It has been really helpful using the MOSI form to get as much detail down before I put in an ACE application in the New Year.
Alongside getting a partner involved in Manchester I am looking to research and develop my performance in Tampere Finland. This has been just as challenging with my emails getting a bit lost in translation. My plan is to visit the International Theatre Festival in August 2014 to research potential venues/partners for my final performance in 2015. It took a few weeks for contacts to get back to me and understand my research and development needs. However, I managed to get a spark of interest from Eevamaija the PR Manager of the International Theatre Festival who wants to help me make contact with the producers of the event. Hooray! I can’t tell you how happy I was to get this personalised response. Finally I have someone to converse with who gets who I need to speak with to make my project happen. She said I was lucky as they are inundated with festival queries and thought my ideas sounded pulsating and humorous. I feel a short research residency in Tampere would provide the ideal support network to develop the project. I was surprised to find many artist residencies in Finland although from the few I contacted, they do not accept children to stay. I have now managed to find a place to stay for my family called the Tampere Artists Association, which has living and studio spaces for independent research. I have made an initial booking to go in 2014 for two weeks. Finally, it feels like this project is starting to build some momentum.
